A little help please..

[mccaw69]

Okay,this is gonna sound silly,but I've only made two knives since I've gotten into knife making.They have turned out fine,but I can't seem to get the sheen on the blade that everyone else is getting.I've used buffing wheels and compounds,extra fine steel wool,and superfine model sandpaper,but I still get a dull sheen,aged looking,which I was pleased with on my first,but the second,the necker I'm working on now looks like demascus steel after it was heat treated,can't seem to get it to polish out.I've got plans for a tomahawk from a RR spike when I finish my necker,would love to be able to put a nice shine on it when it's finished.Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

 

[MLarson]

What steel did you use to make the knife? Some steels don't polish out very well.

 

[red]

some pics would really help too, but i think PW hit it. sometimes that scale on the metal gets pretty thick, and you can polish it till the cows come home and have crap for results..

 

[tiny80022]

Sounds like it has a little surface decarb. Maybe if you grind the surface off a couple thousandths of an inch you will get down to hard steel that will take a polish.

try this, take a file after heat treating and see if it ill skate off the steel. If it bites for the first pass or two and then skates then you know you have a soft surface layer.

This is the first thing that came to mind.

 

[mccaw69]

I'll get you some pics up of the necker I just finished.

 

[mccaw69]

Ok here's the finished product,The steel is smooth,but it looks like it has rough spots on it.