Hand rubbing giving you fits,can't get the flats as smooth as you want?Try this..

[beknives]

At my Hammer in this Fall a fellow Knifemaker named David Winston told me this little trick that he had been using to shorten his hand rubbing time.I have been playing around with it and now want to pass it on.It may sound funny to some but it works!

First you will need to make a trip to Wal Mart and pick up a 1/4 sheet palm grip sander or a 1/3 sheet finishing sander (both are vibrating sanders)
Now you will take and peel the rubber pad off and epoxy on a piece of micarta the same sive as the pad ---I unbolted the pad and screwed the micarta on my so it wouldn't ever come off,as the glue will eventually come loose and you will have to re-glue it back on later---
Now i use this as a extension of the belt grinder before hand rubbing starts.I start off with 320 grit paper and work my flats then my blade.When you do the blade you will immediately see if you have and small lumps or divits or really deep scratches.At this point you can either go back to the grinder and work them down or if yhet are not really super bad (like a real deep 2 incher) You are taking metal off with this sander so you can just work it down flat.Don't push real hard as it will leave deep fish hooks with a fresh piece of paper.I put a radious on one edge of the micarta so when I bump up against my plunge lines it matches and thus polishes there also.Don't worry about the funny swirled look at this time just work it until it is smooth,flat and the deep scratches that you missed on the grinder are gone.This even works great on the back edges also.I set my convex edge in before I come off the belt then when I am using the sander I just smooth it all together thus no funny breaks in the lines (this will sharpen the knife as you go so be careful)
Now I move to 400 grit-then 600 grit- then I put some oil on the blade and use 800 grit.This leaves a black mud on the blade but I just keep enough oil on the blade to keep the mud wet and when I stop I wipe it off with a paper towel.Now you check it.
If you don't own a optivisor You really need to purchase one.This will allow you to see scratches that you only seen in the sun after you were done.
If you have a nice smooth surface with no deep grinder scratches you are ready to hand sand the blade.
I go back to 600 grit and rub the blade and flats out with some oil on the blade,This only takes a couple of minutes to straighten out the swirls but when looking through the optivisor you will see them in the back ground just take a few more minutes and work them out,Move on to 800 then on to 1200 and if you do this with the optivisore on all the time when you take it off and look at your blade in the light you will Smile..
Now you may think this will take a long time,But this is the cool part.I have cut my hand rubbing time from hours per side to between 1/2 hour to max of 1 hour for a 12 inch Bowie depending on if I have a small 2 incher from the finer grits on the belt....Skinner sized blades take about a 1/2 hour max to clean up..
This set up will also work to flatten and polish out guards and fine tune the flats of your scales...

I have been seeing these on sale at Wal Mart and K Mart for $15.00 or less...

Hope this will help someone not mess up a blade by trying to keep grinding out a small divit in the blade when they could have smoothed it out with this trick and save some hand rubbing time also.This is great if your hands hurt from rubbing also...
Have fun with it and good Luck..
Bruce:cool:

[Mike Hull]

This really does work folks.

[Don Cowles]

Great tip, Bruce - thanks!

[Alain M-D]

Thanks bruce !
Seem to be a good trick !
Can that replace a disc sander to sand flat part (tang, bolster, scales, etc.)?
That could be an alternative a little less expensive fo me...

Alain M-D

[beknives]

It will work fine to clean them up.But I am not sure you can remove enough material very fast to di the whole thing.I just do these parts on my 2X72 then clean them up with the palm grip if I feel I need a little more smoothing of the parts.
Bruce

[Alain M-D]

I just do these parts on my 2X72 then clean them up with the palm grip if I feel I need a little more smoothing of the parts.
Bruce

Bruce: I have a 2x72 (I received my Coote grinder with 8 and 10" wheel this week :-) I want to cut down the finishing time... I waste to many time to sand my flat with sandpaper on a glasse plate... I thought of buying a disc grinder to make the finishing of flats surfaces. Your idea of small sander could perhaps replace the disc sander and are less expensive... ?

Do you use a disc sander in your shop ? (for which use? )

Alain M-D

[beknives]

Alain,Yes I have a small disc grinder on my 4X36 grinder that I use to flatten my scales and even my edges of scales and bolsters with.The hand held disk grinder is used in the smithy for ruff grinding steel as I forge.I like to just get that final fit by hand sanding the back of th scales or using the hand held palm gip sander before installing them on the knife,and for smoothing out the full tangs when I do them.
Bruce

[SSB]

correct me if I am wrong but I would think a detail sander or an autobody type block sander would work better because they both use a linear motion rather than a random orbit. Granted, I have yet to see either type of sander sell for anywhere near $15.00
oh, another plus for an autobody sander is that it can be used wet.

[Mike Hull]

SSB,if you get the opportunity, give it a try and let us know what the results are.

[Brett Bennett]

I can't believe I've been doing this the hard way. Thanks, Bruce.

[Colin KC]

I've just posted a Britishized version of the type of sander I think you mean on the European forum...http://www.ckdforums.com/showthread....&threadid=7884 .


Thanks, you may haved saved many hours of trial & errors (& rubbers elbow )

[Jlott]

that runs off compressor .... does very nice flat work...
great tip!!!!

[Sweany]

Kewl idea, mayhap that would be a bit easier on my carpal tunnels

[Sweany]

Well. went to Walmart, and got a 15.00 pad sander, hope to give it a try in a couple days or so.

[beknives]

Don't forget the micarta pad
It sure has helped with my hands not going numb when hand rubbing a blade out.
Bruce