Polishing Hattori Sujihiki to mirror finish.

Hi.
I've been asked to polish Hattori Sujihiki to mirror finish. I said that I will do that because I thought that it won't be a problem. I've done that before with my Fujiwara Kanefusa 27cm yanagiba with very good results. I have used sanding paper up to 2500 grit and then 3M wet or dry polishing papers. The result actually was a perfect mirror finish.

You can't see it on the picture but it was perfect.

Ok let's get back to Hattori.  I have used the same technique. Sanding paper up to 2500 grit and then 3M papers. I have to admit that Hattori won and after 30 hours of hand polishing only one side I gave up. That steel is much harder than Fujiwara's VG-1.

I had to do something because I couldn't send back  knife which is scratched so I've started to search the  internet  for some information regarding polishing. I've found online shop and have been recommended to buy three polishing mops and 3 compounds.

From left to right:
439T polishing compound with White close stitch mop,
P164 blue compound with G quality  Loose mop,
P175 yellow compound with WDR quality loose mop.

This is my last resort.

I mounted it on press drill which i layed horizontaly on the countertop.

I polished the knife to 1000 grit wet paper.

So I've started with green compound .

After few minutes it looked like this:

I decided to make an experiment and started polishing old steel ruler which I didn't prepare.
Before:

 After green compound:

Ok so i had to change mop to G quality  Loose mop and P164 blue compound.

Results:

 Ruler:

And last mop WDR quality loose mop and P175 yellow compound:

 It took me maybe an hour to make it and I think that results are brilliant. It still can be done better but as for the first time I am happy with it. Tomorrow I will try to do that on the other side and will try to make better base for that.

Also I have found that blue compound is perfect for handles. I've tried it on my Suisin Densyo handle (buckeye burl/water buffalo horn) and I was in shock when i saw results. I couldn't make a good picture but trust me it 's perfect.
The only thing I regret is that I could buy bigger 6'' (15cm) mops which could be perfect for the task.

That's it for today. Thanks for watching.

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog ''Wabocho''.
Here I will post some photos and description of my projects. You will see knives repairs, handles, sayas, polishing and more. I hope that you'll like it.