High speed socks will kill your blade

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Mr_Guano
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Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2002 8:29 pm
Location: Norway

High speed socks will kill your blade

Post by Mr_Guano »

Or at least cause some damage to them...
Here's the story:

I've been out chopping away with my sturdy 20" Ang Khola khukuri to clear a trail up the hillside where I live.
Usually I just clean and oil the blade after use, but this time some small
black-ish spots had started to develop on it.
So I rubbed them out with a thingy I've got (stainless strips in a ball. Not steel wool!), and it seemed to work just fine.
All the black spots were effectively removed.
But... of course I now had some micro-scratches in the blade...
That's bad, so I decided to put on a mirror finish ("factory finish" on these knives) with this buffing wheel I got.
Buffing went splended! At least at first sight... after wiping off the remains of the buffing compound, I see that the finish isn't mirror at all!
It's more like an inconsistent satin finish, and that's not what I wanted at all. ehh I'll shorten the story a bit..

[time jump. I have now managed to put on the mirror(ish) finish I wanted]

So, time to polish the blade further.
I put on car wax. To try something new, I put a sock on the buffing wheel to give it a high speed polish.
As usual, the process seemed to go just fine.
Then it shows that the sock had put back a bunch of micro-scratches on the blade!
Damn that sock!

So now I sit here with a satin/sock-finish on my precious knife :oops:
I guess I'll try and correct it when I have the time, but I'd really appreciate some tips on polishing and buffing from you guys...

Hoka hey!
Mr_G
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BennytheBlade
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Post by BennytheBlade »

oh man, my first advice is "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING USING A SOCK!!!!" :wink: Seriously, I think a muslin (sp?) wheel is what most people use, but ill let Bill or our other experts jump in.
Very funny, Scotty. Now beam down my clothes.
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Vagrant
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Post by Vagrant »

Repeated buffing is probably worse for the knife than some minor spots. Since these are "zone hardened" it will not take a lot of heat along the edge [such as buffing] to "pull the temper". My Hubertus with Krupp carbon steel blade is gradually getting darker, not pretty but normal for carbon steel [like your Kukri]. On a working knife it's expected. You can fight it [repeatedly] or live with it.
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Mr_Guano
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Post by Mr_Guano »

Vagrant,
Neither the buffing or polishing produced much heat, actually.
I thought the buffing would do that, but it didn't.

And I'm well aware that those black spots are perfectly normal.
I just imagined that the smoother the surface was, the harder it would be for the spots to develop...
Now the whole blade will probably turn black the next time I take it outside :D
HA, just kidding. The more I look at it, the less scratched it seems... weird.

Scan of my beloved KHUKURI
...actually you can't see a damn thing in that image due to the fact that I just put it on my scanner...
It looks awfully scratched here, but it ain't that bad.
If you look at THIS picture you'll see it's capable of reflecting light...
Sorry 'bout the quality of these images, but I'm scraped so I can't afford a real camera.

I'd still like some more buffing/polishing tips.

Thank you,
Mr_G
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Vagrant
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Post by Vagrant »

Jantz supply or Koval Knives should have several grades of polishing compounds, use a different buff for each one, and use softer buffs with the finer grades of compounds.
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