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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2013 4:52:26 GMT
So I purchased a 1095 clay tempered folded katana for 320 bucks and it came with just a mirror finish. I really love katana's with the sashikomi finish. So I bought some 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 grit wet and dry sand paper. Now I know this is a big no no but the katana isn't really that expensive and for some reason I wont be satisfied till the blade is somewhat better than the way it came. So I just took the sand paper, starting at 1000 and just worked the ji(grain). Once I started, the Ji started changing color from mirror(clearish-white) to a light black. When I hit 3000, which is a foam paper the black Ji became a lot more prominent, with the white trail following the wavy hamon. but its not quite there. Now keep in mind before you could barley see the hamon, So what you see on the pictures are a big change. When you stare at the blade directly, is when its appearing the most. On a 45 degree angle the glare from light turns both the Ji and hamon invisible. Staring at the blade parallel you see very micro thin scratches. Now keep in mind I was using a vice to hold the paper and block firm to the table and slowly sliding the blade from ha-machi(edge knotch) to kissaki. So the scratches are in uniform and straight. Can somebody give me tips on what to do next. And none of that" you shouldn't of done that" nonsense. I've already started. Some good tips would be highly appreciated. thanks
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Post by aussie-rabbit on Apr 20, 2013 14:33:06 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 23, 2013 3:12:43 GMT
I was looking on ebay to purchase the hazuya and jizuya stones along with 1000/6000 Japanese whetstone(artificial). would it be worth a try or do these products seem low quality.
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Post by willhart on Apr 23, 2013 18:15:14 GMT
What are you trying to do? Are you saying you're still seeing the scratches from the 2000+ grits? If that's your concern than you need to go higher in the grit. I've used Japanese waterstones and they work really well. I've gone up to 6000 grit, but they still leave a little bit of the scratches. In my opinion you'll always need to end it with a scratchless type rouge or polish paste to get the perfect mirror. But if you do this, I would suggest not swinging the sword at anything because you're going to scratch it up easially.
Also if you want to bring the hamon back out, I would suggest vinegar or some other type of acid that will bring it out again.
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karl j
Manufacturer/Vendor
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Post by karl j on May 3, 2013 20:13:40 GMT
You'd be waisting your time and money with random ebay fingerstones.
You'd need an extensive selection to find the right ones that will bite with the modernsteels. The modern steel surface grain is much finer, and the surface prep just isn't there in going from super hight grit polishing papers. You'd be much better off etching the blade in a very light percentage acid. For example, 1/2 to 1/3 applecider vinegar and distilled water in a pvc tube. Then removing the oxidation with some 4k grit jewelers paper.
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Post by Valandur on May 22, 2013 3:26:42 GMT
Say Karl, would you have a link to a supplier of jewelers rouge? Or paper?
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karl j
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Post by karl j on May 29, 2013 1:18:42 GMT
No link in particular...
You can hit amazon for 3m micron papers, or any jewlers supply site.
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Post by John Kenshin on May 29, 2013 14:28:47 GMT
I've got a quick question about polishing. How well would a buffing wheel on a wood lathe work? Also what kind of Jewelers rouge would be best for high carbon steel?
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Post by adamthedrummer on May 29, 2013 21:09:21 GMT
White jewellers rouge is what I'm told. :-)
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Post by willhart on May 29, 2013 23:08:38 GMT
It all depends on the type of polish you want. There are different colors of Jewelers Rouge, which is the same as grit levels in sand paper. There is pink scratchless jewelers rouge, which is indeed scratchless for a real mirror finish. But you're probably not going to be able polish out scratches left with sand paper below 2000 or 3000 grit probably without going over it many times with a powered buffing wheel, reapplying the pink scratchless jewelers rouge, and you're going to start heating up the blade.
You can do a google search on what each color is for, because I don't know them all. I can still see scratches with green and white, while most people would call it a mirror finish.
But if you're trying to sharpen a blade, I would not go with just jewelers rouge, unless it's paper cutting sharp already. And I would go with Green as it's the what I've used to get the blade sharp enough for a zero distance water bottle cut, after using a belt sander with a 3000 grit belt.
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Post by John Kenshin on May 30, 2013 1:19:50 GMT
All my blades are paper cutting sharp already. It's just one of my blades has a few scratches and has a pretty dull shine to it.
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Post by aussie-rabbit on May 30, 2013 12:42:23 GMT
Too fast, likely to overheat, you can't rush a good polish.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2013 13:23:38 GMT
Where can I purchase 3000 and up belt paper
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Post by willhart on Aug 22, 2013 20:50:44 GMT
I personally would go to a leather strop at that point with different types of polishing/rouge compound, but I think these are the only belts. The page is horrible to understand, but you can select your belt size and then use the drop down menu to select the grit size. Micromesh goes up to 12,000 grit, but don't expect to last as long as belts made specifically for metals. micro-surface.com/index.php?main ... 581ed62f7b
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Post by aussie-rabbit on Aug 23, 2013 6:42:53 GMT
Better to use aluminium oxide or MX - if your just polishing begin at 4000 then maybe 8000 if your looking for that real mirror shine. micro-surface.com/index.php?main ... d11bf74e85
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Post by willhart on Aug 23, 2013 14:27:50 GMT
Well if you're going to do Aussies advice and go the manual route I would suggest waterstones. It would cut your mirror polishing job from 12+ hours to maybe 8 hours. The belt sander is very difficult to polish the whole blade.
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Post by Alfacentori on Sept 8, 2013 10:07:02 GMT
Interestingly I had a go at bringing up the polish on my swords recently. As a first step I just used some Autosol. It did a decent job using a bit of rag and elbow grease. Interestingly the higher level of polish also showed up some deeper scratches and marks that had not been obvious before, so I'll probably have to do some work with fine sandpaper now. Still I found Autosol surprisingly good at producing a decent shine. Alfa Attachments:
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Post by Kumdoalan on Sept 8, 2013 11:45:05 GMT
if I understand the situation you face: a blade came with a normal buffed mirror finish, and you want to change this to a finish that looks more like a traditional katana finish as seen in this link?> swordpolisher.com/Keisho.htmlThen a good place to start would be to learn how they do this type of finish on Japanese swords and find a way to come close to that system. Clearly you don't want to use a buffer as that would undercut what you are aiming to achieve.
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Post by Novice_Surgery on Sept 29, 2013 15:09:39 GMT
I recently polished the rough kissaki on my kc26-II and i only went up to 2000 grit. I used mothers mag to finish it off with and it took the remaining surface scratches out leaving me with a nice mirror, scratchless finish. Just some food for thought. It can be done right for cheap, the price of a can of mothers mag. I have a thread in sword customization titled "kissaki polish" with pictures of the polished kissaki if you wanna check out what kind of results youd expect on this method.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2013 1:34:54 GMT
Thanks everyone for the adviice. I believe I'm gonna wait till I can afford the water stones. I do have a coarse water stone that I'm using on one of my cheaper blades to reshape. It's working well. I'm gonna do step by step in a more traditional way. I'm patience and I'm taking my time as I'm on my second week with the first stone.
I'm facisnated with the whole art of polishing. I spend enough time in my work shop. I might as well spend the time I have learning the methods. I'll gladly take advice If any one has it. I know this is a long process
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