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The Outpost This forum is dedicated to all who share a love for, and a desire to make good knives, and have fun doing it. We represent a diverse group of smiths and knifemakers who bring numerous methods to their craft. |
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#1
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A helpful finish sanding tip from school
We all hate paying high prices for sandpaper. Not long before school, I ordered 4 boxes of 50 sheets of finish sanding paper and 4 boxes of 1" X 50' of cloth backed sanding tape from Klingspor Abrasives. The bill was $127.00!! Of course, it's good, high quality stuff that I use in progressive grits to get a nice, smooth hand rubbed finish on my knives. The sheets are wet/dry so it lasts a long time when I use water. For a nice shiney finish, I use 2,000 grit dry and it just gets nicer and nicer the longer you rub. The sanding tape is used for the handle, gaurd and pommel using the shoe shine method all the way to a 1,000 grit finish. While I was at school in the handles and guards class I learned how to use the cheapest sandpaper (from Wal-Mart) and get good mileage out of it. Just lay your sheet face down on a clean workbench and tape a strip of duct tape to a long edge. While you're at it, just cover the entire back side of the sandpaper with strips of duct tape. Then just fold along the seams between the tape and tear it off a strip at a time. Use that for the shoe shine and sanding block method and see what happens. This works well with even the cheapest paper backed sandpaper. Things that make you say DUH! |
#2
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Sand paper seconds
Hi Max. One time I ordered a bunch of sand paper, sheets and rolls from Super Grit that was all seconds or ends of rolls,and it was very cheap. Im still using it. got a couple of whole boxes of 500 sheets of some Chinee wet/dry Black silicon carbide paper that was slightly rumpled for nest to nothing. Abrasive paper is expensive, so folks looking to get supplies on a budget might call Super Grit. |
#3
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Re: Sand paper seconds
Thanks Richard. Have you ever tried the duct tape secret? It's so simple, but very effective. I'm amazed that I didn't come up with the idea myself. I'm a scrounger at heart and hate to buy something I can make myself. I'm toying with an idea using duct tape as the adhesive and making my own sanding strips using sifted coal ashes and hardwood ashes. There's lots of things we can do to make life easier and get great results at the same time. I love stuff like this. There's lots more tips and tricks I learned at school. I'll post them as I remember them or heck, I might even go over my notes and list them all at once. Have to make some time to get all that knowledge out to you guys. Knowledge is wasted unless its shared. |
#4
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Re: Sand paper seconds
That hand sanding just murders my hands. I had remembered reading on Don Fogg's page that he uses polishing stones for his first few rubs. I rememberd that I had seen an old sharpening stone and even found it. I cut it up with an abrasive wheel and gave it a go. Really took the belt scraches but then I had to get those scraches off. Think I'm going to order the right stones and give it ago. He had mentioned an additive to put into the water. He told me he now uses Fantastic. What it does is keep the stone from loading up. I'll have to try it with wet and dry. I've used WD and like the way it works but it irrates my eyes. Ray |
#5
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Re: Sand paper seconds
I've used smooth river rocks, and natural sandstone with good results (as long as you're not looking for a mirror polish). |
#6
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Re: Sand paper seconds
Yup Max, sorta. I have used several layers of masking tape on the back of the paper. The 3/4 inch wide tape is about the right width for the strip. I have used chunks of cheap oil stones for working blades down by hand. Works fine, but of course slow compared to gringding. I layes the oil stones on something solid and hit them with a cold chisel and a heavy hammer. They will sort of break on a straight line. Yea, sanding is hard on the hands. I have a little leather covered block about 1.25 x 2 that I use A lot for sanding with wet/dry paper. |
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