Polished some G-10 scales and...

[Savman]

It worked great! Thanks for the info, George! I used 220, 320, 400, and 600 paper, followed by the dremel with polishing compound on the felt bob. I'm very pleased with my first attempt! The G-10 handle scale edges are very nice and smooth now. One thing though, I think I'll start with the 320 paper next time, as I removed a little too much material on the edges and my liner is protruding a bit now. Hehehe. Oh well, the knife still looks good and it feels even better! I think I'm going to do my Spyderco Military model next, as it has a subdued internal liner that doesn't extend all the way to the edges of the G-10 scales. That way, I can polish like crazy!! Oh yea, I think PJ mentioned the mask. I did wear a respirator, as the fumes were pretty bad. In fact, I turned on my shop vac, and sanded the scales right in front of the hose. Most of the dust went into the bag, I hope! This is fun, I'll be doing more of this...

Thanks again!
Chad

 

[george tichbourne]

Chad

None of us can take too much care with safety especially respiratory protection. It is a rule of thumb in industry that
ALL dusts are treated as hazardous because even the most innocuous materials can harm you, things like sawdust, and flour.

If you cannot dilute the dust by blowing it away or sucking it away then you must wear some sort of respiratory protection.

The other related problem is dermatitis( I think I spelled that one right). Some of the materials that we use can cause severe skin rashes either because the particles are very sharp or they act as sensitizing agents not unlike poison ivy. Cyanoacrylate glues affect a small portion of the population this way as do some tropical woods.

I am considering building a special sanding bench where I can hand sand handle materials. This table area will feature a perforated metal top placed on a 4" deep box about 2 ft by 3 ft and the shop vac will connect up to the bottom of the box to draw the dust down and away from me when I am hand sanding at home. When I work in the polishing shop I use the dilution principle and simply blow the dust away but this is not practical at home.

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george

 

[Savman]

George,
There is no doubt that a respitory hazard exists with most of the handle materials out there! What's scary is that some of the actual inhalants are too small to be seen, in some cases. I think the sanding bench idea you have sounds really good, you should go for it. I have a friend that works with small model cars, he has similar custom-built tools in his shop. The skin irratation hazard I think would be more prevalent when working with fine particulate metals, as the particals can penetrate the skin very easily. That's happened to me after grinding some metal with my Dremel. I haven't used any glues or tropical woods yet, but I might in the future.

Thanks,
Chad