Recommendation? Hand sanding aggressive G10??

G10 sands easily. It won't take much to get it where you want it. I've always done it by hand and usually only spend 5 or 10 minutes on it. Face mask is a good idea.

 

Don't get too wound up about the "danger" of sanding the high points off your G10 scales. It's nothing.

Don't use your palm sander. It's too quick and aggressive. Your 400 grit paper will be fine. Lay it on a flat surface, lay the offensive side of your scale on the paper, and rub it back and forth on the paper. It won't take long at all to knock off the bothersome high points. You can go to finer paper if you want, but it's all up to you.

 

I "sand" aggressive G10 by buffing it on an old pair of jeans. Take off the clip, do about 10-15 minutes per scale (not continuously, but steadily) depending on how rough it is, and then blow out the knife with canned air.

This approach is much milder than actual sanding and generates no G10 dust. It basically adds several weeks of pocket wear all at once, at which point the scales are quite nice to hold but still grippy.

 

The new recon 1s have much less aggressively textured G10. The last two I bought came with the new handles.

 

I just filled my bathroom sink with water and sanded it with 220 grit on a leveling beam underwater. Worked out quite well, I think.