Wet/Dry sandpaper grits and hone grits

[calyth]

I'm curious whether wet/dry sandpaper grit is the same as the hone grit.
I'm trying to polish a knife but I won't have the money to get more hones. So far it seems that a 1000 wet/dry sandpaper does the job pretty well.

 

[Hal]

Go to an NAPA auto parts store and buy an assortment of wet/dry silicone carbide sand paper. For about $6.00, you get one sheet each of 400,600,800,1000,1200 and 1600 grit. Cut a small 3 inch by 3 inch piece off of each sheet, and wrap it around a small piece of wood about an inch be 4 inches long, or use a piece of hard rubber, or anything somewhat firm as a sanding block. Don't use the wet/dry without some sort of firm backing, as it will work unevenly. Tape the cutting edge, or curl it over using a steel to help keep from slicing your hand as you work. Go easy with the coarser grits (400/600/800) so you don't put any deep scratches in the metal. It's better to do twice the work with the finer grits than it is to do 10 times the work trying to remove a deep scratch. The coarser grits also tend to round over any contours in the blade.

I used the above to put a mirror finish on a Stiff kiss a couple years ago.

If you use a spray adhesive, you can also glue small pieces of the wet/dry to a piece of ceramic tile and use it as a "stone". 400/600 will give you micro serations, and 1200/1600 will give you (with enough time and a good jig ) an edge that comes close to using Japanese waterstones.

Go to www.google.com and paste in:

wet dry sandpaper chisel sharpening

as a search. There's lots of articles that go into a lot more detail.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

calyth :

I'm curious whether wet/dry sandpaper grit is the same as the hone grit.

No, most abrasives use their own "grit" rankings, there is no common system used.

-Cliff

 

[calyth]

Cool thanks for all the help!