How To Handsand a Mirror Finish! Knife making Tutorial: Zac Buchanan Knives - Mirror Polish Blade 

I'm glad I did. There are some golden tips scattered throughout. If you skip even 10 seconds, the potential to miss something is high.

Thanks Jim, I hope it goes well for you! 👍🍀

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you!

Thank you, I’ll try to get more videos up soon. 😁👍

Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it!

You’re welcome, thanks for watching

Thanks, it’s no problem. It can get pretty cold

Cool, Nick seems like a good guy!

Oh man....your videos, dedication and patience remind me of Nick Wheeler often. His little fighting Bowies are probably my favorite knives ever, but your Loveless style are a tight second

Thanks, I’m glad you found it informative. Good luck with all your polishing! Thanks for watching

To each their own, there is nothing wrong with a belt finish. But I’m sure you can do it 👍

Do we need to take up a collection to get you a shop heater??? hahaha!

Thanks Matt! I think I’m too maxed out on power for heater! Lol!!

@@ZacBuchananKniveshave you ever tried a propane heater?

@@lindboknifeandtool no, I may have to give that a try

Thanks! I appreciate it!

Muslin cotton wheels, and old 8” that’s more like a 6” and a 4”. The steel is CPM154CM, I highly recommend this steel for anyone trying to do a mirror polish. Thanks for the questions! 👍

@@ZacBuchananKnives very cool, thanks for the reply 👍

You can't understand what he's saying is English your second language or something im from Europe and I can understand every word.. I hope your not American lol that would be even worse lol

@@roguesheep1747 could be deaf

Honestly not sure, I’ve never polished up a gun before. That sounds like a good plan though Good luck 🍀👍

@@ZacBuchananKnives ok so I stared at 400 then increased and got up to 4000 grits. I have a nice mirrow finish on my slide but I see some lines from sna ding still there. I don't have buffering machine so I'm just using mothers mag polish at the end with a cloth microfiber. Any advice or what m I doing wrong

Are the marks left behind from the 4,000 grit? I would assume they would be hard to see without magnification. My guess is you didn’t get all of the scratches out from previous grits. It’s easy to miss them, the start blending together at around 1,200.

@@ZacBuchananKnives I did get all the scratches. At 3000 grits it looked all smooth .what I was using is smaller wheels for buffering after I was done sanding. And I think one of the wheels was the one that made those scratches n since I don't have or k ow the right wheel for buffing I think k that is my problems. I'm using some wheels from Amazon so I attach them to my drill but some are a bit hard so I think k that scratch it . I will come down to hardware and get one today a soft one

Yeah, that makes sense. You’ll want a nice soft wheel I use muslin cotton

I suggest more time on each step to make sure you’ve got the previous scratches out, it doesn’t matter how high you go if you’re not removing the old work. The cloudiness is scratches from previous grits. As for the grind lines getting rounded, that’s from going over the grind line with your sandpaper and rubbing away the material. this is common when just starting out, I’ve had it happen in the past as well. You’ll want to be more aware of where you are putting pressure while sanding, it can be hard at first to tell where you are polishing but just keep your focus and and use long straight strokes. Polishing takes a lot of time, just don’t rush it! Good luck with your knife making and I hope this helps!

Honestly, I’ve never used high carbon steel. I imagine the process should work though

It honestly depends on the size of the blade. The New York special has a 3” blade and the big bear has a 8.5” blade, the big bear can take all day to polish the New York just a couple hours. It’s not necessarily about time either though once you get all the scratches from the previous grit out and get all of the new grit marks moving in the same direction you can move on to the next grit.

Unfortunately I’ve never used a dremel to polish but I know that lots of people do it. I’d say it depends on if you are happy with the results. As for heat it really depends on how hot it’s getting, heat can definitely change the steel’s temper.

@@ZacBuchananKnives thanks. My main issue is that my titanium balisong handles that I'm polishing are mirror finished but they have a clouded look. I want them perfect like your blade. What causes the cloudiness?

@@Human_Evolution- Cloudy look means you're pushing too hard and leave scratches with the compound. Try applying less pressure. After finishing with the compound, polish it with metal polishing paste applying very slight pressure (not more than the weight of dremel itself)

No that’s not bad at all. You’ll probably just end up using more of the “Cheaper” sandpaper, as it typically doesn’t stay sharp as long.

Do you find there’s diminishing returns with abrasion resistance and mirror finishes? AEB-L is easy to get a mirror finish, and will scratch easily with use. Are there any steels that resist this abrasion with use, or is it not really directly correlated? In my mind lc200n seems like a good mirror steel but would scratch super easy. That got me thinking magnacut might be worth polishing, if the vanadium resists polishing it might resist striation?

All blades scratch with use over time, some finishes are just better at hiding the damage. I typically just use cpm154 so I don’t have a ton of experience with other steels. Abel is good steel and I’ve heard really good things about magnacut I’d like to try some in the future

That’s literally what this finish has been called for longer than I’ve been alive. The hollow grinds distort the image, but it is mirror polished.

thanks, it's no problem