Cork Polishing

[wildbill254]

Thanks Steve

I have a question about the process.. When do you heat treat your blades? At the 50 grit stage or do you goto final polish then heat treat and follow up with polishing again?

Thanks

Bill

[george tichbour]

50 grit , 240 grit, heat treat, polish with 400 grit cork and green compound then buff

[rhrocker]

Mr. T, do you temper after the heat treat (or maybe that's included in your heat treat term. I'm anxious to try your sequence!

[george tichbour]

I use a local heat treater who heat treats, cryos and tempers each batch before returning them to me.

[rhrocker]

Ok. Thanks George!

[wildbill254]

Thanks George!!

[Steve]

I heat treat after rough grinding with the 50 or, at present, 60x belt. Leaving the edge about 50-70 thou. thick. Then re-grind after heat treat, start polishing with new 400 x Alox. j-flex belt, then 400x cork with green chrome, then 600x cork with RCH SS 306 Green Chrome compound, then buff with same compound.

[rhrocker]

Gosh, that's some menu Steve. I don't have any of that chrome compound, or cork for that matter. I'll locate some and get it ordered. Appreciate the info !

[Steve]

That's just how "I" do it. You can use any menue you like, many guys polish the blade before heat treat, many just grind to closer finished size. Many do not use cork. Whatever works for you. This works for me. I'll revive the old cork belt tread and that'll tell you how I use the cork belts.

[L6steel]

Thanks for posting this info folks!!
I've got a couple cork belts that have been hanging in the shop for ages cause after trying one once I never gave them a second look. I didn't know you were supposed to break them down with a piece of steel first. I hate buffing my blades for two reasons, the danger and I have a bad habit of getting stria in the steel for one reason or another. I think doing an initial buff on my grinder with the cork belt and then just doing a quick once over on the buffer would avoid the stria.

[SteveS]

L6 was in the same boat - hung there for over a year. One thing I discovered, it's pressure not speed that made it work for me.

Steve