Tips for post-finish scratches?

[matthewhoffman]

Apologies if this is old hat for most of you. It has me crying in my beer (scotch, actually), and I'd love some advice.

All too often, my clean, post-finish blades--both carbon and stainless, finished to 600 grit on the grinder, then sanded lengthwise with 400 and hit with a fine Scotchbrite--pick up new scratches during the handle process. The scratches are faint, but irritating.

I've tried wrapping the blades in blue painter's tape or swaddling with a paper towel, and the damn things still pick up scratches.

I'm not banging them on the floor and throwing them around the shop (at least not at first), but something's sure happening. How do you guys prevent this?

 

[john april]

i have had the same problem. i do a mirror polish before soldering, then a few layers of paper around the blade and wrap that with masking tape. you just have to be careful not to go through the masking tape while shaping the guard and handle, and sanding. it takes practice. you also need to make sure no loose 220 grit particles make their way into the tape and paper, because simply pulling the tape and paper off can scratch it too. i used to have these folded sheet metal guards that would slip over my taped blades for extra protection.

 

[coldsteelburns]

John gave you some good advice.

I personally now give my blades a coat of paste wax which doesn't seem to attract dust etc. as must as oil does once it has dried. For the wrap I make sure to tightly wrap at least few times right where it begins at the ricasso, which is often where dust and grit can also work its way into. I use a blue shop towel and fold it over the blade and kinda roll it up with the excess. Then use some cheap electrical tape from Harbor Freight to tightly wrap at the ricasso a few times and then wrap up the rest of the towel covering the blade with blue painters tape since it covers more surface area. I leave a couple millimeters of the ricasso uncovered with the paper towel so that the electrical tape has something to stick to. This has seemed to help me with that issue a bit.


~Paul
My Youtube Channel
... (It's been a few years since my last upload)

 

[Horsewright]

All knives get the wax treatment from tip to stern as one of the last steps. I buff off the wax and all knives except the damascus ones, take one more light pass over the Scothbrite belt. This gets rid of any light scratches that life and getting made has given em. After that its kid gloves on a towel and then in a slotted box as I make the sheaths.

Here they are on a towel. They get a light hand cleaning here (bolsters get done with Flitz), blades are lightly oiled etc. As each is finished it goes into a box with slots. Each slot is numbered and that is how I know what sheath to make for what knife.

Here's a batch from a while back getting their lanyard/thongs put on em by the wife. Once they are assigned that number in the box thats how they are known until the sheath is finished and they ship. This box deal has worked very well, only occasionally will I ever have another light scratch. If so, doesn't take much to get that Scotchbrite belt a going again. I mean really occasionally too. Maybe one out of every couple hundred knives.

During sheath construction they get handled quite a bit as each sheath is made and fitted to a specific knife. But I'm always careful with them.

No more crying in the Scotch. Top shelf in our cantina:

 

[Natlek]

I've tried wrapping the blades in blue painter's tape or swaddling with a paper towel, and the damn things still pick up scratches.

I'm not banging them on the floor and throwing them around the shop (at least not at first), but something's sure happening. How do you guys prevent this?

Keep clean ......clean ... and clean Only thing that can scratch and is harder then your blade in your shop is ceramic, AO and zirconia dust from your belts and maybe dust from grinding hardened steel .............

 

[AVigil]

This drives me crazy,

My current regime is I spray with wd 40 or windex and use an air hose to blow off any debris. And rinse under water.
I only use cotton swabs sealed in a plastic bag to wipe a blade and use several one for each surface as to not scratch the blade.

I now wrap the blade in teflon tape and then over wrap under tension with electricians tape.

This has kept things scratch free.

 

[matthewhoffman]

Thank you all for some "really" intelligent ideas. I'm betting that I'm creating the scratches with shop grit from my paper towels, which I keep, um, in the shop.

Really appreciate the advice.