Finishing strokes.

panch0

panch0

Joined
Jun 16, 2008
Messages
3,415
I have been hand sanding a blade now for a week, at least 30 minutes a day. I was sanding from 400 to 600 grit, doing slow strokes in one direction. I was getting streaks and it was taking out the 400 scratches very slowly. Today, I started with the same stroking action, but I went about 5x faster in the motion. I be danged, I got all the scratches out finally. This was a longer blade and I guess thats why it took long. I thought that by doing slow deliberate strokes it would bite into the steel and finish faster. I dunno, I was just happy to finally get it finished. Now onto the handles. How fast do you stroke your blade?:foot::D

-frank
 
I use slow strokes on the final scratch coat, but before that pretty quick ones....man, that just sounds dirty.
 
Gotta use those quick strokes....well, if you want to finish faster, that is:eek::jerkit: But was it good for the knife? :D

I sand pretty quickly back and forth up to the initial 400 grit. After getting it established, I switch to full length pulls at a steady medium speed. I found that if I pulled too slow, I had a tendency to wander off of the straight line and get little bends in the scratch pattern. For finishing, I sit in line with the blade and use mostly my body to pull the paper towards me from ricasso to tip. Everyone's got to find their own rhythm.

--nathan
 
You might want to consider using a dab of water, spit, or windex. That may help. If nothing else, your paper will last a few strokes longer. All the other advice is spot on.
 
I was using wd40 and I also noticed that when I went slow the lines where all over the place.
 
TekSec said:
So basically you're saying different strokes for different folks? I'm really sorry, I can't help myself at times....
Click to expand...

I'm...I'm not sure I'm following you?? :confused::confused: Would you care to elaborate? ;)

My mind resides so far the gutter on most occasions that when I think it smells bad, but I just can come up with another one tonight. It's been a long day. :(

--nathan
 
Well, lets see the results of all that stroking panch0. I really liked the little butterscotch scaled knife you posted last time.
 
I go pretty fast...I "scrub" up to 400, then do single-direction from 600 up. I go as fast as I can without making mistakes. I agree that going too slow causes wavy lines. I also think people end up spending way too much time at 600 grit because they think they did 400 correctly. I find going from 200 to 400 grit to be by far the slowest step, then going from 400-1000 takes about he same amount of time as 200-400.
 
Here what I was strok'n all along, dirty minded @&@#&. I got these hairy palms from a nuclear waste accident.:D
Oh yea I made he sheath also. It is the first one that does not make me want to puke.

-frank

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Damn, Pancho! You're getting GOOD. Stay down south. I doesn't want no competition up heres ;). Great job!

--nathan
 
Another really nice one Frank(?). If you ever travel up to Houston, lets grab some food and talk knife making. A buddy of mine up here (Talfuchre on bladeforums) has been knocking out some killer sheaths, and has the knife bug bad too.
 
Hey man - Techna put me on to this sheath - I like it a lot. What type of leather is that? I like the rivet too.

Nice job on the tooling. Simple - but deep and even. Not easy to do!

TF
 
Talfuchre said:
Hey man - Techna put me on to this sheath - I like it a lot. What type of leather is that? I like the rivet too.

Nice job on the tooling. Simple - but deep and even. Not easy to do!

TF
Click to expand...

Its a little crooked towards the bottom where I started. The tooling I did was the sunrise or flower thingy, the wrinkley look is the original leather. I bought this leather in Matehuala San Luis Potosi, Mexico during a christmas trip to visit my wifes family. I got a whole side of leather for what eqauls to 25 dollars.

Thanks for the comments fellas.

-frank
 
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