Keeping grind lines sharp during hand sanding

[unky_gumbi]

Lorien, if I had a bike shop near, I would be hanging out at it The shop that got me started in mountain biking is 30 miles east of here, and the only other shop I have been to in this area is 30 miles west. this is a prime area to start a repair shop, I could be working on Hooligans all summer long

Ken, a disc sander is on my wish list, along with a few other tools. I was dry sanding at the time those pictures were taken, and I discovered this morning that the paper that I had my brother pick up for my is 600B not the 600P I normally use. I don't know if the letter on the end makes much of an actual difference but it does seem more course than my 400P paper I have

Stacy, the block I am using right now is .94" wide by 5" long, why? because that is as big as I could make it with what I had on hand. I would have liked to make it bigger but that will have to wait till I either find something kicking around or make it someplace that sells acceptable stock to use. One question about the wider block, I also have a recurve that I will be sanding next. When I ground it out I didn't get it just right with a 2" belt and had to clean it up with some draw filing to get the nice sweeping line. With a 2" wide sanding block will I be able to sand cleanly or will I need to use the narrower .94" one I made yesterday? I am pretty sure that the unsmooth grind on the recurve was just from my lack of experience on the grinder, but it doesn't hurt to ask

 

[Lorien]

this is a prime area to start a repair shop

well now, that sounds like a fine way to subsidize your knife making.

 

[unky_gumbi]

Apparently you don't see many hooligans from CT up your way Lorien, if you did you would know just how scary they can be.

Any how I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the pointers. I realize that I need to change my set up a bit more, but I can't do it right now. I will be adding higher grit belts and bigger sanding blocks to my tool list. If you want to see the results of your tips and my work there are pictures here in my WIP thread.

My photography skills don't really show how the grind lines are but the last picture shows a sharp line at the swedge bevel area, and if you follow it back you can sort of see the sharp line between the bevel and flat. It looks like that all the way on both sides.

Once again thanks for all the tips:thumbup: