Storing Leather Strops
- This topic has 41 replies, 16 voices, and was last updated 02/19/2015 at 2:07 am by
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Cross contamination prevention is a huge deal for me!
Used this jig while in the process of mirror finishing:
I picked up a grit, on the jig’s surface, after well past thru dirty mirror stage with 2000 grit, moved onto 14u:
Already had clarity and close to blemish free, but had to stop and went backward to remove one single scratched line from one single polishing stroke, which ran through length of the polished Yojimbo. I don’t think my being careful is being paranoid, but without attention to detail, I wouldn’t be able to get to these mirror’ed stage of clarity:
Segregation to prevent cross contamination is important, whether in dealing with a narrow band width on the blade’s cutting edge or on a larger surface area, Especially in dealing for a near perfection to show clarity on a mirror finish.
Aloha!
Man, that is way cool! Can you tell us a little more on that other knife? (Chris Reeve?) What did you do to make the entire knife so shiny? (And is that a specially anodized handle?)
Basically just a little machining 101 was done to fancy it up a bit!
I started with making one piece titanium floating shoulder pin to replace the lanyard w/pin and grooved the original spacer:
Milled divots for an exact fit to my finger tips, both hands, to enhance the Filipino style knife grip for ambidextrous use:
Sand, mirror polish and final heat anodized handle slabs to my visualized separate finishes.
Presentation side – Looking up from underwater, light penetrating thru surface:
RIL side – To imitate the worn look as exposed to repetitive rubbing by clipping knife into pocket – white out at the tip of the handle slab, tip of pocket clip and area directly under the pocket clip:
Knife blade secondary angle highlight mirror shine is just a finish I prefer for this knife, worth the little extra effort to show pride of ownership:
Hope I didn’t bored you with these long winded answer! 🙂
Aloha!
Opinion in terms of practicality for a mirror polish surface. Whether it is the primary edge or other selected surface over all.
IMO, analogy – when the need to carry a Presidential Rolex watch in a pocket :-
Exterior overall surface, a little common sense along with simple precautions, by not mixing with coins and keys when carried in pockets.
Usage included not as a pray bar or multi purpose tool and such. Simple common sense allowed mirror finished surfaces to look pristine for a long time.
Few examples:
Heat ano’ed finish are tough, shown here with a few homemade components, titanium headers and used since 1990 on my liter size crotch rocket, DD until 2005, now just sat there looking pretty:
Or homemade titanium shift knob, went through several evolution, from plain to solid to the final patina, mirror and the heat ano patina has endure well, use with common sense – without expose to other metallic contacts, to enhance driving excitements to put power/torque to the ground with my custom 4:10 ratio’ed rear end:
Regards to choice of blade finish:
Most makers offer other finishes, on the premise of the ability to blend in with wear and such. On the contrary, I’ve found, once scratched, however small, damage is impossible to restore and it is magnetic to my eyes! It becomes a major itch and diminishes my feel for it!
Historically, mirror polish is the highest time honored for any worthwhile blade. It is time consuming at the get go. Few custom knife makers advocates and offer the premium finish for an additional charge.
When peaks are bought down to the level of valleys on a leveled mirror surface finish, surface has less crevices to trap contaminates, moisture and such. Therefor, easier to stay clean. Unlike other lesser finishes, inadvertent scratches can also be restored back to original mirror’ed glory.
Certainly any form of personalizing, whether it is Motorsports, a simple knife’s overall surface or its primary edge is not for everyone. But that is why it is great, uniqueness for anyone’s choice!
Aloha!
🙂
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