Scandi Grind Finish Problems

Austin Thrasher

Austin Thrasher

Well-Known Member
Hi guys I just designed a bushcraft knife that I’m really liking and would like to make a lot more of but have a few questions on how to keep the finish of the Scandi edge nice and clean after I sharpen it on the stone. Since a Scandi edge is sharpened with the whole flat down on the stone and no secondary or micro bevel is supposed to be on it, the stone scratches my scandi bevel. I’m totally cool with that after the customer has bought it and sharpened it themselves but I don’t want to sell knives with sharpening scratches in them and want to keep everything nice and crisp. Anybody have any tips on how I should go about this? Should I work on only establishing a sharp edge on the belt grinder and forget the stone or......
I went straight to the edge with the flat platen and then went to the stone to really make it sharp. I took the blade back to a scotch brite belt and cleaned up the bevel with the edge down and it did help the finish and didn’t hurt the edge I had established on the stone but didn’t get all the scratches out from the diamond stone. I could go back to the belt and clean it up but I’m kinda trying to keep from that if there is a better way since the scandi is a difficult grind anyway even with my jig...

Btw... Blade is 80CRV2. 5.25” cutting edge and 10” OAL. OD Green G10 with Coyote Brown liners.This is my first Scandi grind and I still have some kinks to work out to get grind lines straighter and crisper but anyway, it’s a start. Anyway, any help or tips would be very much appreciated:) FFA8ACE2-471D-46B5-AE88-0CC1145750D6.jpeg
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Jon Buescher said:
Rouge won’t take it off?
Click to expand...

I thought about that and haven’t tried yet. I was kind of concerned that the buffer might convex the edge a bit and I’m trying to keep from that if possible. You have any certain rouge you’d recommend? I’m not real familiar with them and all I’ve got right now is white and green compounds for my buffer.
 
This is kind of just a prototype knife to fiddle around with and get the process down so I don’t really have a problem with experimenting on it.
 
Austin Thrasher said:
I thought about that and haven’t tried yet. I was kind of concerned that the buffer might convex the edge a bit and I’m trying to keep from that if possible. You have any certain rouge you’d recommend? I’m not real familiar with them and all I’ve got right now is white and green compounds for my buffer.
Click to expand...
I don’t have any experience in this dept. it was just a thought, sorry if I muddied the water
 
I slow my grinder way down and use it with high grit belts on the platen, then finish on some very fine water stones. You can flip a used belt inside out and apply some green compound to it and finish like that instead of the water stones. If you cannot slow your grinder I would not do it that way because I have always been afraid the edge would catch on the belt. I am really more of a hack so I am sure there are better ways I am not aware of...
 
The slow way is to use the best stones you can in progressively finer grits. I use Naniwa-chosera stones as the come with a built in stand and give excellent feed back. I use a 600 and 1000 grit stone but for a polish go higher. Stones must be soaked and kept wet through out the process in order a good slurry is there which lubricates and polishes the blade.

The fast way is with the buffer using a stitched mop with grey compound then the same with green and if you want a perfect mirror hi fin on another mop. The more worn the edge of the mop the better as the edge of the blade is run along the mop, pointing down so it cannot grab. Run the blade along the edge of the mop with the spine vertical, keeping a firm hold on the handle, with practice you can control the height of the polish so that is will not stray above the grind line, just tilt the spine a fraction. FGYT who posted on this forum in the past taught me this method and the edges come up like mirror and razor sharp, it can also be used to sharpen an edge. Just remember to keep the edge cool. I haven't had an knives grab doing this and if they did they would be flung downwards. I can get a Scandi off the grinder at 600 grit and have it mirrored in 20 mins doing this method. if I remember tomorrow I will try and take a picture of the knife position on the buffer but hopefully I have explained it ok. You are in fact already doing this from what I understand but with a Scotchbrite belt as such. With regards to convexing don't push the knife hard into the wheel and let the compound do the work.

The knives in the images were probably the 4th or 5th knives I made so you can see even as pretty much a beginner this method gave great result.
 

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