I have gator grip and I like it. Maybe you should detail your sanding process. I have to say if you are going back to 200 to remove scratches they were still there and not removed previously.
1. The last grind has..must.. without doubt be at a different angle. 90 45 30 does not matter , you will see the coarse scratches.
2. Remove all the coarse scratches, I worry about the palm sander I would try by hand and get something that works.
3. Use a litte water with a couple of drops of soap for lubricant, it really helps.
4. Use one spot on the paper 1-2 minutes at most, you should feel when its not cutting
5. start at the tip and work 1" back, when all the scratches are removed go to the next inch.
Seems simple but it can be frustrating.
For hand sanding, I've been experimenting off and on with the palm sander, but for the sake of this discussion I'll leave that out for now. It goes something like this:
-grind at 60x, 120x, 240x, and 400x (or 600x) on grinder
-begin hand sanding parallel to the blade (across the grinder scratch pattern) one grit step below where I stopped on the grinder. If it appears this is not going anywhere, then I start backing up grits until it seems I'm making some progress. when i back up grits, I continue sanding across the belt scratch pattern. I also use Windex as a lubricant, and I try to make myself change paper frequently but I probably try to stretch it too far in general. I use a piece of micarta as a backing stick, and I try to make long strokes from plunge to tip (trying to avoid fish hooks as much as possible along the way.) If I get a stubborn area, I sometimes switch to a different (smaller) backer, like a file, and will concentrate sanding in the trouble area.
-When all scratches are out from the previous grit, I move up a grit, change directions by 90 degrees, and repeat.
Interestingly, the last couple of blades have been the worst as far as stubborn scratches...the first blade I did from O-1 seemed easy in comparison to the 5160 I had used previously that at first I thought O-1 was 'pretty easy to sand'. They have also been exponentially more difficult post HT, as I've also been hand sanding up until now prior to HT and had much less difficulty beforehand compared to afterwards. This is why I ask if hardened O-1 is really tough to sand.
I also had great trouble with fish hooks on the last O-1 blade I finished. I spent at least a couple of hours just on the final uni-directional fish hook eradicating strokes (after sanding out scratches prior to the final grit) and still could not get them all out in the end.
When I first read about the palm sander, I thought I had found my sanding saviour, but I find it tends to hide some scratches, and I also find it difficult to know when to change grits because it leaves nothing but swirls, so it's not clear like it is when looking at scratches perpendicular to the direction you are sanding by hand.
Ok This may strike you guys as a bit unusual, but it works for me.
First, I work O-1 & L-6 damascus, so if you work higher alloy steels this info may not apply.
I rough in at 60 grit, and when I say rough in, its kind of a misnomer because I grind everything exactly the way I want it to look at 60 grit.
I grind my bevels full on most knives and my edges prior to HT are .010"-.020".
Then I heat treat.
Then I run through sucessive grits till I hit 400, then hand sand.
I have done hundreds of knives this way with no issues, including daggers.
Del
Thank you Del! So are you saying that you grind all the way to the spine at 60 grit, and then successive grinding at higher grits and/or hand sanding does not put you into the spine too far?
