Finishing work on Knives.

[Aden Cassidy]

Only have a cheap ryobi grinder, finest belt I can get for it is 120 grit.

Wondering if that is a good finish for a working knife or what is the minimum you would use personally.

Leaf spring blade. 1400mm long blade, 1200mm handle. Blade at widest is over 30mm, 5mm thick near guard tapering to 1.2-3mm near tip. High carbon guard, will have leather handle, maybe mild steel spacer(1-2 give your opinion) and mild steel but cap when I get some new stock tomorrow.(need thicker mild steel).

[Steve Sells]

the finer the finish grits the less places for rust to start.  you may not have found finer than 120 grit for the machine you have, but its out there, also hand sanding works. so no excuses, get some sand paper,  you have a good start, dont stop now :)

[ThomasPowers]

I've seen mirror finishes done all by hand; it comes down to how much time and effort you are willing to put into it.

While I would suggest going a bit further on that one the thing that most caught my eye was it looked rather clunky more as a slab of metal with an edge ground on it. If I was using that knife I would like the edge bevel to go much further towards the back---not hard to do even with a file and even easier if you forge the start of it in place.

Makes for more "slice" as you don't run into the "fat" of the blade right after the start of the cut. (Look at high end kitchen knives for an example)

[Aden Cassidy]

I was going to hand sand the rest of it, it's what I am used to doing.

Just not sure which grit I should go to for a general work, camping knife etc...

[ThomasPowers]

Well it should be what the end user likes! If that's going to be you, then you decide. If someone else then ask them.

[Rich Hale]

Steve and I just covered that recently in knife chat,,the logs of all of those chats are in knife forums under knife making 101.

And we do that class every wed eve at ten EST

[BCROB]

all mine get a min of 400 grit by hand , then up to the end-user from there.........

[Mike Romo]

all mine get a min of 400 grit by hand , then up to the end-user from there.........

 

 

So, Rob, you do a minimum of 400 grit and then if your clients ask for a shinier look, you go further?  I like that rule of thumb. 

[VaughnT]

From a visual standpoint, the blade should look smooth and even.  Like Rob, I use 400-grit as my starting point, though I have seen blades done with 220-grit that looked good.  The key is to keep the scratch lines going in the same direction with none of those annoying fish-hooks or j-strokes messing it up.  Not the easiest thing to accomplish.

 

All of my blades have been roughed out on the belt sander and then finished by hand using a variety of sanding blocks.  You can get good quality sandpaper at the auto-parts stores.  And don't forget to use water while sanding.  A wet-sand will always produce a finer finish than dry sanding does.  

[BCROB]

So, Rob, you do a minimum of 400 grit and then if your clients ask for a shinier look, you go further?  I like that rule of thumb.

Correct Mike,
Just to adds to Vaughn's reply below a lubricant is a must IMO, I actually prefer WD40 with good quality sand paper makes a huge difference in cutting ability and overall time......

[Mike Romo]

Thanks Rob and Vaughn.

 

I have four knives that are almost finished.  I'll post pics in a new thread in a day or so.  I went to 400 wet dry with all in one oil as a lubricant.

[pike3e]

If you are going to do much hand sanding, purchasing some EDM stones is a great way to go. They outlast sandpaper by a huge margin, are cheap, and are much easier to use to get out deep scratches. I use the EDM up to 320 or 400 then drop a grit when I go to sandpaper and it only takes a few minutes with the paper to get the finish I am after.