mirror finish

[T. Hendrickson]

Hello, I am using steve's method for finishing with a cork belt and green rouge. Here's what I've done:

finish grinding with 120 grit hogger

broke in 400 grit cork belt, loaded with compound and polished away 120 grit marks

broke in 600 g cork belt, loaded with compound, and polished away 400 g marks.

then buffed on sewn muslin with green compound. Trouble is, I can't buff out all the grind marks; they're too deep. Do I need to perhaps make the 600 grit belt more "worn-out"? I held a scrap of steel to it for several minutes. Or is there another problem?

[Frank Niro]

More grit sizes needed befor going to the cork belts. Frank

[Bear_Blade]

I usually grind to at least a 400 grit (will reduce amount of hand work later) then 600, 800, and 1200 by hand then buff with Zam compound on cork belt, and finish with a sewn muslin wheel. It's a bit more manual work, but there are no scratches whatsoever. I find I have more control hand finishing, and have a lot less of those anoying "OOPS#$%@" moments.

[Steve]

Grind the blade with a 50x or 60x belt.
Clean up those scratches with a new 400x ALOX, or A45 Trizact belt. (You may have to go back over the blade with this same used 400x belt after you have done this, as a brand new 400x belt leaves some pretty good scratches itself. Once the belt has been used on a knife or two, it leaves a much finer 400x finish that is more ready for the 400x Cork.)
Polish with broken in 400x Cork belt. Polish with a 600x Cork belt.
Buff with white RCH SS300 compound.

Works for me.

[GHNorfleet]

Great Advice!!!

[AcridSaint]

Hi Steve - thank you for mentioning the worn out 400 part, this is very useful advice. I've been using trizact belts more and more and I really like the finer finish they tend to leave along with the fact that all of the belts are thicker than the 60/80 grit ceramic belts I do my initial grinds with.

[Steve]

They work very well for me. It's a bit more difficult to get the edges to roll over, or contour, but they work in after a while. It's important to go back over a "new belt finish" once the belt is worn in a little bit.

[T. Hendrickson]

Originally Posted by Steve

Grind the blade with a 50x or 60x belt.
Clean up those scratches with a new 400x ALOX, or A45 Trizact belt. (You may have to go back over the blade with this same used 400x belt after you have done this, as a brand new 400x belt leaves some pretty good scratches itself. Once the belt has been used on a knife or two, it leaves a much finer 400x finish that is more ready for the 400x Cork.)
Polish with broken in 400x Cork belt. Polish with a 600x Cork belt.
Buff with white RCH SS300 compound.

Works for me.

Thanks, Steve, I appreciate it.

I've got norax belts, will they serve the same purpose?I tried this last night and ended up with the same result as before, but I think that it is because the new 65 micron belt left fairly big scratches. I'll try it once more now that the belt is worn out some.

Thanks again.

[Steve]

I've not used Norax, so can't comment. I'd think that they would be fine. I think that if you will go over the blade again with the slightly worn belt that you will see a difference. Try holding the blade on a slight angle so that the new scratches will cross the old and thus make the old scratches show up better.