Hand rubbed finish my way

[warrensmith]

I hate hand rubbing ! its the only part of the process I wish I could outsource , but this is how I do it . Hopefully one of you can tell me quicker ways of doing it

I start off with a blade heat treated and then run across the grinder again to get rid of any scale



I screw it down onto a bit of wood , wrap some of Johns wet and dry around a bit of flat steel , get it all dripping with wd40 and start rubbing



I start with 120 grit and after about 10 mins I end up with this



then I polish the blade on a sisal mop , this shows up he scratches I still need to work on



and then back to sanding , if all the grinder marks have been sanded out I use 240 grit and end up with



and then it goes back to the polisher



and then back to sanding with 400 grit , and then back to the polisher (bored yet ?????)



once I am happy with the polished surface and there are no scratches that need removing I use some 600 grit paper dripping with wd10 to give the blade a satin finish . The last stage is done without the steel sanding block





and there they are ready for scales (tomorrows job) , so how do you do it ????



warren

ps sorry about the quality of the pics , I took them with my Ipod

[TB_London]

EDM stones may be quicker for getting rid of the grinder scratches initially

[camperman]

John, who taught me in Germany, uses a mix of window cleaner and water 50/50 as a lube. Hope I'm not giving away trade secrets.
Cheaper and very effective.

[Webber]

I quite like the hand-rubbing stage, it's the only part I find "therapeutic".
I use a bit of 3 in 1 as a lube, it helps cushion my habitual heavy-handedness, preventing unsightly fishhooks, and I've also swapped my steel bar for a brass one, cos if I had a pound for every time I slipped off the tip of the blade only to smack the steel bar back into the tip and dink it, I could afford to outsource.

For the final 600 grit I have a strip of hard rubber glued to another brass bar that I use as the backing.
But horses for courses and all that!

Del

[vinmuller]

John, who taught me in Germany, uses a mix of window cleaner and water 50/50 as a lube. Hope I'm not giving away trade secrets.
Cheaper and very effective.

Excellent idea, I'll try that. I am always sceptical about using lubricant, it does reduce clogging and gives a more consistent finish but its' properties as a lubricant are counter intuitive, because we want friction to abrade the metal.

I only use each part of the sandpaper for 2 or 3 strokes on hardened steel, before shifting it slightly around the block to expose fresh grit.
I try to use sandpaper 'like it's free', but it 'aint easy What about you guys?

[camperman]

I only use each part of the sandpaper for 2 or 3 strokes on hardened steel, before shifting it slightly around the block to expose fresh grit.
I try to use sandpaper 'like it's free', but it 'aint easy What about you guys?

Same with John.

[mikew]

I makes my toes curl to see the blade sticking out like that mate. You only have to drop something or get distracted and you could do yourself a nasty injury. It's much safer to have the piece of wood you screw the blade to extending forwards beyond the tip. This also meens you can apply more pressure when sanding without the blade flexing.

Sorry I can't help with suggestions to speed up the process.

[Stew]

Get some blade support under there Warren. The blade will be flexing the way you're doing it.

[Mr Happymoose]

Maybe a toolmaker's finger might be an idea Warren??

[tatsumi]

I made this for the job, helps a fair bit and cost a few quid( no looker lol).




Only thing I would say is finish your final passes on a higher belt before and after HT to minimize the hand work, either way your results are sound so just have a play with your routine to make it better for you.

[woodcutter]

As others have mentioned a support under the blade will make it safer but more importantly help speed things up a bit because your work is not deflecting away from the effort stroke, Tatsumis jig above is similar to mine, it cost pence from the scraps bin I just use the countersunk pin holes in the blade to fix it down instead of a clamp

.

[dazcon]

Great thread Warren! I'm learning a lot from this!

[OldSchool]

Nice polishin'! You may put the bladed in vinegar for some time to remove the scales with a wire brush.

[highland dirk]

Gentlemen,
I take the liberty to make a short discription how I make it. Hand rubbing is not a easy job and it requires skill and patience. First of all you have to get out of the major scratches before heat treatment. I grind my blades down to a 600 grit on a belt grinder. I makes no difference if you make a hollow grind, flat grind or a convex grind. Get rig of the scratches. Heat treament done is in a vacuum oven so literally no scale on the blades afterwards. Saves you a lot of frustration in advance.
When you do hand rubbing the blade needs a backingg. I have made my own special vice for it. I have seen Yoishihito Aida ( a pupil of Bob Loveless) using it . I made my own copy with his permission from Yoshihito of it.
I use for hand rubbing only silicium carbide paper ( wet and dry). Mine comes from Klingspor or VSM or 3M. All these papers make a marvellous job. Cheap papers cause only frustration.
I use various backing block made out of leather , hard rubber, corian, micarta, aluminium, streel, brass and hard wood. Sometimes I have backing blocks made out of two materials. Wir hadrubbing you try to achieve a uniform finish. So you police only in one direction. You polish lengthwise. You have to use always the right amount of pressure. To avoid clogging I use a mixture 50/50 window cleaner and water.
I have tried out nearly every liquid you can think of even hore pee. Only this mixture works for me on D2. On carbon steels I use sometimes plain water with a drop of cutting oil in it or WD 40.
I use small stripes of sandpaper just covering the polishing block for 2 or three passes. I start with a 400 grit followed by 600-800-1000-1200-1500-2000-2500. How far you want to go down is just your personal taste.
Sam Cox finish the blade on the buffing wheel. Bul on one pass with literally no cotact or pressure at all. It gives a lovely uniform finish on Ats 34 and 154 CM.
I don`t use the buffing machine at all on blades. If you get the hand rubbing finish right you get a uniform finish and you still have crisp corners and grinding lines. The finer the grit gets the softer the sanding block should be. The passes on 2000 and 2500 I use a soft rubber block with a hard backing of a harder Rubber.
If you have any questions don`t hestitate to ask me or Andy
with regards
John

[tatsumi]

Hi, a few have mentioned window cleaner mixed with water, can anyone explain the befits of this? I use water only and build up a nice slurry with 3m abrasives.