Removing a beadblasted finish?

[Barry H]

I recently acquired a folder with a D2 blade that has a bead blast finish. It's fairly agressively blasted. I am wondering how much sanding I would have to do to turn the finish into a satin finish.
Any tips or pointers I might consider before undertaking this task?
Thanks in advance!
Barry H

 

[Peter Atwood]

Wrap a piece of 320 grit sandpaper around a short small block of steel that is nice and flat. You can get a scrap of mild steel from a welding shop for this. The block will keep the pressure of the abrasive nice and even. Initially you can go back and forth to remove the beadblast texture but once you've accomplished that you'll want to start sanding in one direction only. Some people go finer than 320 for the final sanding and use a bit of WD40.

You can also try sticking sandpaper to a flat surface such as a sheet of plate glass or granite slab. Use a wad of backwards wrapped masking tape to hold the blade down and sand in one direction, nice long easy strokes straight as you can go. That is a good one for the flats of the blade.

It doesn't take all that long surprisingly. Obviously you'll have to be really careful of the sharpened edge. You may want to remove the very edge and then regrind it after the satin finish is done.