Hand finish direction

[petie]

I've been stumbling through knifemaking for about 2 1/2 years and I just now realized that most everybody hand finishes going the length of the blade. All this time I've been doing it across the blade. Am I completely going against the grain of knifemakin?( no pun intended). Or is it just a matter of preference?

 

[James Terrio]

I have a hard time getting all the scratches nice and parallel and even when going across the blade. I think it looks nice when done well, though.

I suspect when some folks see a "cross-wise" fiish they automatically assume it was done on a machine, not that there's anything wrong with that. Maybe there's a bias against it because of that?

 

[EdCaffreyMS]

James is right. Satin finishes that run across a blade (spine to edge or vise-versa) are often assumed to be scotchbrite type machine finishes by potential customers. While completely acceptable and even expected in some segments of the market, it is often viewed as "cheap" by seasoned knife buyers.

James is also correct in that getting a nice satin finish with the scratch pattern running lengthwise on the blade, is not as simple as it might sound. It takes a lot of work.

 

[wdtorque]

What Mr. Caffrey said, IMHO. Dozier