What grit are spyderco blades finished to at the factory?

[ksunderman94]

I'm planning on hand sanding my pm2 in s90v to a mirror finish. I've heard its a hard steel to sand so I'm not trying to do more work than is absolutely necessary. With that being said, I'm hoping someone can tell me at what grit spyderco finishes their pm2 blades?

[sal]

Hi Ksunderman,

Welcome to our forum.

Are you planning to sand he edge or the blade?

sal

[ksunderman94]

The blade.

[JoviAl]

I'm planning on hand sanding my pm2 in s90v to a mirror finish. I've heard its a hard steel to sand so I'm not trying to do more work than is absolutely necessary. With that being said, I'm hoping someone can tell me at what grit spyderco finishes their pm2 blades?

I might be preaching to the choir here, but when I’m porting engines and want a mirror finish on my exhaust port I use a Foredom (you can use a Dremel or even bodge a regular drill into this role) with a purple scouring pad bit loaded with brasso, then a soft buffing bit. It gets you a mirror finish really quickly, but more importantly it allows you to carefully work on just the areas you want without any overlap. Another option is to put some painter’s tape along the edge (I find Frog Tape excellent), then trim off the excess before sanding.

I don’t know if that is helpful. Good luck on your project

[Bolster]

I've read that the grit/scratch pattern on Spyderco Mules is in the 180-220 range.

Anybody know if the grit/scratch pattern on PM2s are different?

[zhyla]

I’m not sure why the existing blade finish matters. Silicon carbide is at least twice as hard as that steel and will grind it down just fine.

Some inexpensive diamond plates (like $15 on Amazon) may help make the low grits go faster. I think I would start with 400 grit and go up from there until I run out of diamond grits and then finish with 2k, 3k, 4k, 5k paper.

For a blade that will actually see use this is all a terrible idea. You’ll see every scuff on that mirror.

[Giygas]

Have you ever done a hand satin finish before?

If not, S90V is just about the worst possible steel to start with.