Crappy wood finish again

Patrice Lemée

Patrice Lemée

Joined
Aug 13, 2002
Messages
5,703
When I sand the wood at the same time at the steel or brass pins I get steel dust that gets into the wood pores especially with finer grits. This is frustrating. :(
Would stabilized wood be better? I put a piece of the wood by itself to show a little the "real" tint of the wood.

Pat
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1110.jpg
    IMG_1110.jpg
    62.9 KB · Views: 218
Have you tried blasting the wood with some air from your compressor before finishing it?
 
Padrig said:
When I sand the wood at the same time at the steel or brass pins I get steel dust that gets into the wood pores especially with finer grits. This is frustrating. :(
Would stabilized wood be better? I put a piece of the wood by itself to show a little the "real" tint of the wood.

Pat
Click to expand...

You need to limit yourse3lf to woods like ebony, ironwood, cocobolo, woods that do not need to be stabilized or to stabilized woods.
 
Good idea but sadly the wood was free of steel dust before beginning so it would do no good.

Thanks AG, I am glad to know that the problem is not me as much a s wood choice. This is cherry wood by the way.

Pat
 
I understand your frustration, I wonder if the problem is not with the sanding but with the drilling. Its hard to tell but you may have chipping around your pin holes that is collecting the sanding dust. With brass pins you really should not be getting dark circles. I do see the dark spots in the wood as well. Are you using dark wet/dry paper. That may be the grit. Using a wood paper which is light in color will help.

You should be able to sand around the pins to clean up the surface without introduceing more contaminates
 
You could try using a HF 250 pound magnet or something like that to help pull the filings out
 
Cherry is a tight grained wood. I'm not understanding how this is happening to a tight grained wood.
 
I can sometimes get staining like that out with a little denatured alcohol on a q-tip.

MPphoto does a lot of work with cherry. I've seen him have similar markings around pins. He calls it Bruising. Maybe he'll pop in with some words of wisdom.

Walter
 
Are you talking about the darkness directly around the pin?
 
try keeping a coat of shellac on the wood while you're sanding.
It'll help keep the steel dust from getting imbedded. If this doesn't work give it a shot with a penetrating oil finish, like waterlox or tru-oil just to act as a sealer while you're sanding away the excess metal.

Bill
 
If you're talking about the dark rings around the pins that's from being worked too hard with dull belts or at too high a speed..... a file will fix that in the future if you can slow the belt down. Some woods are more susceptable than others.
 
Sorry for being late to reply.

The dark around the pins is my fault. I need to glue my slabs thicker and then take them down to shape. Since I was working on handle geometry I played too much with the pins and enlarge the holes openings a little and was too close to shape to be able to sand them down. Don't know if this makes sense. I will try to slow the grinder down too thanks for the tip.

My paper IS dark. Stupid me, didn't know that hey made lighter shade.I did use wet/dry paper. :( I still have so much to learn.

Raymond, I would love to try hidden tangs like yours but when I tried, I got such crappy results with the fitting of the gard to blade that I gave up and decided to try simpler things first. Maybe a mill would help. Sad too cause I love hidden tang knives. Yours are just amazing of course.

Bruce, such wisdom! ;)

Thanks to all, I'll try all your tips.

Pat
 
I use 3M Tri-M-Ite dry sand paper sheets on my handles. They have white grit on them and quite aggressive...
 
I experienced something like that once. When using a belt sander the pins get extremely hot and the hot pins burn the wood around the holes. The heat will turn G10 white around the holes if the pins heat up too much. And too much happens very fast. Try not to sand or grind the pins too fast. Those little pins heat up quickly. They heat up fast enough and hot enough they can burn your finger if you touch them before you even realize you've been burned.
 
Try a product called UN-Goo wipe a little on and wipe off before it dries. Also works good for removing tape .
TJ
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top