This just might work!

Robert Hankins

Robert Hankins

Joined
May 19, 2003
Messages
1,848
Have been in pursuit of Whisp or Ghost line on a Hamon as of late and as always looking for ways to make things easier.
Bruce Evans taught me one trick of using a Mouse Sander with a piece of micarta attached at the face for doing flats.

Occured to me while brushing my teeth this might work on the same principle on a smaller scale.
Why not use an electric/battery powered tooth brush. Bristles removed and attach some sort of base, micarta or leather or whatever. Use this to sand when you get to the 800 grit and up stage in bringing out a Hamon line.

Anybody tried it?
 
very interesting...how would you attach the sandpaper?
 
Have you seen the battery powered fingernail sanding things they have at the dollar tree? that might do what you want, i think it even comes with extra sticky sanding pads for it.
 
I understand your idea, and think it's a good one.
Would you be using it for small stuff? that's the only real advantage I could think of to using one. It would probably take a while to sand down nice and smooth with one..
... but what do I know, I've never tried it!

Why not use a 2" air powered Dual Action(DA) sander?
They have really small pads, you can attach about anything to them, and they are great to use, not gouging the metal, leaving a smooth satin finish.

If you were sanding a larger blade, then the 5" would maybe be better.

Good idea for the small stuff IMHO though

|M|
 
Blinker,
You're thinking of an easy way to do the hamon work like the Japanese do with finger stones, huh? Lemme think about it... A straight-line motion, maybe very very small random, but not rotary or side-to-side...?
 
Was thinking along the lines of 800-1500 grit area
Above that you really have to use a soft backing in a straight line
Attaching a piece of leather easy, just use a drop of good epoxy.

Really like the idea of the fingernail file

Were on a roll!
 
It might work,but you have to be careful not to blur the hamon with a back and forth action.
 
I've seen one of these for jewelry work. Believe it took 1/2 to 1" wide strips about 6" long. I think it's rechargable. They also make a handheld belt sander that runs 1/2" belts. If your interested, let me know and I'll dig through my tool catalogs and find it.

Bryan
 
bladsmth said:
It might work,but you have to be careful not to blur the hamon with a back and forth action.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's what I thought, But I don't know notin!
really, wouldn't a back and forth or spinning motion cause problems in distorting the hamon line you're trying to show off.

Being knifemakers, and not auto body guys, maybe some of ya don't know what a DA - dual action is?
It's a special tool that rotates the disk one way(counter-clockwise) while it orbits, or vibrates in the other direction(clock-wise)
This makes the sanding pad not stay in the same place, digging or sanding too much.
And also, when and if the pad does 'stick' to one area, it does not do one of the other motion. They seem to cancel each other out, and you just feel a buzz buzz vibration in your hand.

It's hard to describe, but I think the DA would be the perfect tool to bring out a hamon.
Only thing I could imagine using a tiny little detail sander, is if you are working on some tiny tiny parts.

Anyways, enough of my $.02
|M|
 
At some point you have to stop and clean up all the little 'hook' marks left.
Lynn
 
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