Knife-Sharpening Kit + Metal Polish = Silky SouthOrds

[devildog]

Now, this is just meant to be an alternative to the Dremel or sandpaper, if you don't have either or you feel that this would be a better alternative (not sure why you would feel that way, but you never know). Anyway, I just thought I'd throw another polishing solution out there--the more options people have, the more likely they are to do it, the happier they'll be

I've had my SouthOrd 15 piece Slimline set for a few weeks now, and have already decided I'd like something a little better (leaning towards HPC or Navigator--seems to be a toss-up from the posts I read over which one is best), but I'll have to make do with the SouthOrds (and some Bogotas I'll be acquiring soon ) so I thought I'd make the best of it and do what I could with the SouthOrds to make them more comfortable and effective. I decided that, first and foremost, they really needed a good polishing; not only did they feel like they could definately have been smoother, but it felt like they were snagging on the tips of the pins a lot of the time as they were moved about inside the plug. I searched on here and found various solutions, most of which involved either a Dremel and grit solution or some 600 grit sandpaper, neither of which I had at the moment, so I improvised

I realized that I had a Lansky knife sharpener, and that the Fine grit stone in it would be excellent for this, as what it essentially does is remove burrs, smooth, and polish; the other two stones are used for taking material off, really (although the Fine grit one will do it too, albeit very slowly).

DO NOT do this with a cheap kitchen-knife sharpener that only has one grit to it (the kind where you run the knife through the 'V' a few times and it's good to go); it needs to be a FINE GRIT stone for this, so any type of Lansky, DMT, EdgePro, Japanese Waterstones, Arkansas Stone (fine grit) or Sharpmaker setup should work fine.

Here's the Lansky kit I used, along with the picks and some metal polisher (really helps to touch it up):



Use the rough or medium grit stones to remove material if you like (I feel like the hooks are a bit too long at the tip for most locks, especially the better quality ones that I'm moving on to now with more restrictive keyways, so I took some material off the tips), but for any polishing the fine grit stone must be used.

Also, there's a small, cylindrical, white stone in this kit that is very smooth and I used it to finish up and get into the curves and crevices where the regular stone couldn't go:



Lastly, something that I found to be a big help in really getting that all-around glass-like texture is the metal polish you can see placed below the Lansky kit in the first picture. In this case I have 'Maas' brand polish, which worked VERY well for me on these picks to really make them smooth.

I don't think that I ended up with the mirror polish that I imagine I'll see when I get my Bogotas from Raimundo, but they're a dam*ed sight better than when they came in the mail!

[Mad Mick]

Nice tip DD.

[cracksman]

I know you can buy those types of stones from MidwayUSA.com, I highly recommend them if you are interested in gunsmithing as well. All of this falls under general "blacksmithing" and many of the tools are interchangeable. We should start a Blacksmithing101

[Grudge]

Nice tip (and pics) devildog, thanks!

[Chrispy]

Good thread. Well done.

[Santos718]

Do you think it would be possible to cut them down to size and make homemade dremel attachments? Just a thought.

[pretender]

Very likely too brittle and difficult to cut.

Worse, it'd be hell trying to get a symmetrical circle or sommat out of 'em. Dremels run at too high an RPM to have it be lopsided.

Might be possible to rig up some custom sandpaper drums for the attachment, but I don't think there's much more one could do.

[devildog]

Perhaps the metal polish, or a solution containing it, could be used sort of like an extremely fine grit slurry?

[pretender]

I do similar with stuff like Brasso - apply directly to pick, use buffing wheel on dremel at low enough rpm that it doesn't blow the abrasive off.

Works good.

[Minion]

I have the very same kit, it's just missing the polish.

[Shrub]

Oil stones are a lot better than grit paper and especially dremels, been saying for years

[Minion]

My knives are so amazingly sharp because of that set. I can run it along my arm and shave off all of the hair where the knife was. It's awesome.

[Shrub]

My knives are so amazingly sharp because of that set. I can run it along my arm and shave off all of the hair where the knife was. It's awesome.

I bet you drink white spirit dont ya, "ive only only cut myself once govener, it was from 'ere to 'ere"

[Minion]

I must be too young to get the allusion (except for the fact that everybody uses it )

But yes, I've been cut, but not much. My worst wound: filet knife from back of thumb on right side all the way through. It glanced off the bone and curved around.
Really strange.

[Shrub]

I was only pullin yer leg,

Not many people sit there staring out the window running a knife up and down there arm

Not what you mean by thing glancing of the bone though,

When i was an apprentice the first and last time i pulled some stainless swarlf off a lathe it wrapped around my finger and without realiseing i pulled the stuck swarlf as hard as i could and yes youve guessed it, the end of the finger came off leaving the bone showing, it had just basically cleaned the bone of any skin.