Hand sanding taking forever!

[Josh Rider]

I'm new to knifemaking so it's not my intention to offend anyone with this post so if I do, my apologies.
Hand sanding is a major pita! I don't know how knifemakers can pump out lots of blades a month and hand sand their blades.
With that being said, I watch videos by Nick Wheeler and Aaron Gough which are extremely helpful and informative and have amazing attention to detail.
But to be totally honest about the time I start my 220 grit post heat treat sand I start telling myself..."I'm not selling my knives for $300+, do I really need to be doing such an amazing finish?"
I end up doing a satin finish as best as I can anyway, but then I look at other videos on Youtube with prominent knife makers pumping out 50+ blades a month and I'm thinking, there's no way
they can do that kind of volume and hand sand to a nice finish.
So I guess my question is, how many custom knifemakers out there are putting that much time into each individual blade.
Maybe I'm just slow. I've tried different sandpapers and have found that I get much faster results by "using sandpaper as if it were free" and getting good 3m sandpaper (for me it seems to cut faster that gator stuff).
I use wd-40 and simple green and I've made a sanding block which has helped too but even with that, it takes me hours.

Any feedback is appreciated.

 

[12345678910]

I look at other videos on Youtube with prominent knife makers pumping out 50+ blades a month and I'm thinking, there's no way
they can do that kind of volume and hand sand to a nice finish.

Who ?

 

[NickWheeler]

First off, I don't think anybody is doing 50 top shelf, hand-sanded blades a month. Maybe 50-100 a year...

Second, it takes time to get this stuff down. The better you get at finish grinding, the easier your hand sanding will be. The more experience you have hand sanding, the faster you'll be able to do it.

I can do a hand sanded finish on a bowie in less time now, than it used to take me to do on a hunter.

And... Let pride in your work be the deciding factor in how amazing your finish is, or isn't... not dollars.

 

[mgray34]

I've watched Nick's videos and found them to be extremely helpful. I personally have found that on some blades, 220 is too fine of a grit to start with. I remember one blade in particular, I think I used a pack of 220 grit sandpaper and could still see scratches from the grinder. On the next blade, I think I started with 150 and worked up to 180, 220, then 320. After the deep grinder marks were out, things seemed to progress a lot faster, and I got a much better finish.

 

[Josh Rider]

Thanks for the replies, I'm sure I'm mistaken then on the amount of blades one of the guys I'm following is putting out. Nick, thanks for your videos they are extremely helpful and your knives are second to none I'm just trying to get more efficient and faster and it seems like I'm slooooooow. I am proud of the ones I've done, I guess I just had unreal expectations.

 

[jobasha11]

The most important thing for me is to get as good (flat and prior grit scratches out) of a finish as you can of the grinder.

 

[Josh Rider]

That's definitely one of the things I've learned jobasha11, the better finish off the grinder the easier it is to sand. I guess if it were easy, everyone would be doing it!

 

[VaughnT]

A vibrating palm sander with the soft rubber pad replace with some 1/8" micarta really speeds up the hand sanding. Coat the micarta with a hair-thin layer of gasket-making rubber/cork and use cheap spray-adhesive to fix the sandpaper in place. It makes a huge difference in sanding time and the quality of the finish.

 

[Marko3]

First off, I don't think anybody is doing 50 top shelf, hand-sanded blades a month. Maybe 50-100 a year...

Second, it takes time to get this stuff down. The better you get at finish grinding, the easier your hand sanding will be. The more experience you have hand sanding, the faster you'll be able to do it.

I can do a hand sanded finish on a bowie in less time now, than it used to take me to do on a hunter.

And... Let pride in your work be the deciding factor in how amazing your finish is, or isn't... not dollars.

Really like this last part.. Pride ! Although mistakes can happen and sometimes I don't even know I made a bad decision until I really critique myself.. pride along with patience is some admirable quality's to have. Everything gets faster when you keep at it. Nothing at least in my opinion beats a hand rubbed blade.