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Sandblast finish

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DustinHall

Joined
Dec 31, 2008
Messages
687
My uncle has a sand blaster and I'm thinking of blasting some blades. Does anyone have a picture of what this kind of finish looks like on a blade? Before I sand blast, should I hand sand to a certain grit or can I just blast the blade and not worry about getting all the scratches out? Thanks.
 
The blast media will vary the way the blade finish comes out. You need to get all of the scratches out before blasting, unless it's some super aggressive media, it's just going to be a light surface treatment.
 
Thanks for the reply, Acrid. The media he has is pretty coarse... I was just wondering if it would put a nice matte finish on the blade. What grit should I hand sand to before blasting it? Would taking the blade to 120 work or will the scratches from that not be fully covered up?
 
Using screened play sand will give the surface a gray surface treatment and appear very similar to a parkarized finish on firearms. I use this when making fighting knives that will really be carried. Beads can be used as well and gives a soft finish and not the gray. I prefer the sand as it will kill the reflection (combat environment).
 
aktoklat said:
Using screened play sand will give the surface a gray surface treatment and appear very similar to a parkarized finish on firearms. I use this when making fighting knives that will really be carried. Beads can be used as well and gives a soft finish and not the gray. I prefer the sand as it will kill the reflection (combat environment).
Click to expand...

glass beads will also
 
This one was finished with 80 grit ceramic beads from HF. I started with a 320 grit belt finish.

97%20030609.jpg
 
Depends on the bead blast finish is on top of what vs. the satin finish.

Don't think a bead or sand blast makes up for, or covers up, less than a well done, no grind lined, finish.

It doesn't have to be a 2500 grit hand finish before doing the bead or sand blast, but the closer you take it to polished finish before blasting, the more control you have in getting a fine/uniform/no grind marked finish with the blast......
 
I only have limited experience with rust and a bead-blasted finish. I initially used it as a base for Gun Kote, which protects the steel very well - I've never had a spot of rust on my hard working yard knife that's been treated with Gun Kote, and it's spent many days in and out of water. I'm very pleased with that.

But I would expect that a "raw" blasted finish like this would be quite likely to retain enough surface moisture compared to a finer finish, to be prone to rusting. It's a caution. I would expect that in a skinning situation it'd be begging to rust without taking very good care to clean it up quickly.
 
Yeah, I think that's where I got it too. For me the most expensive part was the freakin airbrush! Yikes! But I've used it a lot for other stuff since, so like every tool I ever bought, it was worth it.
 
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