I'm obsessing over Stainless Steel right now

[wmhammond]

Starting to think ahead to how to get a mirror finish on stainless steel knives. I have had pretty good luck creating a mirror finish on a couple of O1 knives I've built but it took a lot of hand sanding. I use a HF 1X30 grinder and it's not the best. Works OK for profiling and pre-heat treat beveling but I have had no luck taking a knife back to it - it is just not precise enough. So here is what I do: Grind the bevels down to 220 grit - Heat treat and Temper. Then I go all the way back down to 100 grit and start hand sanding. I work my way up through 150, 220, 500, 1000 and 1200. Then I put it on the buffer and it comes out OK. Problem is my right arm and elbow aren't going to last through many more of those sanding sessions. I'm looking for suggestions and advice. I think the obvious fix is to buy a 2X72 and be done with it and that is the eventual plan but, in the mean time I need another solution. I saw a guy on youtube polish a knife blade with a DA air compression sander and it seemed to turn out OK but it probably only works on full flat grind surfaces. Anyway, any body got any experience with DA sanders on knife blades or suggestions for other options? Thanks,

Wallace

 

[Jason Wernli]

Hi Wallace, From my limited experience, I think that you will lose all you nice crisp grind lines with a hand sander.
- Jason

 

[wmhammond]

Ya know, I kinda knew that but I thought it might work on bigger kitchen knives with large flat grinds - just have to be careful at the plunge line.

-w.

 

[Ausbrooks]

What you could do is get a couple extra stitched or air buffing wheels and dedicate them to a couple coarser grits- one wheel for gray compound and one for green, assuming you are buffing with white- that would automate most of the process.