Thread: hand sanding

ok, so i have been working on a wolstenholm xxl for the past few days, was in some bad shape as far as rust in some areas, i have gotten rid of the rust, and most of the deep pitting, am leaving some due to the amount of metal that would be removed. i have worked thru to 400k currently, now here is my point, am i alone in the fact that i find it more relaxing to just hold onto the razor, very carefully i might add, and sand it by hand. i sand untill it looks like all the scratches from the previous grit are gone and then i move up in grit, is that about the right way to do it.

Originally Posted by wvloony

am i alone in the fact that i find it more relaxing to just hold onto the razor, very carefully i might add, and sand it by hand.

Hey, whatever works... I've done it this way before, just be careful (as with any resto method). Oh yeh, let me add that I've cut myself this way before too

Originally Posted by wvloony

i sand untill it looks like all the scratches from the previous grit are gone and then i move up in grit, is that about the right way to do it.

Yup, I like using different directions for every grit...that way you know when the scratches are all the way out.

I usually lay the razor down on a very simple jig while sanding the blade and tang areas, but I do find that i need to hold the razor in hand to do certain areas. Just be very carefull when doing this, I have had some very nasty cuts. I think i read somewhere that some guys use kevlar gloves?

When I did my first one I did it this way and one thing I messed up was sanding the spine I ended up sanding way too much in one spot and now the razor doesn't lay flat on a hone. On the latest one I'm working on I made a rule that if I'm sanding the spine I have to do the same stoke the entire length of the spine to ensure the same amount of metal comes off as uniformly as possible. I keep testing to make sure the blade lays flat for when it comes time to hone.

I don't know if that's the best way to go about things, sure more metal gets removed than may require, but I know it's no good to have different widths when it comes time to hone so I'm giving it a shot. Something to think about when you're hand sanding and holding it in your hands anyways, you can tend to get in the zone and do a lot of work in one spot.