sanding an axe head?

[Tin.Man]

what grits should I go throug to remove the ugly black paint and getting it looking good? Don't want mirror polish, just smooth

appreciate the help guys

 

[killa_concept]

Any sort of protective coating is going to clog up sandpaper FAST. Save yourself the hassle and strip it first - if you don't like the finish below that, THEN go ahead and sand it

 

[rg598]

killa concept is right. When I sand heads, I just use whatever course sand paper is around.

 

[Blue Sky]

Killa is indeed right, save the sandpaper for the steel not the paint. There are papers that are made for metal sanding. Those are what you want, they last much longer. 150-220-300 grit will get you a pretty good finish, except for the inevitable deep pits here and there.

 

[Shotgun]

What kind of coating we talking, paint or forge scale? AFAIK you can't strip scale.

 

[ThundarStick]

I use a 4 1/2 inch high speed grinder with backed sanding disk to remove anything I want! I have found this to be the best way for ME to remove scale and smooth up a head. I finish it with a random orbit disk sander with finer and finer grades of paper untill I obtain a satin finish.
I would hate to think I had to use the random orbit sander to remove forge scale!

 

[cj65]

Slack belt sander once stripped. Make sure you sand the axe head in one direction only. I went perpendicular to the blade face. I will post pics of what I did last night. Gotta load up a photo.

That is how I bought it. It had some nasty disc sander gouges, and I wanted to get it smooth, and decided to mod it as well. Trying to find a good handle design, but not in a hurry.