Well.... That's frustrating

T

TheOTBalisong

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Jun 28, 2012
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:grumpy: I've been sanding for hours now, and finished just yesterday, went through all the grits I had on hand (120-220-320-600-1000-etc-etc) each one, probably a half hour of scrubbing, I wanted to make sure I got the finish right.

Now, when I finished yesterday night, It looked perfectly scratch-less, Polished to 2000. You could look at it at every angle I can think of and not find a scratch.
I woke up this morning very excited to finish working the handles, when I went to pick my knife up, I could see a few obvious scratches, that were in no way visible yesterday.

I just wanted to know weather there was something I should look out for, or something I'm not doing right, etc.

I'm Wet Sanding everything 600 and up.

Thanks,
Alex.
 
Alex - Are you sanding each successive grit in an opposing direction until the previous scratches disappear?
 
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No, I'm sanding back and forth, from ricasso to tip, Until I get to higher grits, then I just sand in one direction, from ricasso to tip.

Am I doing something wrong?
 
Bigblue17 said:
Yup.

Its near impossible to see your previous scratches when doing it that way.

Opposing directions is THE way to do it. Give it a try.
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Alright, thanks! I'll give it a go next blade.
Should I sand in one direction towards the end of the sanding though?
 
BTW.... The jump from 320 grit to 600 is a HUGE jump. Try 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, ......
 
Doubling grits when hand sanding is kind of like the "edge the thickness of a dime" thing. Everybody says it as the truth, but it's not really right. Try it the above way and see what happens. Xs in alternating patterns really help. Really really help.
 
Also different light sources will show more than others. Diffuse natural light is the most forgiving, hiding scratches, I have flouresent, halogen, and incandesent lighting in my shop and each one will show different amounts of scratches.


-Xander
 
fast14riot said:
Also different light sources will show more than others. Diffuse natural light is the most forgiving, hiding scratches, I have flouresent, halogen, and incandesent lighting in my shop and each one will show different amounts of scratches.


-Xander
Click to expand...

QFT
Stan
 
I doubt there's such a thing as a true 2,000-grit finish in 30 minutes, unless you have awesome grinding skills with very fine belts, or the knife is very small. I could be wrong.

There's no sense at all turning off the grinder or putting down the files until the blade looks as good as factory stuff at 320 or 400 grit. Now spend that 30 minutes getting everything as straight, flat, smooth and consistent as possible at 220 grit by hand (yup, step down a grit). Sharpies, layout dye, various magnifying lenses, bright light etc will all help show where the uneven spots and deep scratches are. Do not under any circumstance skip ahead or hope you can take care of flaws, fishhooks or stray/deep scratches later. Get it right to begin with.

It goes very quickly from that point.

Altering the angle of approach is a must to be sure you're ready to move on from one grit to the next, but turning a full 90 degrees is not. In fact, I'm convinced that sanding directly across the blade causes as many inconsistencies as it helps. 10 or 20 degrees difference either way is plenty to allow you see new, finer scratches stand out from previous ones.
 
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Thanks for the advice guys.

That's really odd that something like doubling grits I would read from multiple sources, and yet it hasn't yielded the expected results.
It's just odd that someone would put that out there despite it being a not very reliable method.

My grits were (Exactly) 60-120-220-320-600-1000-1500-2000. Looking back at it, I think I made a few large jumps between grits.
Guess I gotta go buy more sandpaper. :rolleyes:
 
james terrio said:
I doubt there's such a thing as a true 2,000-grit finish in 30 minutes, unless you have awesome grinding skills with very fine belts, or the knife is very small. I could be wrong.

There's no sense at all turning off the grinder or putting down the files until the blade looks as good as factory stuff. Now spend that 30 minutes getting everything as straight, flat, smooth and consistent as possible at 220 grit by hand. Sharpies, layout dye, various magnifying lenses, bright light etc will all help show where the uneven spots and deep scratches are. Do not under any circumstance skip ahead or hope you can take care of flaws, fishhooks or stray/deep scratches later. Get it right to begin with.

It goes very quickly from that point.

Altering the angle of approach is a must to be sure you're ready to move on from one grit to the next, but turning a full 90 degrees is not. In fact, I'm convinced that sanding directly across the blade causes as many inconsistencies as it helps. 10 or 20 degrees difference either way is plenty to allow you see new, finer scratches stand out from previous ones.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much, James, I'll be sure to do a better sanding job in the future.
As for getting it done, I'm going to start doing it right on my second blade, Which I'm starting next week.
This has been kind of an experiment for me, and there are a few things that weren't done right besides the finish, so I'd rather go back,
And do it right.

Thanks again,
Alex.
 
For what it's worth, it usually takes me at least three hours to run through all the grits... which is why I never attempt to do it all at once. If you start getting tired, you'll almost certainly start taking shortcuts and saying "that's good enough" when you know well it isn't.

Sometimes, when I think I've got all the scratches out, the next grit reveals I didn't. When that happens I always go back 2 steps, instead of just one. I find that gets the scratch removal done faster than just going back one.

- Greg
 
tryppyr said:
For what it's worth, it usually takes me at least three hours to run through all the grits... which is why I never attempt to do it all at once. If you start getting tired, you'll almost certainly start taking shortcuts and saying "that's good enough" when you know well it isn't.

Sometimes, when I think I've got all the scratches out, the next grit reveals I didn't. When that happens I always go back 2 steps, instead of just one. I find that gets the scratch removal done faster than just going back one.

- Greg
Click to expand...

Thanks, Greg, That's actually exactly what I ended up doing a couple of times, because it turned out I didn't get all the scratches of the previous grit out.
 
tryppyr said:
When that happens I always go back 2 steps, instead of just one. I find that gets the scratch removal done faster than just going back one.
Click to expand...
That's good advice. It seems like extra work, but it does pay off. :thumbup:

Alex, you've got the right attitude. Take your time :)
 
After a while you will develop an eye for scratches and be able to tell what grit they are at. Sometimes it is good to go to a high grit to look for scratches or even have redundant grit stages to remove the scratches.
 
My finishing grit is always done twice - a complete "x" - just to be damn sure I have all the scratches out. I just finished a 10" x 2" blade that took me about four hours to complete the hand sanding process up to 1500 grit. I know some may do this a bit faster, but I take my time, and when done, I am confident there are no unruly scratches left anywhere on the blade. The one spot that seems to require more attention than any other is the plunge. If I don't get the shape/contour of the plunge correct and smooth in both the grinding and at the lower grits, the higher grits will be a real pain.

Its taken me many knives to get a feel for the process and to develop an eye for seeing scratches. As they say... practice, practice, practice.

ENJOY!!
 
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