Finishing strokes.

Frank it looks like all the blood, sweat and tears was worth it. Nice finish.

That tip looks thirsty for sheath leather. I had a customer cut right through one of mine just like that. I finally had to make one with a kydex liner.
 
Frank, hand sanding is continuing to cause me grief and it's taking me forever to get through the first few grits of every knife. I'm sorry things are slow for you as well, but I'm also glad to hear I'm not the only one who takes forever.

Anyway, that knife looks fantastic and you are making great advances with each one you post. The finish looks great, the sheath looks great (almost like elephant or something), and the design and flow of the overall knife with the upswept tip looks great.

Congrats on a fine knife!
 
Just remember that when you're sanding out scratches, you're not sanding scratches.
You're sanding everthing that is NOT a scratch.
 
Karl B. Andersen said:
Just remember that when you're sanding out scratches, you're not sanding scratches.
You're sanding everthing that is NOT a scratch.
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+1 nothing worse than a single 60 grit scratch on a 12" long blade....gotta take that whole sucker down to the scratch. Scrubbin' on that spot will remove the scratch but create a dip in the finish if you dont remove the entire blade surface.
 
David and Karl that makes sense to me thanks for the tip. I really need to find a way to speed things up a bit and get the same results, if there is any. Maybe designing knives that look good with a machine finish would be a way to make'em faster. I like the hand finish to much though. So I will just keep on stroking.

Paul, thanks for the compliments bud.

-frank
 
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I forgot to ask...what steel is this with? Some steels are a bitch to get a fine finish on while others are easier....

If no one else mentioned their method of hand sanding, heres mine:
-Clamp blade to a rubber-wrapped piece of steel that is clamped to my bench.
-Wrap sandpaper around a 24" long by 2" wide piece of steel that has a 1/8" radius on one side (for slipping into the plunge lines)

I put handles on my sanding stick so that I get good leverage.

In the lower grits, you can really lean into it and scrub. I take mine to 400 on the grinder, but often start back at 120 with the paper since grinder finishes hide so much.
 
It is ATS34, I don't think I had this rough of a time with 01 and I hope A2 isn't as bad either.
 
Fully annealed at the time of hand polishing? Oh oh here comes the newbie in me, isn't the steel annealed prior to HT. :eek:
 
Sometimes. But if you got just some rolled stock, sometimes it isn't full soft. I usually do ATS-34 / CPM-154 to almost full finish before HT since it's plate / air quench.
 
Teksec thats what I am going to try next time. I went to 220 before the HT. The 400 - 600 grit was what took forever, well at least it seemed that way. Thanks for the tip.
 
Weirdly, I have often thought that sanding hardened steel was easier for some reason....at least putting a nice finish. Sometimes I felt like softened steel just didnt "cut" cleanly when sanded, much the same way that hardened steel etches faster and better than unhardened.

...I pretty much only work with simple steels though, so while this may be true for 1095, 1084, im sure its vastly different for stainless
 
Can anyone comment on how difficult O-1 is to sand relative to other steels? I'm working on my third O-1 blade (previously only worked with 5160), and they seem to go relatively smoothly before HT, but to be a nightmare after HT. I'm just wondering if it's me (likely) or the steel, or both.

Also, I'm only edge quenching but I seem to even have problems in unquenched areas that should be soft post-HT.
 
P J 234 said:
Can anyone comment on how difficult O-1 is to sand relative to other steels? I'm working on my third O-1 blade (previously only worked with 5160), and they seem to go relatively smoothly before HT, but to be a nightmare after HT. I'm just wondering if it's me (likely) or the steel, or both.

Also, I'm only edge quenching but I seem to even have problems in unquenched areas that should be soft post-HT.
Click to expand...

O1 can be a pain.....

It also really likes to harden. Even if you edge quenched, that spine is still probably much harder than before the quench.

What kind of sandpaper? I swear by that norton 3X cut stuff (yellow).
 
David Schott said:
O1 can be a pain.....

It also really likes to harden. Even if you edge quenched, that spine is still probably much harder than before the quench.

What kind of sandpaper? I swear by that norton 3X cut stuff (yellow).
Click to expand...

Interesting, thanks, I wouldn't have thought it would harden where it wasn't quenched. The paper is wet/dry SiC GatorGrit from ACE Hardware. Probably not the best, although I think it's decent quality. I need to order some better stuff from one of the knife suppliers.
 
I went to a Hammerin at Ron Claiborns' house a few yrs ago. A smith put on a display on how to hand finish a 12" Bowie blade in 30 minutes. Everone doubted him....that is..until it was finished in under 30 minutes. He had built a jig that held a 1/4 sheet sander, replaced the soft sponge rubber with a harder pc and mounted the whole thing upside down in two piece plywood clamp affair. The edges of the new rubber platten were square or very slightly beveled so that he could ease up to his plunge cut. He started at 220 and worked each side for about 3-4 minutes, then moved on to finer grit. I think he stopped at 1000. He then turned off electric to sander, backed down grit to 4-500 and pulled blade over the rubber platten, remembering not to go back and forth but drawing backwards only to alleviate j hooks. It was quite incredible, it worked like a charm and no one could tell the difference. Try it..you'll like it.
 
John L said:
I went to a Hammerin at Ron Claiborns' house a few yrs ago. A smith put on a display on how to hand finish a 12" Bowie blade in 30 minutes. Everone doubted him....that is..until it was finished in under 30 minutes. He had built a jig that held a 1/4 sheet sander, replaced the soft sponge rubber with a harder pc and mounted the whole thing upside down in two piece plywood clamp affair. The edges of the new rubber platten were square or very slightly beveled so that he could ease up to his plunge cut. He started at 220 and worked each side for about 3-4 minutes, then moved on to finer grit. I think he stopped at 1000. He then turned off electric to sander, backed down grit to 4-500 and pulled blade over the rubber platten, remembering not to go back and forth but drawing backwards only to alleviate j hooks. It was quite incredible, it worked like a charm and no one could tell the difference. Try it..you'll like it.
Click to expand...

Is there a tutorial or some pics available? This sounds very interesting.
 
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