How to maintain mirror surface finish

Hi,

I have a gyuto with near perfect mirror surface finish. It is a monosteel knife made out of Swedish carbon steel. I have not used it yet (it just arrived), but it will surely gain patina with use and I am wondering whether it would be possible to remove the patina here and than to restore (i.e. not scratch) the mirror finish. What tools would I need to do that?

thanks

Flitz should work.

Are you referring to that knife that you won during recent giveaway? How about some photos?

ICANHASCHZBRGR, I found a good alternative to Flitz, since I could not get Flitz in a smaller bottle at the store, I went to a Harley Davidson store by me, and got Semmichrome, it works wonders with a nice microfiber cloth

Micromesh pads and flitz.

icanhaschzbrgr said:

Flitz should work.

Are you referring to that knife that you won during recent giveaway? How about some photos?

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Thanks! Yes - it is THAT one - photos in very few days

I can get both - though I have managed to find 2 very similar (bottle looks a bit different) Filz versions with large price difference.

Would there be a reason to prefer Filz over Semichrome or the other way round?

I ordered the whole grit progression of micromesh to use after the wet/dry sandpaper so I'll report how good it is, I'm going to use them with bare water to create a mirror like finish on one of my blades just for the fun of it.

Roger - I am really curios about your experience with he micro mesh. Please do share then.

I tried it on the brass handle of a pocket J knife I just received along with the polishing gear. The brass was already a smooth finish but with some small scratches here and there. I started at 4000 and got all the way up to 12K. It does a very good job but I did not got it perfect like a mirror, maybe because I didn't spend enough time doing it, it seems good enough to me like that. I will push this further on another of my blades when I have some more time. The 12K doesn't seem to add visible scratches on it's own. The micromesh pads are pretty small, I think it's a good idea to get some wet sandpaper to remove big scratches before you use them.

I think it's totally possible to make a mirror with this if you take your time and go through the proper grit progression. Making blades shiny is even more addictive than getting them sharp for me !

If you are after really good mirror polish try buffing wheel with compounds , you can still get good rests with compounds on microfibre cloth

Results I meant , this statement above is considering you went up gradually to higher grits without leaving any scratch marks from previous ones

I found that a strop with green compound works really well for a well prepared surface, so if your gyuto just has patina on it, i think strop would work.

Matus said:

Would there be a reason to prefer Filz over Semichrome or the other way round?

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Simichrome is 8-10u and Flitz is ~3u. So Simichrome will be more aggressive for deeper scratches. If polishing an existing mirror I would stick to Flitz.

Cheers,

Rick

Where can I get flitz in Canada?

Tall Dark and Swarfy said:

Simichrome is 8-10u and Flitz is ~3u. So Simichrome will be more aggressive for deeper scratches. If polishing an existing mirror I would stick to Flitz.

Cheers,

Rick

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I learn this right after I ordered the Simichrome. One question on the Flitz. I have found this one and this one and am wondering whether it is the same thing. The bottles looks similar, but not the same and price differs by factor 5 .. ?

I have just found Micro Gloss and the description says that it should contain 1um Aluminium oxide particles and is supposed to polish out the fine scratches that micro mesh would leave. Would it be a good option for my case?

Matus said:

I learn this right after I ordered the Simichrome. One question on the Flitz. I have found this one and this one and am wondering whether it is the same thing. The bottles looks similar, but not the same and price differs by factor 5 .. ?

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May I also extend Matus question and ask about differences between liquid flitz (the ones that Matus referenced) and paste (like this one). I ordered a paste from ebay and it seems that small tube of paste will be enough for years…

I use the exact paste as chzbrgr. The link Matus asked about, which charged over 70 Euro for watered down polish, is thievery.

The Filz paste is available here too for a much more reasonable price.

James, the idea with strop sounds great, but a good strop costs quite a bit and I do not own one currently.

Tall Dark and Swarfy said:

Simichrome is 8-10u and Flitz is ~3u. So Simichrome will be more aggressive for deeper scratches. If polishing an existing mirror I would stick to Flitz.

Cheers,

Rick

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Would you tell me the source for this information? Do you happen to have a similar datum for Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish or Metal Glo? And do you know which (if any) of these use chemical polishing?

Mr.Wizard said:

Would you tell me the source for this information? Do you happen to have a similar datum for Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish or Metal Glo? And do you know which (if any) of these use chemical polishing?

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Sorry, Wiz. These are just numbers that I have gathered over various forum postings, where folks have contacted the respective companies and asked for product information. Judging by the claims on their websites I expect both polishes to contain adjunct chemical cleaners and/or inhibitors.

Cheers,

Rick

chefcomesback said:

Results I meant , this statement above is considering you went up gradually to higher grits without leaving any scratch marks from previous ones

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I always struggle with that part and most of the times leaves my blades with scratchmarks that over time gets partially removed from the finest stones. Especially when starting from a low (120/325) grit... Some day I'll get it right

I just thinned and reprofiled a crooked up Sabatier and got through all the grits I had on hand. Micromesh is pretty awesome after the matador sandpaper. The finish is so shiny it's incredible.