Question about sanding scales

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Flygrain

Joined
Nov 16, 2013
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I posted this in the general knife making forum, but thought I'd post it here too...

Hey guys. I am really new to knives and I have successfully made one real beauty... well, I put scales on a blank. Heres that knife...



I have started my second knife and this time, it has brass appointments. I am using some of the exact same buckeye burl as the knife above. As I am sanding things down I seem to be pulling brass dust into the wood scales and I think its discoloring the buckeye burl. Is there any way to get that out? It became most apparent as I got into the very fine grits. It seems to be turning the wood a dull gray. I tried wiping it with a damp towel to see if the natural color came back, but it's still quite gray.

Any help would be appreciated!

Jay
 
Is it raw or stabilized? Are you using SiC (black wet/dry) or brown (dry only) paper and what grits? If its raw how humid is your work environment?
Till you get it figured out I would stop all work, continuing to sand isnt the answer and its just going to make it worse, the problem is with the higher grits the metal flakes are actually more abrasive then the paper your using, so the damage will get worse and the metal flakes get imbedded more and more...

I'll try to help, I've subscribed to this thread to watch for your answer.
 
The wood is stabilized and i am using wet/dry sand paper. I'm sanding up to 1500g. No concern about moisture content as the wood and work environment is extremely dry. I tried something that worked like a charm. I wrapped the scales with white masking tape and grripped it hard for a few minutes. When I removed the tape most of the color of the wood returned and there was gray dust on the tape. So was the gray stuff actually sand deposit from the paper??
 
That was a good idea!
As you mentioned the grey could also have been from the paper particals its self, may want to give the dry only paper a try.

Also since its stabilized wood dont be scared to frequently wipe it down with odorless mineral spirits while your working and (especially if you use non wet/dry paper) change paper often.

Is the wood stuff you found and had stabilized (or even did it yourself) or did you buy it? If you had it done could you recommend a place, I'm looking to have some really nice wood I found stabilized.
 
As closing to the end be extra careful with not smudging metal grit on the wood. You may consider adjusting the direction of sanding so that you do not do across the border or/and masking tape. Do not use water clean the wood: I do not think that's a good idea. Try some mineral oils, like oil for butcher's block, Danish oil Teak oil - something along these lines. Be aware that these oils will stay in wood and make further sanding more difficult: so only do the cleaning when you have finished with sanding.
I guess there might be other ways around it: "stabilizing the wood before final finish. I recall there was some kind liquid rotten wood stabilizer that I saw at Rona: I would probably try it if the wood was too porous: leaving the handle in it for a day and then letting it dry and finishing it after that...
 
cereal. Good idea with the mineral spirits. It wont effect the brass adversly? I stabilize my own smalls in a large glass jar and vacuum compressor.

Poez. I actually didnt just think of the masking tape idea. But, like you suggested, I masked off the scales to continue buffing the brass finger guard. It was when I removed the masking tape did I notice it was taking off the gray. So I retaped it and gripped it twice more and it cleaned it up pretty nicely.

Once I get it finished up i'll post a picture. :)
 
Mineral spirits can be used to clean tarnish off brass so since you're using new (and/or freshly sanded) brass then no, the spirits won't adversely effect it.
 
I polished out the scales and here it is. I think that gray color is gone, but this wood has a lot of natural gray so hard to tell. Definitely a more subtle part of this burl than my previous project.


 
This may not be the right forum to ask this but here goes..... How do i shape the handle with sanding or using a file without scratching the tang? I can get it close before I glue it to the tang, however it still needs some additional sanding once its secured. Thanks.
 
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