Video: How to Satin Finish a Knife Blade by Hand

NickWheeler said:
Nice video Aaron. I think you got as many views on it in two days as my hand sanding 101 got in a year, LOL.

Couple thoughts/suggestions:

While I appreciate a cool gizmo more than most... Your hand sanding block is cool, but personally I wouldn't want to use it because of the time needed to change paper (versus simply moving the strip) and the ergonomics of it.

I don't think the 800X step is necessary.

On your final pulls... a block with just a touch of give will get you the nicest finish with the least amount of time. I have found that an 80-90 durometer urethane is the best mix of hardness with just a little give. Also, you can do a pull stroke, and then do a push stroke through and out of the plunge... that gives an uber clean finish. You want to hold your upper body fairly rigid and pull from the waist.

All of this is just in my humble opinion... :)
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Rubber gasket material in the plumbing section at Lowe's/Home Depot is perfect for this
 
There is a brick red and a dark red, differing hardness. I was turned onto it by some great makers and it works good for me.
 
Shaw Blades said:
There is a brick red and a dark red, differing hardness. I was turned onto it by some great makers and it works good for me.
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I should have been more specific... I didn't mean to say that it simply won't work. It works pretty well, but the hard urethane works better IMHO...mostly because you don't risk washing out any hard earned crisp transitions and the urethane has much better durability. :)
 
NickWheeler said:
I should have been more specific... I didn't mean to say that it simply won't work. It works pretty well, but the hard urethane works better IMHO...mostly because you don't risk washing out any hard earned crisp transitions and the urethane has much better durability. :)
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I would buy a Nick Wheeler sanding stick.
 
Yeah, Nick- I don't know who all those people are who aren't watching your videos, but they're not me :)
 
I went back and read my comments to Aaron and wanted to apologize as it looks like I was just picking on him. Sorry Aaron, that wasn't my intention... (we sure lose a lot compared to face to face conversation).

The video is clear, concise, well lit, and very nicely edited.... as are ALL of your videos Aaron! :)

My comment about the views wasn't meant to be snide or jealous either... Intrigued and impressed? For sure!!! It only takes a couple of Aaron's videos to have a higher view count than the cumulative of my entire video uploads. :eek: :cool:

I do think in the long run you'd really benefit from some more ergonomic blocks. My hand sanding takes a fraction of the amount of time that most people seem to think it takes...but I still want it to be as comfortable and easy on the 'ol body as I can make it.

Shaw--- Some of my favorite, most rockstar bladesmiths use the plumbing gasket... Mr. John White (RIP my friend), Jason the Brute Knight, etc... and nobody's ever gonna question their work. But I do feel the urethane is a step up for the reasons I stated above.

I have thought about making some sanding paddles for sale with various backing material since most folks won't be willing to buy a whole sheet of urethane for 1 or 2 blocks (like this one yahoo I know... :o :D). But I don't want to derail Aaron's thread with that notion and give him another reason to keep me on his "People to Kill" list... ;) :)
 
samuraistuart said:
LOL! The 5:45 mark. How much steel should a steelsmith sand if a steelsmith could sand steel? Warp speed, Scotty! Thanks for YET ANOTHER great video, Aaron. Funny, I never have detected the accent until this video.
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Glad you liked it mate!

elementfe said:
Aaron, thanks and may I ask a dumb question?
How do you hang a hot blade tip up to cool?
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Not a dumb question at all mate! The blade would still be in the foil, which I mark to show which end is the tip. I then use a 1" spring clamp to hang on to just the edge of the foil envelope, and hang the spring clamp up on a hook. You can see this process in the antarctica video.
 
NickWheeler said:
I went back and read my comments to Aaron and wanted to apologize as it looks like I was just picking on him. Sorry Aaron, that wasn't my intention... (we sure lose a lot compared to face to face conversation).

The video is clear, concise, well lit, and very nicely edited.... as are ALL of your videos Aaron! :)

My comment about the views wasn't meant to be snide or jealous either... Intrigued and impressed? For sure!!! It only takes a couple of Aaron's videos to have a higher view count than the cumulative of my entire video uploads. :eek: :cool:

I do think in the long run you'd really benefit from some more ergonomic blocks. My hand sanding takes a fraction of the amount of time that most people seem to think it takes...but I still want it to be as comfortable and easy on the 'ol body as I can make it.

Shaw--- Some of my favorite, most rockstar bladesmiths use the plumbing gasket... Mr. John White (RIP my friend), Jason the Brute Knight, etc... and nobody's ever gonna question their work. But I do feel the urethane is a step up for the reasons I stated above.

I have thought about making some sanding paddles for sale with various backing material since most folks won't be willing to buy a whole sheet of urethane for 1 or 2 blocks (like this one yahoo I know... :o :D). But I don't want to derail Aaron's thread with that notion and give him another reason to keep me on his "People to Kill" list... ;) :)
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Hey Nick!
No worries mate, I understood that you were giving helpful feedback and it's appreciated!

I'm always happy to talk about videos if anyone's interested. It's not a short process that's for sure! As much to learn there as there is on the knife side! The sanding video took more than a full day to edit... And a full day to shoot as well.

I'm definitely open to changing up my sanding block. I know that most knifemakers use blocks where they just hold the paper on with their fingers. Last time I tried that (I was quite young) I kept having the paper move on me and it would gouge the surface. If you guys want to post photos of your sanding blocks for inspiration I'd love to try out some new stuff!

In the long run I'm hoping to ditch hand sanding altogether to be honest, it's probably my least favourite process and the satin finish is not what I'd ideally like on my knives anyway. I'm talking to a local company at the moment about having DLC coatings done on my knives which would be awesome if I can organize that.
 
I'd buy a sanding stick. I've been using a mild steel bar with a rubber backer that has been working great but I wouldn't call it precise.
 
I've been using a steel ruler. A stiff one and one that has a touch of flex to it. I really like using them, but probably could do better with something more proper, but I get good results. I also have some black hard rubber material I use as a backing on the final grit/final passes for a touch of give. Have no idea where that stuff came from or what it is, tho. Thanks to Nick and Aaron again for their help in making my satin finishes better than they were! I pick up new stuff watching these videos. And stuff I forget, too!
 
I'll have to try making a sanding stick with some gasket material on it, will be interesting to see how I like it in comparison to my current setup.
 
I did a knife last night. One thing I was thinking about is how I stand. I notice you sit. I get in a somewhat athletic stance and really get after it until I start getting to the finer grits, almost a whole body motion instead of just sitting using arms.

The rubber is good for final strokes and blending in between grits, not for the whole process.
 
This really helped me on the last knife. I did it a little different at the end though. I went from 600 - 1200, buffed lightly then back to 600 straight pulls. It worked outstanding, thanks for the vid.
 
Well done Aaron. Out of curiosity (and this is just the way I've done it) why not do the ricasso first? In my mind it seems to make more sense because I'm sloppy and in case I screw up coming off the ricasso and hit the blade I can clean it up when I move onto the blade and fix any "oops" I did coming off the ricasso.
 
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