Starting Grit SP?

Lycosa

Lycosa

Joined
Aug 24, 2007
Messages
43,271
Hi All. I'd like to do a hand rubbed finish on a blade. Can I start with 220 sandpaper?
 
Actually, it's a knife that has light scratches on it. I'd like to keep it fresh looking.
 
If it is not made by you, you have to guess the scratch grit. If it is light and dense it would be 600 or more. I would start by 1000, then if it is not working I would gradually decrease the grit number to 800 then to 600 etc. When you find it similar to original, you found the same grit size... At that grit you can refresh the finish, or if a deeper scratch is there due to the use of knife you can go lower, remove all the dents, scratches etc, and gradually go up to original or higher grit... Good luck...
 
If it's a finished knife, please be careful, hand sanding a sharpened blade will almost definitely lead to cutting yourself. I know this from experience ;)

I agree that you may want to start higher and work down to match the existing scratch pattern.
 
AcridSaint said:
If it's a finished knife, please be careful, hand sanding a sharpened blade will almost definitely lead to cutting yourself. I know this from experience ;)

I agree that you may want to start higher and work down to match the existing scratch pattern.
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I also agree. 220 is actually quite coarse in finishing terms; if you start with that you'll have a lot of work ahead of you getting back up to a nice finish.
 
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