Putting to a polish

Hey all! So last time I showed you all the rough beveled triangles.  The basic shapes have been cut, they have been gently curved to match the curvature of the shield and the edges ground to form the bevels:

As you can see, the shape is elegant, but look at all those pesky marks, scratches and discolorations!!! 

Today's post is going to talk about remedying that. Starting with 100 grit carbide sandpaper laid on a flat surface, I went to work. I began with the front surface being careful to work in one direction. You don't want to swirl the triangle over the paper but rather smooth strokes in one direction. After working the front I then held the triangle so the edge bevel was being polish. We now have this:

See how the scratch marks are all mostly going in one direction and the discoloration is gone?

Now I turned the surface so I was working perpendicular to the scratches with 220 grit. Same process. Then turned again working perpendicular to the scratches. At 600 grit we have:

Cleaning up nicely! By 2000 grit we have pretty much a mirror:

I will do 3000 next and then buff. By then it will have a glasslike mirror surface.

I spent about 10 minutes at each grit. The important part is to make sure each grit is scratching perpendicular to the previous.

Two more triangles to go!