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De-scratching a knife blade
love2shoot
Member Posts: 576 ✭✭✭
When I was young and dum, dad asked me to sharpen his USN knife. I proceeded to use the bench grinder with probably an 80 grit wheel and it doesnt look pretty. Now, 60 years later and somewhat smarter, I have decided to clean the blade up. I have a 6x48 stationary belt sander I use for recoil pads and general woodworking and can get all kind of grits for it. McMaster Carr has a 1200 grit, that must be like rubbing teethpaste on it! I degress, what grit and procedure should I use to right this wrong on this really neat WW II knife?
Comments
K Bar ?
Need pics. I would start near 500 grit and move up from there. 1,200 should give a nice polish once most scratches are removed. Are we talking just the cutting edge or the entire sides of the blade?
I use whet stones and then finish with 3000-7000 grit Arkansas stones.(depending on how sharp and clean I want it to look).
a one inch Harbor Freight belt sander is one of most useful tools. i recently did the same thing for a friend of mine. i started with 600, then used 800 and finished off with a very worn 1000 grit belt. i have sharpened a lot of knives with that wore out 1000 grit belt. i finish with a cloth wheel and green rouge.
How about rolloc brushes they can polish metal very well.
https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b40064719/
I recently cleaned up a scratched blade with 180 and 240 Aloxite paper. I don't think you need anything finer than 300 grit to make a WW2 blade look original. The above suggestions will give a very high polish that is not original to that blade. Good luck.
With 80 grit scratches you'll need to start at 220 grit sandpaper on a rubber block. If that takes too long I use my dremel and polish out the scratches with 2" circular hook and loop sandpaper, ( i get variety of sets of different grits over on flea-bay, right up to 3000 grit, but I most use 320). I would forget the 1200 sandpaper belt, you'll just polish the scratches. With hand sanding you'll not overdo it. I have 6 sandpaper piles, all cut to fit the sanding blocks, 120, 220, 320, 400, 500 and 1200. I restore stanley planes and have to sharpen the blades up to 2000 grit, by hand. I restore rusty old knives and bring them back nicely. good luck with your project.
3M wheel.
Margaret Thatcher
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Mark Twain
I would spend some time in a bead blaster. But if you're dead set on sanding, you're gonna have to work the numbers. Or rattle can the blade.
Currently I'm reprofiling the edge on my USMC bolo (the beaver tail looking blade) the spine and the edge has chips, the handles were gone so no "value" as a collectable. Kind a like your WW2 USN knife. After I get an edge and clean up the spine I'll bead blast the blade but retain the forging marks. Sand the blade so I can cold blue the blade. Then slap some olive wood scales and use corby bolts. I have also been looking at elk antler to use as scales but can't find a cheap shed. Shipping on them sucks.
Maybe I'll ask a leather worker on here to make me a sheath?
Here are pictures of the knife with scratch marks and markings on the knife. Sheath has USN stamped on it. Under the finger guard the blade has US NAVY on one side and RH (PAI) with a circle around it and Made In America under the circle, then 37 on the right of the circled PAI
This knife feels really good and I feel a connection to dad whenever I get it out and look at it.
Well poop, the pictures didn't post as I thought they would but I believe you can click on them and see them. I took them with a digital camera, put the SD card in my desktop, dragged them to the desktop, and then attached them to my GB message. I missed a step in there somewhere. Sorry
Good luck with your project.
Have you tried shooting it? Ultimately the solution should involve a gun, I think.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
That knife has a seven inch blade and is the same style as the Marine KA-BAR knife but made by RH PAL for the US Navy. The six inch PAL knives are common but I have NEVER seen that style seven inch PAL Navy knife. It could be very collectable. I am not an expert. Be careful restoring it. remove as little metal as possible.
I lost one of those on an elk hunt 44 years ago. It's somewhere up the Utley Creek drainage near Snow Mountain in Eastern Oregon.
would have been easier hunting with a rifle...........
True dat, but the 6 point bull I took that day still hangs in my living room!