Newbie Polishing Problems

I'm working on my 2nd knife using a pre-ground blade. On my 1st knife, I hand polished to 600 grit and then buffed it to a mirror finish. This second blade has me baffled. On the 1st one by the time I got to 400 grit, my ugly mug was staring back at me when looking at the blade. This 2nd one is quite different. I'm finished with 600 grit and all I've got is nice smooth 600 grit scratches. No mirror shine. The blades are from the same manufacturer and of the same stainless.

Does this indicate the blade was not hardened to the same hardness as the 1st? This blade was not stamped "Japan", so I'm wondering if it might have missed a step or two when ground. What else could be the cause?

Thanks
Mike

Different metals and heat treats behave differently when you try to polish them. A new maker brought a blade made from O1 to me one day with a rough orange peel surface that he could not get out, no matter what I tried I could not get it out either, we put it down to heat treat because O1 usually polishes very well.

Other materials like Talonite are simply too grainy to get a good mirror polish but it is that grainy texture that makes Talonite work.

Hard to nail down production problems on pre-made blades. Like George said could be heat treat or it could be a material variance. You might try going on to an 800 grit finish and see what it looks like.

Good Luck!