Belt grits and G10 finishing

[kadinh]

Hi everyone.

I'm just about to start my 2nd knife (1st one I'm going to sell) and I would like to know what different types/grits of belts y'all use to cut and finish off the handle. I was thinking about getting 80, 120, 200, 600, 800, and 1000 to finish. Does that sound good, or is 1000 to low to finish it off?

I'm using G10 and a corian spacer with the regular vulcanized liner material. Another question: ive heard that to make the G10 look shiny after you finish it, you wash the handle with soap and water, dry it off, spray some WD-40 on it, then wash the handle again with soap and water. Is this correct? Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[james terrio]

G10 is a bear to cut but sands easily. Don't let it get hot, it scorches real ugly! I go from 50 (whatever's on sale) to 160 Gator on the grinder and start hand-sanding.

Once you get G10 to a clean 160 or 200grit, it's pretty easy to finish up by hand. I wouldn't bother with belts higher than 600 grit, max. They wear out very quickly; you'll get more mileage out of a couple packs of automotive wet/dry sandpaper (say 400, 800 and 1000 grit) and a few sheets of Norton Black Ice for the really high grits (1,000 - 2,000) if that's what you want.

 

[kadinh]

Thanks! That's exactly the type of advice I'm looking for. What else we got?