Thank you Stacy,
This is a great write up. I'm copying and pasting this section for reference:
"When sanding, cut the paper into strips, or fold it, and use a six inch long block of hardwood as a backing block.I cut 8X2" strips and use a heavy rubber band to hold the ends on the block. Get a small plastic tub or something that will hold about a quart of water for when you do the wet sanding. You will dip the block and paper in the water. Sand in one direction strokes. Most sanding should start at the ricasso and progress toward the tip. The initial sanding can be perpendicular to the blade ( spine to edge) but the finer sanding should always be parallel to the blade ( ricasso to tip). When changing grits in the coarse to fine range ( 50 to 400 grit) change the angle of each grit so you can tell the old sanding lines from the new ones. Don't move to a finer grit until all the scratch lines from the last one are gone. It is very hard to get them out later. They have a nasty habit of showing up again as you get to the fine grits. If you see a deeper scratch.....stop....and go back at least one grit until the scratch is gone....then proceed back up the sanding steps. Skipping grit sizes is not going to speed things up. Progress from the coarse grit to 400-800 for the pre-HT sanding. In final finish, the finer the grit, the better the blade looks. The rule of thumb is to double the grit size ( more or less) each grit change. That would roughly be 100,200,400,800,1000,1500,2000,4000,8000. When doing the final sanding many people sand dry to 800, then wet sand to 8000. With the 3M polishing papers ( the colored pack) wet sanding is not as necessary, but works very well if you go that route. wet sanding will give you a brighter and shinier final finish. Save the 3M papers for final finishing after the HT. They are super for getting the handle sanded and polished. When wet sanding, clean off the blade, the block, and change the water in the tub at each grit change. BTW, putting a 1/2 teaspoon of dish soap in the quart of water makes it sand better."
Is there a video of this process I can take a look at?
I found this video but I'm sure there must be better ones out there. If so, please let me know.
Here is one I found that I believe demonstrates the process around the 2:30min mark.
[video=youtube;_5LXpgSzKyQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5LXpgSzKyQ[/video]
