Polishing out the ripples

[Aidan]

I have been working on this knife for a couple of days, filing down the bolster and thinning the blade. The next issue is how to get an even finish. I’m not looking to polish it in full, I am trying to keep the patina as best I can but I did have to work on chamfering off the shoulders of my first thinning attempt to get something approximating a convex grind. I worked up from 320 to SG1000 and have gone no further for now. The problem is I have an uneven polish creating a rippled finish. see video. How do I move from here?

 

[Aidan]

Perhaps easier to see in this one

 

[ethompson]

Unfortunately, the streaking you are seeing is typical of synthetic stone scratch patterns. You can try and clean it up some and get a more even finish on your stones if you'd like, but it won't ever be perfectly uniform coming off a SG1000 - softer synthetics usually leave a more even and forgiving finish. The good news is that some patina will quickly cover up the streaking if you just want to get back to using it. The alternative is refinishing the entire blade surface for a more uniform look via hand sanding or using stone mud as a polishing media.

 

[Aidan]

Are those videos working?

 

[drsmp]

You can try working heel to tip with your 1K stone ,high grit sand paper 800-1000 or mid grit micro mesh.

 

[Heckel7302]

I've found it near impossible to get an even finish on ODC vintage knives using stones alone (and I've done about 25 of them). Even ones with more simple geometry like forgecraft/Old hickory. My usual approach is to fix geometry with my SP120 (if things are real bad), then smooth things out with a King 300 to refine and/or remove the 120 scratches, then remove the rest of the scratches with my King 800, then go over it with wet/dry sandpaper 400/600/800/1000 to even out the finish and make it shiny.

 

[Heckel7302]

Are those videos working?

they have to be downloaded, but yes. In the future, the best way to upload videos here is to upload to youtube, then put the link in your post. the Forum will autogenerate the thumbnail from the youtube link.

Nice knife BTW. Those Gustav Emil's are hard to find here stateside.

 

[Aidan]

they have to be downloaded, but yes. In the future, the best way to upload videos here is to upload to youtube, then put the link in your post. the Forum will autogenerate the thumbnail from the youtube link.

Nice knife BTW. Those Gustav Emil's are hard to find here stateside.

Thank you. TBH it found me, I bought a job lot of old knives from a 2nd hand catering site. I didn’t know what I had until I sharpened it and realised it was a lovely piece of steel. Then I looked it up. It is actually quite difficult to find old knives in the uk. Selling knives on UK eBay is discouraged, I’ve not found anything there worth having in any case and car boot sales don’t tend to sell old knives either. I have found that 2nd hand kitchenalia stallls might have a box of old knives in storage so I ask there. Some are savvy to the demand for an old sabatier but generally speaking there’s not a lot around.

 

[Heckel7302]

Sounds like you need to make a trip to France and Germany to look for some old gems.

you could say I’ve got a thing for old carbon steel knives. Thankfully eBay here in the USA has loads for sale. Here’s most of mine. There’s another half dozen in a drawer.

 

[TB_London]

Sandpaper is your friend for evening out the finish for aesthetics.
The waviness is from the original making where the knives were ground on big wheels. Now your thinning on something flat you’re uncovering the wobbles. Sandpaper will follow the undulations and get it looking even again, and it’ll soon get covered in patina again.

Start at about 220, then 400, then 1k wet and dry. Lubricate the 400 and 1k with some wd40.

 

[Aidan]

Sounds like you need to make a trip to France and Germany to look for some old gems.

you could say I’ve got a thing for old carbon steel knives. Thankfully eBay here in the USA has loads for sale. Here’s most of mine. There’s another half dozen in a drawer.

View attachment 175702

Yes indeedy!!
Nice collection. Here are a few of mine