I belt finish to 220 and hand sand above that. My work finish is to 400 using Mobil One 5w40 as my lube. Final wipe down with Windex.

I like to finish all my blades by hand, with the final grit determined by the intended use or 'fanciness' of the finished knife. I typically belt sand to 400 or 600 grit. I then do hand sanding from there starting at 400 and going up to 800 or 1000 on knives with hamons. I use a piece of g-10 with a strip of leather glued to it for the blade flats and just the g-10 for the ricasso. And always sand the blade length wise. There was also a recent thread in the topic of the month section about finishing blades with some incredibly talented masters and journeyman giving great advice that would be worth checking out. Hope that helps you out.

Joseph, the majority of my knives are hand finished. A standard knife gets a 600 grit hand rubbed finish, working knives usually a 400 or 320. For blades with a hamon I hand rub to at least 1500 grit, usually 2000, then etch and polish. I do make an every day knife line that has a 400 then scotchbrite belt finish. If you plan on going for your JS or MS, you need to be able to do a nice hand finish. Plus a good hand rubbed finish looks really nice.

Brion

Joseph,

There really isn't a "right" finish. Working knives are fine with a lower grit finish. However, the grit marks of the finish should all be the same; like no 80g marks under the 320g.

As Brion stated, you will need to be capable of doing a proper hand finish for the Journeyman test. Might as well plan to practice that!

I'm with Steve on this one, there is no "right way" to finish the blade. I will say that for me, the finish also depends on the grind. Flat ground blades get finished on the 9 inch disk to about 320 or 400 and then hand sanded to 400 to 2000 depending on whether I want a satin or mirror finish. Hollow grinds usually get finished on the 2x72 belt to whatever grit I want to end up with, and sometimes I will finish them with a Scotch-Brite belt for a satin finish.

The more you can do mechanically, the less you will do by hand is the common thinking, but I haven't found that to be true.....

I usually spend two or three times the time with sand sanding as I do on the belt & disk. That being said, a good 400 grit hand finish on a flat grind is pretty difficult to beat in terms of esthetics.

I could use the practice....most of my blades are just sanded with the grinder. Better start refining now!!

Hand sanding it is then. Thank you all for the responses!!

I was taught to do everything by hand never had power tools looking forward to trying some. I was also taught to mirror finish my work because it helped slow down corrosion. Reading and studying these things I have learned so many different ways to finished they are almost as varied as snow flakes. Let me know about the corrosion thing because it was something I was taught.

My old wrists are starting to wear down and hurt after a day of hand sanding. I've gotten to the point of going through the grits just as high as I can on the machine to lessen time on hand rubbing. Sometimes I've gotten lucky enough to not hand rub at all for a user or even damascus blade. You can buy some very fine micro belts.

Edited to add: The judges for the JS and MS wouldn't go for the belt finishes.

It very rare that I will let a blade go with a machine finish, simply because I know I can make it look better with a hand finish. I've learned from experience that if an individual has taken the time/effort to make the outward appearance of a knife exceptional, then it's very likely that the "insides" were done "right".

For example, testing folks for JS or MS.....historically when I first see the knife for the performance test, I can make a pretty good judgement of if the knife will pass or not, based on the outward appearance.....again, if the individual took the time/effort on a exceptional finish, they've taken the time/effort to make sure the "inside" is right too. Those whom I've tested that bring a poorly finished knife have rarely passed.

If you're testing for JS, I would strongly encourage you to hand finish your presentation knives.....the testing rules state: "finishes are to be uniform". Even slight bobbles in a machine finish can cook you goose during the presentation phase of testing.

I do sometimes finish with Scotchbrite, yes. It depends on the knife. If I am offering a field grade piece that is in a entry level range I will make it with as little hand work as possible. The innards of the knife has the same care in heat treating as the finer finished knives. But I still hand finish most knives including the blades.

That is not to say, I would be messing around with brute finishes if I were testing. No way. I do a lot of things for practice. Forge finish, rat tail brutes, forged fittings, etc. But I will not consider these my best finished works. They sometimes have a certain appeal but again, not dressed up. In my opinion, anyone who is even thinking about taking one of the tests should be only hand finishing their blades. I would be finishing all of my work as near perfect as my skill level would allow me. Even hand finishing takes practice.

I agree with what the masters are saying. Also, there's an advantage to doing the final finish by hand. It's very difficult to get a front to back even beveling on a machine that is grinding the other way. When you hand sand, it can even out any slight differences of a machine grind. You may not have a 2" mark but it's very difficult to get a perfect machine grind ricasso to tip.

Just my $.02.

Gary

This is a great topic of discussion. I love a nice hand rubbed finish, and fwiw, it's what 99.9% of my forged blades get. Mono steel blades get pulled to ~ 600 grit, and like Brion, blades with hamon go to 1500-2000+. I take my damascus steel blades to ~ 600-800 prior to etching.

Like so many smiths will tell you, changing the direction between each grit is imperative to getting a true level of finish, whatever grit level you take your blade to.

I've found I can't get the same level of finish doing a flat grind on a hard platen, as I can when doing a hollow grind using a contact wheel . I'm at a point now in my grinding where I can take a blade to a deep mirror finish using a contact wheel, and just a few minutes on the buffer. All without ever touching the blade via hand sanding.

Not so with a hard, pyro ceramic flat platen. It just isn't going to happen, at least not for me. Hand sanding is the only option in this case, once again, for me.

Not sure if this has ever been talked about but I'm presently experimenting with a polishing technique called "attack polishing", a method used in industry for "difficult to polish materials". Essentially using an etchant, along with your abrasive, while polishing.

It does have some precautions that must be adhered to. I'm experimenting in an attempt to find a way to adapt and apply it to my bladesmthing, in the hopes of saving some time in regard to polishing.

Due to some of the chemicals used, I haven't yet decided whether or not the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

I've attached a PDF document that explains the basic concept.

I think Lin nailed it with his comment "hand finishing takes practice" and I'll add, "it takes time". All of us who've been doing this for a while have a box of custom made polishing sticks, blocks, & do-dads to make the job a little bit easier, or to get into those hard to reach spots.

Polishing is essentially the "icing on the cake" when it comes to our knives, and we all want our knives to look their absolute best.

As the saying goes - "anything worth doing, is worth doing well"

Another good one - "a knifemaker never really finishes a knife, he just stops working on it"

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