Finshing the "business end" of your picks is about temper (if needed) and quality of the finish on the metal (just look at Raimundo's to see real quality).
There are three basic rules, before we get to the fun stuff...
1. You cannot make a quality finish if the quality isn't there in the metal at first. Use cheap and nasty metal and while you can certainly improve it, you will never get a top-flight finish.
2. "Think twice, cut once" is the old saying and it's true. You can always remove more metal, but putting it back is never going to be easy.
3. Finishing is about stages, rush onto a finer grade of abrasive before you have got all the bigger marks out and you will spend much longer trying to get a good finish.
Onto the other stuff now...
Get a good set of files, I use diamond-coated ones, they only cost a little more and they are well worth it, especially if you are going to try and file a hard steel - Remember if you have hardened/tempered your steel, you could find it is harder than your files, and your picks will actually file down your files! If you need to work on them after you have heat-treated them, you might want to take the temper out of them again, file them and then temper/harden them again.
Some steels don't need heat treating, diamond files and whetstones will definately prove themselves here.
Start by getting off the worst marks with wet-and-dry paper, rarther than sandpaper if you can.
You might have to start with something like a 120 grit paper, but sand lightly, you can remove the material very quickly on fine picks with the coarser grades.
I like to move through the grades then, to the very fine 600 grit. You might have problems getting this, but if you do, then model shops will often have 600 grit silicon carbide.
If you have trouble getting very fine grits, or want to get even finer finishes, you can use wire wool. Decorator's shops will often stock it for removing paint from delicate wood carvings and moldings. Engineering suppliers will generally stock all the items you'd want and typically at the best prices I've found.
Using wire wool is an art. It comes with the filaments all roughly aligned and you should try to keep it this way. Use leather gloves (like "Rigger's Gloves" if you are not used to it, metal filings and metal splinters are not fun when they are stuck in you, especially when you are using the very finest grades like "0000"). They will penetrate your skin remarkably easily. Wrap the wool around itself to keep the filaments all going roughly in the same direction and use this pad so the filaments are at 90 degrees to your work. The idea is that the sharp sides of the filaments all act like thousands of mini-scrapers and remove the high spots on your work.
If you are trying to finish some complicated shape on your handles for example, you might find it easier to use one of the foam-rubber pads you can buy in decorator's shops and car parts stores that are covered in grit. Again can be used wet and dry, but sadly they don't come in so fine a grits as the papers.
You might want to buy a roll of linishing. you can cut some off and wrap it round your fingers to deal with difficult shapes.
Why use water when you are doing all this? Well, for one thing it helps cut down the dust, for another it actually works as a lubricant and it also allows you to get an even finer finish than you can dry.
There is another trick for an even finer finish still - Don't use just water, use soap as well, better still, use ordinary washing-up liquid instead of water.
The next stage for smother finishes is usually described as "Jeweller's Rouge" in the books, but I've yet to see any actually in stock anywere... Personally I move onto the metal polish. This contains a very fine abrasive like Jeweller's Rouge and can be easily found.
There is even more you can do for an incredibly smooth finsh that will feel much better for picking if you have a delicate touch. Silver naturally has a very low co-efficient of friction and will glide through locks. Silver plating is very easy to do. You just "polish" (actually it doesn't seem to contain any abrasive) or dip with something like the silver plating solution from here:
UK:
http://www.tableauproducts.com/sections/METAL_CARE/1
US:
http://www.shorinternational.com/PlateHobby.htm
You can very easily make your own anyway:
http://www.saltlakemetals.com/SilverChl ... ating1.htm
I find a 5-second dip is quite enough and just wipe off with a soft cloth after. The finish is very thin, and remarkably hard-wearing.
You CAN go one step further if you wish, and gold-plate the working ends of your picks - Note that I wouldn't silver plate or gold plate the handles, as you need a certain ammount of tactile feedback as you work the pick and having too smooth a handle will stop that and lead to it slipping in your hands.
For gold plating solution, you could try something like:
UK:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/500ml-24k-HARDENE ... 1137r36256
(
http://tinyurl.com/578ykl)
US:
http://www.shorinternational.com/PlateHobby.htm
Note that you should NOT plate gold directly onto your picks, it will give a very disappointing finish. You will need to plate it with silver first and then gold plate. Again the solution will last a very long time.
I should say that some stainless steels will not plate very easily, if at all - I've experimented and found no problems myself, but it cannot be guaranteed, so you should try on a scap of the spare metal if you can first.
Thanks for the excellent tutorial, and cool ideas engineer.
