Hand Finishing Small Blades

[John L]

How do you hold small blades(folders) for hand finishing? How do you hold a folder for hand sanding the finished bolster to scale transition? Verrrry difficult

 

[Rob!]

Duct tape handle can be helpful. Just fold a strip of tape like a T-bar post and it holds on pretty well.

The other possibility for small blades is a magnet. There are some cheap commercial ones that work well or you can do wonders with rare earth ones and your own jig design.

Rob!

 

[David Wesner]

For the Blades, you can make two at a time layed out lock face to lock face and split the two after the profiles and bevels have been ground. I've seen others use a vise grip to hold small blades or you could fashion a small fixture handle.

 

[delbert ealy]

This might work for you.
I have a 1/2" bar 1/4" thick that I drilled a hole in either end, one side has leather glued to is surface. I have a spot in my bench that matches the two holes. Tighten blade down with screws. It allows me to hold pretty much any blade I want for hand sanding, even little bitty ones.
Hope this helps,
Del

 

[Fred.Rowe]

Double sided tape, no shop should be without a role.:thumbup: The good stuff holds better than epoxy. The heat doesn't get to it as much either.
I finish a lot of surfaces with a 9 inch disc sander holding the pieces with double sided tape. A half inch wide strip will hold onto about anything.

Fred

 

[David Wesner]

Duh.... I guess I should sit down and read instead of on the run I thought you meant how do guys grind the bevels on really small blades. Sorry John. Yeah. What them guys said :thumbup:

 

[John R. Fraps]

I have one those wilton multiposition holder, have a panavice head/shaft bolted to it, have hard rubber/nylon jaws ...can really tighten down on any size blade without the concern of marking it...and put at the angle needed to hand stroke the blade. The thing you NEVER want to forget is there is a blade in a vise aimed at or toward you, so you do not move , not even answer the phone without loosening the holder and pointing the blade out of the way.
To do the tang, I "blue" masking tape the blade and put it in the vice tip first.
then stroke the tang.
On a flat ground blade, I use a piece of squared end aluminum with sandpaper over the end. On hollow ground, a piece of hard rubber glued to aliminum and rounded the same as the aarc of the grinding wheel that was used to hollow grind the blade with sandpaper folded over the round end.
David, skip the Duh....the information you provided was also helpful. I had seen the suggestion some time ago and with my memory, had forgotten....it is a good suggestion of a way to "get a grip" when grinding small blades.

 

[DC KNIVES]

This is a holder that I made for handsanding. I used some aluminum T-bar, covered with leather.I usually just mount this in my bench vise.Has been working for 15 years. Dave

 

[GibsonFan]

This is a holder that I made for handsanding. I used some aluminum T-bar, covered with leather.I usually just mount this in my bench vise.Has been working for 15 years.

That looks a lot nicer than the 2x4 and c-clamps I have