Blade polish
Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 3:33 am
I restore Japanese swords typically,but will occasionally repolish a pocketknife or non-folder(hunter,fighting or even bayonett) The same stones that are used on a sword can be used on knives to a point.On a sword,after about 2000grit synthetic,you continue with natural stones,they pick out the grain boundaries in the folded steel and help to contrast the hamone(hardened edge)The knife pictured was polished with a group of synthetic ceramic waterstones made by a company called Shapton,the first and second are 500 and 1000 grit"Glasstones"(ceramic abraisive bonded to a tempered glass backing).The second two are the 2000 and 5000.They make several more upto 30000.The final"blend" polish is done with a block of maple charged with 14,000 grit diamond lapping paste.