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Post by alexturner125 on May 8, 2021 8:48:43 GMT
Hello all, This may be a bit of an amateur question, and I am certainty an amateur when it comes to sword maintenance and modification, but recently I've seen a lot of comments on the forum and elsewhere regarding how to sharpen and polish modern production swords. A common piece of advice I've seen is to "sand with the grain." In other articles (here is an example: www.sword-buyers-guide.com/sharpen-a-sword.html ), however, experienced individuals are shown sanding "against the grain." I see the benefit of sanding with the grain on wood, but why do some suggest this with metal swords and others do not?
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Post by Ari M. on May 8, 2021 9:54:16 GMT
It's not so much related to the grain structure of the steel as it is to help you see all the coarser scratches that you have to remove. For example, 400 grit at 90 degrees, then 600 grit at 45 degrees until all the 90 degree scratches are gone. For a modern production sword or knife in reasonably good shape I just run 800 and higher grits in long strokes along the entire length of the blade from one end to the other. This keeps the scratches in one consistent direction and you get a nice satin polish. Then a good metal polish at the end to help blend everything (also buffed in long strokes). (:
You can also touch up the edge on a blade that's reasonably sharp with a fine diamond lapping stone, running it gently along the very edge at a slightly steeper angle to avoid scratching the blade surface. You can lay down some thin masking tape to protect the main body of the blade if you're a bit wary. This was a trick Walter Sorrells had on his YouTube channel, it's super quick to do and the micro bevel you end up with is barely noticeable.
(An old Huawei blade I polished and sharpened as above)
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pgandy
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Senior Forumite
Posts: 10,296
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Post by pgandy on May 8, 2021 12:40:31 GMT
There are many techniques to sharpening. Ari’s post pretty much explains my basic technique when doing so by hand. It’s not a question of going with the grain or against it but polishing parallel with the factory’s polishing. The grit that you start with would depend amongst other things the hardness of metal and how aggressive you wish to be. Likewise when finishing the degree of polish you wish. Normally I don’t use a metal polish, but normally I don’t sharpen my katanas and don’t like the end result. Not to say that I haven’t and won’t in the future. It all depends on what I’m after. As a rule of thumb I don’t like mirror finishes and have moved to European and working blades where mirror finishes show scratches too readily.
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Post by alexturner125 on May 8, 2021 19:15:32 GMT
Thanks for the great responses! This makes a lot of sense and clarifies the confusing comments.
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