Removing tiny // micro scratches from blade?

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khamsathous

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Oct 4, 2019
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H!
I have two blades I purchased from HI, a wwII and a small pachtar knife. I did some research on how to sharpen them without electric tools, and wound up using the "sandpaper // mousepad" method. Seemed to work good but I guess I pulled too high off the blade edge or something and ended up with a bunch of tiny scratches on the lower half of my knives !

It doesn't affect the performance obviously but they were so beautiful I don't like looking at these little tiny scratches I put all over my knives :( I sharpened them with 800-2000 grit sandpaper and tried using higher grit to fix them, and also tried using a car polishing // buffing compound "turtle wax' briefly but stopped before noticing much difference as I didn't know if this might actually make it worse. Can anyone tell me how I can get these out of my knives if that's possible, and can anyone tell me how to avoid this from happening in the future ?
Thanks guys !!
 
Your on the right track, you can only polish them out with the finer grit paper and polishing compound.
Car wax isn't very aggressive at all for polishing steel, made for paint, grime and oxidation.
I use car wax to protect my blades from rust and finger prints etc.

You may have to go back to a coarser grit and work your way back up if the scratches are deep.

Many mark the edge of the blade with a felt marker, it gives you a clear indication of where your hitting it with the sandpaper. When your done just clean the marker off with any kind of cleaner.
 
Bawanna said:
Your on the right track, you can only polish them out with the finer grit paper and polishing compound.
Car wax isn't very aggressive at all for polishing steel, made for paint, grime and oxidation.
I use car wax to protect my blades from rust and finger prints etc.

You may have to go back to a coarser grit and work your way back up if the scratches are deep.

Many mark the edge of the blade with a felt marker, it gives you a clear indication of where your hitting it with the sandpaper. When your done just clean the marker off with any kind of cleaner.
Click to expand...

Right, I was thinking polishhing with higher grit or compound might work but I was worried I'd get more scratches and make it worse, but I'll have to try that now. The scratches are fairly light but there's quite a few of them :( The marker idea is good, I actually saw that in one of the tutorials I watched but forgot about it now till you mentioned it.

Do you have a rough estimate of what grit sandpaper I should try or a suggestion on a good compound to use ?
 
Start with the lowest grit you used on the edge. Then progressively work up to higher grits. Go in linear strokes not circles. 600 leaves satin. 2000-3000 is very fine. Then use white compound for ferrous metals. Also you can use flitz polish for final work.
Or once you get it to a high satin you can etch it with mustard or some other method for a great looking protective finish.
 
You have to figure out what grit sandpaper caused the scratches, then start sanding with the next higher grit and work your way up to the finest polishing compounds.. If the scratches were done by 600 grit, for example, then sanding with 2000 grit won't take off enough material to eliminate the scratches.

A safe way to find a starting point is to sand a small test area with a high grit like 2000, and work your way down until you find a grit that more or less matches the existing scratches. Then work your way up in small increments, eventually finishing with Flitz or some other very high polish. I've also had success with white or red rouge, which is sold in blocks. One block will probably last a lifetime, unless you do this for a living.

I can never remember which is finer, the white or red rouge, and the difference is too small to tell with the naked eye. One of these days I'll put samples under a microscope. It also depends on the maker, since there is variation from one source to another.
 
All of this is sound advise as I've done his all before.

jfox95307 said:
...Once you get it to a high satin you can etch it with mustard or some other method for a great looking protective finish.
Click to expand...

I like just using my blades on meats. The iron from the cooked blood is a super sweet looking protection.
 
You can also get a Harbor Freight buffer, which is very inexpensive. Jantz supplies sells the wheels and compound. They can advise you on which to choose. For a small investment, you can fix all of your knives that get scratched from sharpening or use.
For small jobs I use Flitz or Metal Armor.
 
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Put masking tape on the side of your blade if you dont want to scratch the sides. Duct tape is kinda messy. I do that when sharpening someone elses blades. If its my blade I dont worry about it. Ceramic rods are great for a quick touch up on Khuks.
I polish to 2000 with paper then switch to one of them auto body finishing sponges (sheet) rated at 3000. Then polish with Semichrome, flitz, or whatever taste good to you. To get the HI Magic shine you need to buff it out. HI uses the red rouge for softer materials like horn and maybe even the same for the metal but im not sure there. I do sometimes see red rouge in the SOS, engravings, and fullers etc. so thats a clue right there.
 
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I couldn't find a more specific thread...so here goes...
I recently acquired an old 1971 or 2 (dots are hidden somewhat) Case Cheetah with swing guard. It has been lightly sharpened. Not enough to hurt the factory edge, but enough to leave scratches on one side of the blade...I hate the polishing wheel. And so I wondered if anyone has had experience removing scratches and polishing smaller blades by hand. Maybe using a Jeweler's Cloth or similar ? Again...hate the polishing wheel and don't trust 'sand paper'. Thanks for any advice. note: maybe I should not distrust sandpaper....but have never used it on a knife blade before.
 
Might try using the polishing compound (red, green, etc) that you would have used on the polishing wheel, on something else: old t-shirt, very supple piece of leather, ...) and polishing it by hand.

Also, 3M makes polishing sheets from 400 - 8000 grit. Using a series of ascending grit levels might work.

Good luck.
 
The truth is, you will only remove the scratches with a grit equal to or slightly finer that what made the scratches in the first place. In other words, if you have 400 grit scratches you can try 600 to start and go from there. Be prepared to sand out the entire surface with each grit until you get back to polished. You can try shortcuts, but you will only be frustrated when you final polish and see all the scratches you didn't know we're there.
 
Thanks for the helpers....I'll go with the polishing wheel compound to start...if that doesn't seem to be working I'll progress
to the finer grit sandpaper.
I'll try to report back what happens.
Thanks
 
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