Cleaning blades
- Thread starter Mark Baigent
- Start date
It depends of the corrosion. Do you have any pictures? I'd start with a plastic scouring pad and then move onto polishing with Autosol paste. That should get you a mirror, providing that there isn't any pitting.
Sent from my SM-A705FN using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-A705FN using Tapatalk
i use a wire brush or steel scouring pad to rub off the crusty bits, paint and other crud. That counts as polishing, right? 
Peek polish is good but not as abrasive as Autosol. How manky are they? I've polished a few old brass Primus-type stoves with 50 years + of black guff on them and nothing but major, repeated elbow grease with Autosol but then that's brass so it really depends on how dirty gurty yon SAKs are. Pictures, please?
i use a wire brush or steel scouring pad to rub off the crusty bits, paint and other crud. That counts as polishing, right?
Sent from my SM-A705FN using Tapatalk
Not of the light rust, but these are the scratches.. I should add that I have too much time on my hands so I am tinkering with stuff
I would be surprised if autosol didn't fix that up. I'd would perhaps buy a sheet of 2000 grit wet and dry paper to work the worst of it off and then try the paste. 
Sent from my SM-A705FN using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-A705FN using Tapatalk
Beware, these suggestions could ruin you...
3M Lapping film
https://www.cousinsuk.com/product/film-lapping-3m-261x266x
Micromesh
https://www.axminster.co.uk/micro-mesh-mixed-pack-of-abrasives-211365
Hermes Lapping film
https://www.axminster.co.uk/hermes-self-adhesive-abrasive-film-ax834464
But some 1200 wet and dry followed by autosol on some old cereal box would probably do just fine.
3M Lapping film
https://www.cousinsuk.com/product/film-lapping-3m-261x266x
Micromesh
https://www.axminster.co.uk/micro-mesh-mixed-pack-of-abrasives-211365
Hermes Lapping film
https://www.axminster.co.uk/hermes-self-adhesive-abrasive-film-ax834464
But some 1200 wet and dry followed by autosol on some old cereal box would probably do just fine.
Someone advised me to boil my SAK in order to clean it. I was the bigger fool because I took this advice. The scales soon fell from my eyes: unfortunately the scales also fell from my SAK.
My advice is "don't do this!"
A wise man learns from experience but a wiser man learns from the experience of others.
My advice is "don't do this!"
A wise man learns from experience but a wiser man learns from the experience of others.
Last edited:
Yep, that’s the stuff I use, in 1200 and 2500 grit, to resharpen and strop my knives. I have a narrow strip of each stuck to the edge of my indoor workbench, and it’s ideal to give my bladed tools a quick hone and polish. It is surprisingly effective, but then it isn’t cheap.
Really poor man's lapping!
Don't use the outside printed surface!
Use the flat card on a flat surface to hold the polish and move the blade across it to polish. It is like stropping, but the card doesn't deform like leather does. Cereal box is the most ready source for thin, flat card that has enough texture on the inside to hold the paste.
You can make a pretty good plate from balsa, basswood or mdf, depending on what one is after.
I only use it when I want a really flat hone of great size, like for doing plane irons or wide chisels. Stick it to some 12mm float glass. I don't have the 2500 grip...but I still have a little of the long discontinued 220 (may have been 240) grit! Fantastic for flattening soles.
Have you seen this stuff?
https://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-diamond-sheet-ax974873
Not cheap, but maybe longer lasting than the Hermes.
Sorry, rather going off topic.
SAK blades are not all that hard to refinish since they are not particularly hard. Starting with polish, if that doesn't start to show results quickly, go to 1200 or 800g wet and dry. No point in persisting with too fine an abrasive. If a scratch is deep you are going to need to remove that depth of metal to get rid of it, might as well not waste time. From 1200g it should be possible to polish with Autosol.
I think a lot of people have trouble with sharpening and such because they use too fine an abrasive to start with, take too long and start to get discouraged, lose focus etc.
If you have to change grits, remember to change direction so you are taking the peaks off the finishing scratches, not deepening them.
I would advise holding the knife and moving it relative to the abrasive, rather than the usual method of clamping the knife and using a sanding stick, it is hard to clamp a SAK securely and if you get careless it is easy to overshoot a small blade and run it into your hand.
Judging from those marks, he wouldn't have to persist very long at all with 2000g and it would make the autosols job easier than if you jumped from a 1500g to it. Without proper grit progression you'll end up persisting with one or the other anyway.
Sent from my SM-A705FN using Tapatalk
Similar threads
