Hand Sanding

Howard1

Howard1

Joined
Jan 16, 2017
Messages
207
how much life do you all get out of sandpaper. I sand with a flat steel bar exposing 1"x3". I rotate the sandpaper and lubricate with wd40. With 120 - 400 I can feel when it no longer cuts. Higher than that I have no idea. With 1000-1500 it feels like it is dull instantly. Any advice?
 
What sand paper brand are you using?
 
I use an assortment. Up to 400 3m precision. It has a sticky back they grips my bar with no adhesive. 600 I use rhyonet. 800 up 3m imperial wet/dry. I just bought warrior 500& 1000 because it was cheep. I haven't used that yet. I find that I buy paper because I am out of something. So Home Depot here I come. I should stick with rhyonet right?
 
Or Norton black ice or Matador silicon carbide.

But honestly at 1200 plus going to hell quick is pretty much how it works I think.
 
Do you use back and forth with the higher grits or one way? Sanding just one way drives me nuts because it triples the time needed. Hell I will be doing this on an hour so I will let you know how it worked.
 
Howard1 said:
Do you use back and forth with the higher grits or one way? Sanding just one way drives me nuts because it triples the time needed. Hell I will be doing this on an hour so I will let you know how it worked.
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Have you watched the hand sanding 101 video by Nick wheeler?
Id suggest going in one direction so you don't create j hooks
 
Anything 600 and up I only sand in one direction and after two passes, I consider the paper shot and get another piece.
 
wet sanding blades (with water) seems to make the paper last twice as long than if it were dry. it keeps the metal dust from clogging the spaces between the grits. even if the grits are still sharp if the pores are clogged it cuts poorly. i start with a light pressure on the first few strokes and progress with more pressure as the paper dulls. if you start with fresh paper with a lot of pressure, you shear off the sharp tips of the grits before they even get to work and greatly shortens the papers life. you will be surprised how lightly you can push on the first 6 strokes and get a good cut. maybe a 1/4lb of downward force. i do use sandpaper like its free, but i hated wrapping a new sheet around my sanding block every 6 strokes, so i learned to make it lost longer.
 
john april said:
wet sanding blades (with water) seems to make the paper last twice as long than if it were dry. it keeps the metal dust from clogging the spaces between the grits. even if the grits are still sharp if the pores are clogged it cuts poorly. i start with a light pressure on the first few strokes and progress with more pressure as the paper dulls. if you start with fresh paper with a lot of pressure, you shear off the sharp tips of the grits before they even get to work and greatly shortens the papers life. you will be surprised how lightly you can push on the first 6 strokes and get a good cut. maybe a 1/4lb of downward force. i do use sandpaper like its free, but i hated wrapping a new sheet around my sanding block every 6 strokes, so i learned to make it lost longer.
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I am totally in line with everything you just said. I will try this out tonight!
 
Use a piece of leather between your paper and block. I started doing this on my past couple of knives and it sands way more efficently this way.

I've never sanded with WD40 because I hate the smell but I used windex on my last knife and it worked better than water. A lot less messy if nothing else.
 
I hate hand sanding, so I have my own unorthodox method. I use a small 2" flat disk attachment with a flexi-shaft for my drill press. I glue a cut out round piece of sandpaper (or I use the pre-made discs you can buy with the Velcro backing) to that and just go at it using a water mist for lubricant. It works really fast, gets all the directions and all the scratches out and I hardly use any sandpaper at all. Of course at some point when all other scratches are gone, you can just switch to standard paper and do the uni-directional thing as you see fit. But for getting all the nuisance scratches out, this works great. You seem to get a lot more life out of a little 2" piece of sandpaper when it's rotating at 800 rpms.
 
Simple Green/Orange works a bit better than Windex. It's got lower surface tension and doesn't evaporate as quickly.
 
R.C.Reichert said:
I hate hand sanding, so I have my own unorthodox method. I use a small 2" flat disk attachment with a flexi-shaft for my drill press. I glue a cut out round piece of sandpaper (or I use the pre-made discs you can buy with the Velcro backing) to that and just go at it using a water mist for lubricant. It works really fast, gets all the directions and all the scratches out and I hardly use any sandpaper at all. Of course at some point when all other scratches are gone, you can just switch to standard paper and do the uni-directional thing as you see fit. But for getting all the nuisance scratches out, this works great. You seem to get a lot more life out of a little 2" piece of sandpaper when it's rotating at 800 rpms.
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Can we see a picture of your rig? I hate hand sanding as well but it does allow for great blending of the surface. It also is the best at keeping edges lines sharp
 
I use a 2k for ages. If FEELS like it dulls quickly, but it still cuts well. I use it for finishing up high polishes. i think what you may be feeling with that is just the loose bits of abrasive smoothing out just a bit. It still cuts perfectly fine
 
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