how to make sandpaper last longer...

[Jared Stenoien]

any ideas? i've been polishing a knife made out of S90v and even tried using WD-40 cooltool and water to make it last longer but the sandpaper literally cuts for two or three passes then stops biting in at all and i have to switch to another piece, any way to alleviate this? i'm using silicon carbide wet and dry abrasives

 

[clw3]

I have noticed that the cheap sandpaper I bought at Harbor Freight is like that. I tend to do better with the 3M stuff. It's a little more $$ but lasts longer for me. I use water with a little dish soap to help lift the steel dust out of the paper.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Switch to a different type of paper. For tough steels ,like S90V, you will need the toughest paper you can get. Call Klingspore for advise.
1-800-645-5555, Ask for John Williams. He is the knife making abrasives rep.
Stacy

 

[KnifeHead]

I've heard that keeping abrasives in a climate controled, dry environment before you use them will extend their usefullness. The petroleum based(not paraphin) lamp oil makes a nice lubricant for wet or dry papers. Belt grease is made for the belt abrasives to extend their life.

Not using them will make them last longer too

 

[Don Hanson III]

Switch to a different steel

 

[deker]

Something I haven't tried yet, but would like to is using EDM stones for hand finishing rather than paper. There's a thread here at Don Fogg's forum that talks about it. Seems like a good alternative for flat sanding.

-d

 

[Don Hanson III]

The EDM stones work good and are very aggressive up to 320 but I switch to Klingspore paper for finer grits and use water as a lube.

 

[Ron Hanz]

I was at Johnny Stout's hammer-in one time and Harvey Dean was sanding one of his bowies. I believe he was using kerosene with a little oil in it in a spray bottle for his lubricant.

 

[Raymond Richard]

Something I haven't tried yet, but would like to is using EDM stones for hand finishing rather than paper. There's a thread here at Don Fogg's forum that talks about it. Seems like a good alternative for flat sanding.

-d

Pretty sure Don went back to just wet/dry. I tried the stones for about a year. The thing I didn't like about them is even with the finer grits is they would leave really deep scratches.

 

[deker]

Pretty sure Don went back to just wet/dry. I tried the stones for about a year. The thing I didn't like about them is even with the finer grits is they would leave really deep scratches.

That's not good news....I was all geared up to order some and try them out Are they still useful in the lower (< 400) grit for flattening out waves and such or would you just recommend lots wet/dry paper?

Thanks,

-d

 

[B Finnigan]

I use the stones alot but you always have to finish up with at least one grit of sandpaper. If you go to 320 or 400 grit stones the lines are not too deep and sand out pretty fast.

Having sandpaper wear out in seconds is what motivated me to come up with the stone file system. I go through much less paper now then before using the stones.

This was my origianl design but it was not comfortable to hold onto for very long.

 

[Jared Stenoien]

i think i'll be calling klingspor soon, but i'm kinda frustrated right now because i got one side down to 600 grit and buffed with black compound and somehow a GIANT scratch going from top to bottom popped out when i buffed, i'm not really sure how it happpened

 

[warrior24]

I just use simple green and spray it on the blade and sandpaper