Well.... That's frustrating

I regularly tell people to "Roughly" double the grits. If the sanding was done properly, that would be fine. I would say that 320 to 600 will work OK if you spend enough time on both steps. You should expect to spend ten to fifteen minutes on each of the first four grits, and five to ten in each finer grit in a normal steel for a 3-4" blade ( some steels can be triple this or more). It should take about two hours minimum, often a lot more.

I always advise to start with 120, then 220, then 400. After HT go back to 120 and start again, and roughly double the grits from there, 120,220,400,800,1000,1500,2000,2500. Whatever grits are available to you will be the ones you use. Your 120.220,320,600,1000,.... should be fine. Adding a 400 step certainly wouldn't hurt, as I find 400 is the point where bigger scratches disappear and from there it is just refinement of the finish.

One big thing to attend to is cleanliness between grits. You don't just change the sandpaper - change everything that will touch the blade. Toss the paper towels you are wiping with, fold the towel you are sanding on to a clean spot ( or change it), dump and rinse the water bowl, rinse off the sanding blocks, and WASH YOUR HANDS WELL. Then start with fresh paper towels, water, work surface, etc. One stray grit from the 220 can come back at 1000 to haunt you and make you say curse words you didn't know you knew. I would often guess that this is the source of a scratch that mysteriously appears after the blade is at a high grit.[/COLOR

Where your biggest error probably came ,was in not stopping between the grits occasionally and letting your eyes and hands take a break. I believe most everyone will find scratches they missed when they take a break of at least an hour and then come back and closely examine the blade.

Good cross lighting is also a requirement. The light needs to come from both above you and in front of you. A two or four bulb fluorescent overhead light and a good desk lamp will work well. If possible, use daylight spectrum bulbs. Soft/cool white bulbs make your sweeties face look pretty, but can make tiny details like a scratch harder to see. A desk lamp with a magnifier, or wearing an Optivisor, is also a good idea.
 
I double my grits. It does not matter how large or small of a jump you make. Sure it will take longer the bigger the jump but if you don't sand the previous scratches out....then well.. they will still be there regardless.
 
Thanks Stacy and Jeremy, I plan on restocking on sandpaper tomorrow, and I'm gonna pick up a pack of 400 grit as well.

And Stacy, I wasn't quite paying attention to the cleanliness between grits at all.
I was using an old towel, and only changed the water supply once. :o
I took a one break along the way and even that was for about 1 hour.
I got the whole blade "done" (;)) in about 3 hours, and I was planning on investing in some good lighting as well.

Thanks again,
Alex.
 
Lighting is important, I use a combination of flourescent and incandesant lighting in the shop, but when I want to take a hard look at the finish I take the knives outside and look them over in daylight for final inspection before moving onto the next step.
 
I like to use a small LED flashlight and move it over the blade in all directions. I've caught many leftovers while sanding.
 
Another tip: Use multiple types of light, not just multiple sources. Flourescents are great as a primary light source, but I like to add halogen and natural light whenever possible. Each gives me a slightly different way of seeing things.

I have my hand sanding station set up near the garage doors. Overhead I have multiple 100W equivalent compact flourescents. Directly over the sanding station is a 70W halogen. When the sun is out, I open the garage doors and let the sun shine in. This gives me different light from several angles. Something that would be completely invisible from one angle fairly glares at me from another angle. Frequently during the hand sanding process I take the blade out of the sanding mount and walk around with it outside. Something about sunlight that you just can't beat. Even gray overcast days give you an interesting perspective.

- Greg
 
Hand sanding is a practice of patience and self control. There is great advice in this thread.

Beyond that keeping the area clean and cleaning the last grit properly will help out quite a bit. I keep my hand sanding rags (old flannel sheets cut up) hung on nails with the grit I use them for. This way I can use the somewhat dirty rags for more than one blade.
 
I used to make fiberglass plugs and boat molds. The grit progression I was taught was 220, 400, 500, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000. The other helpful trick is to mix acetone and blue dykem together. Paint it on the knife each time you go up a grit. When all the blue is gone, all the scratches of that grit are gone.
 
Make sure you don't miss what James and Stacy said about magnification, if you wear spectacles like I do a good magnifying glass or optivisors help a lot.
 
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