Blade finishing is removing my scandi grind - need help please

[belfastrab]

Hi All

Really new to knife making and was wondering if someone could please help me.

I can finally get a fairly nice and even scandi on both sides of my blade and can heat treat and temper with no problems but then when it comes to going up through the grits to finish the blade it ends up removing most of my scandi grind. Sorry probably coming across as being really stupid but don't really understand what I am doing wrong. I assume I am sanding / grinding too much in my finishing grits but in my mind I am just giving the blade very quick and light passes on each grit belt but no matter what I do it always makes the scandi pretty much vanish. On the plus side my latest knife which started out as a scandi turned into a convex grind entirely by accident which I was pleased with but still unsure of why.

Not sure if it matters but using 1" belts from 60 grit right up to 1200 grit without missing a grit in between.

Starting to pull my hair out with this so any advice would be great as Youtube videos as we all know can only take learning so far.

Many Thanks

Rab

 

[P.Brewster]

Grind line control is a (or the) core skill of knifemaking.

When my grind lines are inadvertently walking down toward the spine, I compensate by tilting the knife inwards slightly and/or making sure my thumbs are pressing closer to the edge. Where you apply pressure is where your grind will go. My advice here is in the context of freehand grinding but the concept is the same regardless of your method.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Use a hard backing block behind the sandpaper. Take as many strokes on the flat above the scandi as below. This will keep the grind line crisp and in place.

 

[Rick Marchand]

Use a hard backing block behind the sandpaper. Take as many strokes on the flat above the scandi as below. This will keep the grind line crisp and in place.

This...

I use a copper faced sanding block. Make sure that the paper is tight against the backing. You may also want to cut the paper so it is almost the same width as what you are sanding(for parallel strokes, of course)