Loose abrasive for polishing

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Blank Blades.

Blank Blades.

Blank Blank.
KKF Supporting Craftsman
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So I'm trying to remember which loose abrasive I've seen people use to polish their blades. Besides silicon carbide, aluminum oxide, and diamond of course. And i cant find anything or remember which.

Its either garnet, emery, or pumice. I've seen people use it for a quick kasumi getting contrast between the core and cladding. Can't recall which.

Also if anyone wants to give any other info, experience polishing with loose abrasives, so its not just a thread with me asking one question 😂 would love to see it

Obviously people like using natural stone powder also. I think quartz or some other silicates could be worth trying.
 
Blank Blades. said:
So I'm trying to remember which loose abrasive I've seen people use to polish their blades. Besides silicon carbide, aluminum oxide, and diamond of course. And i cant find anything or remember which.

Its either garnet, emery, or pumice. I've seen people use it for a quick kasumi getting contrast between the core and cladding. Can't recall which.

Also if anyone wants to give any other info, experience polishing with loose abrasives, so its not just a thread with me asking one question 😂 would love to see it

Obviously people like using natural stone powder also. I think quartz or some other silicates could be worth trying.
Click to expand...
single-ply gas station bogroll
 
Ehh I've used silicon carbide, pumice and aluminum oxide. I've used it with water and oil, and with sandpaper and foam backer. I've used finer and coarse and medium to coarse is what gives good sandpaper results -- higher than that it didn't work well for me as a loose abrasive aside from using to mirror polish
 
Blank Blades. said:
I've seen people use it for a quick kasumi getting contrast between the core and cladding. Can't recall which.
Click to expand...
Logically would not something between the hardness of core and cladding yield the greatest contrast? Pumice sounds about right.
 
refcast said:
Ehh I've used silicon carbide, pumice and aluminum oxide. I've used it with water and oil, and with sandpaper and foam backer. I've used finer and coarse and medium to coarse is what gives good sandpaper results -- higher than that it didn't work well for me as a loose abrasive aside from using to mirror polish
Click to expand...
Maybe pumice is what i was thinking of then?

Idk, maybe i should get something like quartz or another silicate. I mean stone powder could do that job, but surely buying a synthetic version will be cheaper.
 
Pumice theoretically should work, I've just not gotten it to work as well for me -- sic lasts longer in cutting ability and polishing ability and gets pretty dark on the iron. The pumice doesn't scratch the steel very much, but the sic let's me refinish both
 
refcast said:
Pumice theoretically should work, I've just not gotten it to work as well for me -- sic lasts longer in cutting ability and polishing ability and gets pretty dark on the iron. The pumice doesn't scratch the steel very much, but the sic let's me refinish both
Click to expand...
Ok maybe i will give that a shot.

At least specifically what I'm wanting to do, this really wont be trying to do a shortcut kasumi kind of polish. It still going to need probably 3k+ with sandpaper first but i'm thinking etching and using a fairly soft abrasive together could maybe help me get the look i want.
 
The 180-220 grit sic and 220 grit 3m sandpaper with close cell foam backer(creatology is what I used) gets out scratches pretty well. I would need only 1k stone finish for the refinish to go fast and well, and I've started from 400 grit bench stone plenty of times.
 
refcast said:
The 180-220 grit sic and 220 grit 3m sandpaper with close cell foam backer(creatology is what I used) gets out scratches pretty well. I would need only 1k stone finish for the refinish to go fast and well, and I've started from 400 grit bench stone plenty of times.
Click to expand...
I have 220 sic on hand. If i end up doing any blades with san mai i'll give that a go, and maybe see about at least going up to my 1200 al2o3
 
Just bought some pumice powder. After looking up the composition lf pumice. Seems like a worthwhile candidate.

Doesnt need to actually work fast, just needs to bring out a bit of detail.
 
Bon Ami cleanser uses feldspar, which has a similar hardness to pumice. It makes me wonder if melamine foam (“Magic Eraser”) might be useful in some capacity.
 
Blank Blades. said:
So I'm trying to remember which loose abrasive I've seen people use to polish their blades. Besides silicon carbide, aluminum oxide, and diamond of course. And i cant find anything or remember which.

Its either garnet, emery, or pumice. I've seen people use it for a quick kasumi getting contrast between the core and cladding. Can't recall which.

Also if anyone wants to give any other info, experience polishing with loose abrasives, so its not just a thread with me asking one question 😂 would love to see it

Obviously people like using natural stone powder also. I think quartz or some other silicates could be worth trying.
Click to expand...


I personally think emery might be the most likely candidate of the three.

Possibly pumice, though it’s quite variable I believe. Kinda like a term that gets used for a lot of sponge-like-volcanic-lava-rock regardless of its exact chemical composition. I’ll be very interested to see your results with it!

Something which I’ve not tried yet, but which another guy I work with swears by for exactly this kind of thing, and which I imagine you will have easy access to… is ground up/powdered forge scale.
 
cotedupy said:
I personally think emery might be the most likely candidate of the three.

Possibly pumice, though it’s quite variable I believe. Kinda like a term that gets used for a lot of sponge-like-volcanic-lava-rock regardless of its exact chemical composition. I’ll be very interested to see your results with it!

Something which I’ve not tried yet, but which another guy I work with swears by for exactly this kind of thing, and which I imagine you will have easy access to… is ground up/powdered forge scale.
Click to expand...
I was actually talking to someone that mentioned using iron oxide potentially.
 
Fine pumice aquired
IMG_20240316_093358883.jpg
 
Dont have anything I'm working on right now, that would make sense to try this on. So i grabbed this wrought iron clad failed knife i use.

It has a lot of patina, and some surface rust.

It works well i think.


IMG_20240316_104949504.jpg
IMG_20240316_105006440.jpg
this is what the other side looks like. The one i polished looked similar before.
IMG_20240316_105019372.jpg
 
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