Recommendation? Speeding up sanding.

[Ian Fifelski]

I am finish sanding the underside and sides of a bowie guard and it is going amazingly slow. I am using round bar and sanding sheets and because of the small contact point, the grit is gone in 2 or 3 passes. But I am hesitant to go to rubber or leather covered bar yet because I don't want any lumps or pits.

Have any of you found a way to get the rough filing marks sanded away and to a medium grit quickly? Like I said, I don't want to use a soft backing yet... I like to start with a soft backing at 400 grit to keep things smooth.

 

[HSC ///]

small wheel adapter on a 2x72 or small wheel on horizontal grinder
that's how I've done it
and with those 1" scalloped belts.
slow speed

or I use leather backed with lower grits just fine

 

[john april]

i use a spindle sander, a small wheel as hsc mentioned would be even better.

 

[Ian Fifelski]

I really need to build a rig for a small wheel on my grizzly. It would be super helpful.

I have some spindle sanders, I'll give that a try.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

A spindle sander is cheap and works perfect for these type tasks.

 

[Hengelo_77]

Fine needle files, sandpaper 280 or 400 after that.
Goes quicker then you'd expect

 

[Justin Schmidt]

I actually saw a pretty ingenious idea. A gyy made a fixture that would hold an small chisel grind sanding block inside an air hammer. Mind blown

 

[Don Hanson III]

Power tools...