Protecting the edge for Stone Washing?

[Omega Leather Works]

Hey guys my absolute favorite new knife is a Cold Steel mini tuff lite. The thing is an absolute laser cutter. The edge was 28° inclusive from the factory and very thin behind the edge. I brought it down to 24° and mirror polished the edge, then acid etched the blade, lock bar and clip.

I need to stone wash it now, but I hate how doing so destroys the edge.

Has anyone come up with a way to protect it? I've tried tape to no avail and if nothing else I may try nail polish, but I doubt it will survive.

Before :

Rounded the spine :

Work in progress :

 

[blame it on god]

Strip a wire and use the casing? You'd probably have to glue it in place, but it might work.

 

[OHALLUM]

Is that your Privilege showing up on the paper towels? Edge work looks great by the way.

Blessings,

Omar

 

[bpeezer]

Is that your Privilege showing up on the paper towels?

Looks like it could be stropping compound too. I would try the wire casing on the edge, sounds pretty smart to me. Also, how did you round the spine? It looks great!

 

[Omega Leather Works]

Is that your Privilege showing up on the paper towels? Edge work looks great by the way.

Blessings,

Omar

Bwahaha! Took me a second to figure out what you meant. I use my Kindle or phone (tapatalk app) for 99.9% of my forum stuff and I forgot about that line.

No, that is just nail polish from the acid bath. I always protect the pivot area and edge with polish as a resist.

Not sure how I can keep the plastic sleeve on the edge. One problem with the knife is that the tip is barely covered by the handle when closed so if it chipped that would pose a big problem.

 

[Omega Leather Works]

The sleeve worked!

Mostly... I'd like to refine the idea for next time and the tiny wharncliffe lends itself to the method greatly (so it may not work as well on another profile) but it hung on in the jar with aggressive shaking for around 3-5 minutes. After that it fell off, but my edge took minimal damage. I'm pretty sure I can get away with stropping.

Here's a couple of pics:

Getting it ready, I used my sog mt to strip and cut open the wire. Then put elmers wood glue on the edge and slipped the sleeve on.

Hanging in there!

And the finale. Normally I go for a longer "wash", but for obvious reasons I called this good enough. It didn't get down by the edge well, but that's to be expected. I'm happy with the results.

BioG, thanks for the wire sleeve idea!

 

[blame it on god]

I'm glad it worked for you. Honestly it was just a thought.

Nice work, It looks ancient. Is that what you were going for?

 

[Omega Leather Works]

I'm glad it worked for you. Honestly it was just a thought.

Nice work, It looks ancient. Is that what you were going for?

Normally I let it roll for about 30 minutes. It gives it a finer pattern, but the coloring is right and I doubt it would have gotten much closer to the edge.

I use this knife primarily for wood carving. In the bad light of my garage I couldn't tell, but under good light and with my loupe I can clearly see micro chipping. I can easily take care of it though.

Overall I'm pleased with the results and would do it the same way again.