Mirror.

[Skaukraft]

There was some talk about mirrors in another thread.
I have always had a small make up mitrror in my FAK, but never given it much thought.
But during a few slow hours at work to day I found a piece of 1mm 316 plate in the scrap metal bin, and a new mirror was born.
Maybe not very bushcrafty, but I think it became a usefull bit of tool:

I cut a piece to the size of a credit card, drilled a hole and started with P600 paper.

Then continued with wet P1200 paper for about 20 minutes.

Then wet P2500 paper for about half an hour.

Then half an hour with wet P4000 paper. Now it is really starting to look like something.

After the P4000 paper I used a polishing rondel with some fine polishing wax.
Unfortunately I can still see some signature from the P600 paper, so I guess I will have a go at another one and do it more thorough.
It goes well with my shaving kit (not very bushcrafty though).

 

[ateallthepies]

What a good idea, a lot of work but well worth it IMO

Steve.

 

[Dreadhead]

polish your knives like that and you wont need a mirror men jeg liker det ja

 

[bikebum1975]

Pretty neat idea

 

[grey-array]

Cool Idea ^^, I really like it, but somehow I think of polishing a Leuku instead.
Then you would have a tool as well as a mirror and you wont be carrying weight that is unnecessary
Yours sincerely Ruud

 

[Dannytsg]

Very cool idea. That would be something I definately needed for a prolonged stay in the wild.

 

[Skaukraft]

Thanks mates.

There will be heavy snowfall at a certain place before I ad a Leuku to my kit. The mirror weighs in at close to 20 grams.

 

[Adze]

That's about the same as one of these:

...but these come pre-polished to a high enough standard that you can see your face in them from 30 feet away (the black line reflected in this one is a curtain track on the ceiling 6ft above the desktop), have a nifty hole in the middle either for sighting through (signalling) or mounting on a stick (shaving if you're male / make up and general gazing at yourself if female).

Should we ever get any sun, I'm going to have a stab at firelighting with them too.

Best of all, you can have them for free if you've got an old broken hard disk drive and the tools to take it to bits.

 

[Humpback]

Adam
What material is your circular mirror made of and is it fragile at all? Skaukraft reading your polishing schedule has made me tired!
Alan

 

[shaggystu]

Adam
What material is your circular mirror made of and is it fragile at all? Skaukraft reading your polishing schedule has made me tired!
Alan

it's a CD/DVD mate, really good cheap mirrors, a bugger to fit in your wallet though

at second glance it may actually be a bit of hard drive, CD/DVD works pretty well though

 

[Adze]

it's a CD/DVD mate, really good cheap mirrors, a bugger to fit in your wallet though

at second glance it may actually be a bit of hard drive, CD/DVD works pretty well though

It's the platter from a hard drive - definitely not a CD or DVD and it puts them in the shade re reflectiveness (is that a word?)

I don't know exactly how fragile they are... but if you frisbee it across the room against the wall it neither chips nor scratches (unlike a CD or DVD).

Comparison pics on their way.

 

[Adze]

Ok - no gamesmanship involved - the CD is scattering light from the side, whereas the HDD platter err... doesn't.

 

[Skaukraft]

Nice!
But you miss the joy of making it yourself (unless you have a thing for smasshing up harddrives ).

 

[Adze]

It works a lot better if you take them apart - you get to stick things to the fridge that the kids can't remove with the neodymium magnets in them then Does take a bit more time than using a lump hammer, but you can do it in the living room without the Mrs complaining about the mess or waking up the 3 month old.

 

[dwardo]

The magnets from the Hard Disks are also handy. I use two glued into the bottom of my quiver so my arrows stick in the bottom, very handy.
Smaller laptop hard disks these days are plastic so no joy there.

 

[Dreadhead]

The magnets from the Hard Disks are also handy. I use two glued into the bottom of my quiver so my arrows stick in the bottom, very handy.
Smaller laptop hard disks these days are plastic so no joy there.

superb tip there cheers

 

[bikebum1975]

Nice!
But you miss the joy of making it yourself (unless you have a thing for smasshing up harddrives ).

Have done this before and they can be to say the least a royal pain in the.... to take a part to but if you want some killer strong magnets so worth it.


Neat idea on the mirror yes my second time checking out this thread

 

[Colin.W]

I got a beaut of a blood blister trying to take one of the magnets from the HDD off the lid of my tool box. I managed to prise it on edge but when I went to lift it off it flipped back onto it's side pinching a wedge of skin with it

 

[Humpback]

Adam
Many thanks for the platter. It is much much clearer than a CD (which I had previously tried and given up on). Thanks for your generosity.
Alan

 

[Firelite]

Sorry, I'm missing something here...how do you start a fire using sunlight with a plane mirror? (I'm assuming it is a plane mirror, based on the reflection)