handrubbing question

[youngrisser]

After about two hours of handrubbing a blade, I'm finding that they've become magnetized. Not just a little, I can pick up bottle caps with them. Is this happening to anyone else? Can it be prevented? What causes it?

 

[Dr.Lathe]

Unless this is a HUGE sword blade, you are spending WAY to much time hand rubbing!! Most of my knives in the 3"-5" blade length only take at the MOST a half hour to get a 400-600 finish on them. I finish the blade with an A16 Trizact belt, after removing ALL belt marks from previous grits. Once the Trizact belt does it's thing, I start with 320 wet/dry to change the finish direction from the belt and go from there.
Neil

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[Darrel Ralph]

Enco or Msc sells a demag unit for cheap. I agree with The Dr .. For a 3-4 in blade it should take 30 mins to 1.5 hours to do the whole knife depending on the steel . Finish with higher grits on the grinder before hand rubbing. Another tip is when you find a deep scratch go back to a coarser grit and get it out before moving up in the grits. Once you get those little bugers out the rest is easy .
Each grit should take 5-10 mins or so..
For 420v double the time hehehehe



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