Hand sanding. -Happy Thanksgiving.

[mpj13]

Hello everyone,

Sorry to ask a similar question to one I asked before. I started to hand sand my knife and it looked fine to start with. I started out with 60 grit paper and sanded until it looked even then I sanded different grits upto about 1000 grit paper, once I got to 1000 grit I saw several scratches handle to point, not the whole length but about 3/4"- 1" long. A few things I can think of that may be causing this is when I started with the 60 grit I kind of pushed pretty hard on it trying to sand it down, maybe this caused some scracthes to show up later. Or that I am starting out at a lower grit than I should. What is the best starting grit? Also I am sanding handle to point. I think this is right.

I did use a dremel very lightly to buff out a few thing before I started hand sanding Could this have caused it? Thanks for any info you all would be willing to share.

 

[L6steel]

When you're sanding the blade, do you change the angle with each grit change? It really helps you see the scratches from the previous grits.

 

[Chang]

Hand sanding is much easier if you sand out all the really deep grinder marks before heat treating. Go up to 220 before heat treat, and it'll make it so much easier. If you have a belt sander, you can skip from the 50-60 grit belts for grinding bevels to the 220-grit belt to get all of the big grinder scratches out, then finish up with a 220-grit hand sand, then heat treat, then start from 220 again. I'm a newbie, but this is what I've found to work for me. As Mike said, if you alternate between your angles when you change grits, the deeper scratches will be easily visible so you know you can't move on yet.

 

[mpj13]

I'll try sanding in different directions and see it it helps out. Thanks for the info.