How TO Hand sand and MIRROR finish a knife!

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[@opa_plays_mw5318]

"I won't really bore you ", I am the only one of 5 my ABS 'mentor' that has actually finished in class. Hand sanding to 800 was 6 hours, 13 slices on my fingers. It's work, it's more TIME, more effort than banging a 1 inch round of 5160 into a blade shape. This is what makes a custom knife a custom knife.

[@chrisgilbert3305]

Awesome stuff, glad I found your channel

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

Me too! Thanks for watching!!

[@bernardhill1622]

Beautiful ❗🤔 Thanks Mel..❗🙇‍♂️👍🏻👌🏻

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

Thank you!

[@trainwon5699]

Mat great job on this one my friend..Thanks

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

Thank you!

[@deanguidry6566]

awesome work. Love watching a real professional at work

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

Thank you very much!

[@mydivot1344]

I’ve found that taking a round rod (size varies depending on how deep the plunge line is) and then laying the sandpaper on it and keeping the rod in the plunge and then pulling the sandpaper out the back cleans up the plunge area pretty well.

[@michaelmorrison4843]

That looks like a really mirror finish to me! Although I would prefer a 600 finish for a using kitchen knife like that! But, that's just me! 🤔😲👍

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

What is it about a 600 grit finish that you prefer?

[@Th3_Gael]

​@@gentrycustomknives8008depends on the blade profile but some food sticks less

[@Jonnygurudesigns]

You briefly mentioned raking the buffing wheel. What's that do and what did you use to do it? Great video!

[@richardpreisler3352]

Thats a very nice knife :) In the past It took me very long to do the hand sanding. like a few hours. After seeing the grit progression that bladesmith stuart smith uses, I went to try that and so far I´m very happy with it. 1. I´m using a 40 grit vsm ceramic to grind 98% of the knife 2. a fresh 100 or 120 grit to get the scratches out depending on the steel and how much there is still to remove 3.Trizact Gator (It has to be the gator cause the normal trizact must not be used with water) A160, A65, A45,A30 sometimes i throw in a 60 grit between the 40 and the 100/120, especially when I grind with a vsm actirox or some other belt that leaves a very poor finish instead of the 40 grit. after all the trizacts there shoud be no deep scratches left. I then start with handsanding either 320 or 400 depending on how good and clean the grind went. I think with your buffing setup you should be able to get a good mirror without doing any handsanding with that approach. I think its funny you say that the higher grit belts last you only 1 blade. Cause that is the reality for me, even tho all over youtube and in all the groups people swear that "the higher the grit, the longer it will last". I never had a 120 grit last longer than maybe 2 medium size knifes, and that was vsm ceramic.. Another reason I like the gator belts, cause used properly, they will outlast the normal belts like at least 5 times for me and they grind cooler too. Only downsinde they make a lot of noise and are pricy.

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

I will try going to those high grit gator belts and see how it goes! Thank you!

[@J1fcl0wn]

I noticed when you went outside and the sun caught the blade I could see some marks or could have been lint especially towards the tip, I`m not a professional but like to try and see what you say you can see Nice run through of the process and wish my little shed had some better tooling LOL

[@justingoodman5600]

Great video Matt! Your buffer videos have changed how I make knives. After 30+ years of woodworking, I’ve realized that I HATE hand sanding 😂. You’ve helped me cut some of that out. My next project is to make a waterfall platen so I can change directions with belts in between grit changes. I think alternating in the higher grits can get me to buffing without any hand sanding. What are your thoughts on that? I need to check out those new belts because I’ve been going through the high grits a lot. Thanks for the info

[@dominicdwk]

I love that chef knife profile.

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

Thanks!!

[@awesomegod91]

Great video, thanks for taking the time to put it together.

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

Thank you!

[@user-xf4es7eh9y]

easy. just sand it to like 1000 then hit it with ~3um diamond on a buffer or whatever and you got a mirror. follow up with something even finer and it will be a mega mirror. takes no time with something like diamond.

[@stacyvancil6295]

That looks awesome (I know it is hard to pick up the micro-scratches on video but still looks great). I will have to look into those Red Label belts, I have not tried them but would love an alternative to the 220-400 grit AOs. Excellent video!

[@danielnovacik4924]

Love that profile. Any chance you could share it somehow? Anyways, awesome vid as always, thanks mate!

[@chrispulvirenti113]

Looks like a mirror to me. Nice!

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

Thank you!

[@donbunker7781]

Thanks for sharing

[@billclancy4913]

Have you tried the Orion sanding stick? It takes a lot of stress off your fingers.

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

I haven’t!

[@jrk1666]

I try to never jump more than 50% in belt grit, its expensive to start but rarely do I have to walk black a grit. 60-80-100-150 in ceramic 180-220 trizac, then surface conditioning and then a bare cork belt with brown crome and then another with green crome

[@chrisdrew2110]

Have you thought about going to a higher grit on the grinder to save yourself all that hand sanding time. I go to 800 grit in the grinder and hand sand at 600 grit for a satin finish. It only takes me about 30 min to hand sand an edc size blade. After 120 ceramic I switch to the trizac belts to 800.

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

I want to try that!!

[@cavemandanwilder5597]

@@gentrycustomknives8008FWIW I’ve also seen folks use a disk grinder in a similar way to reduce hand sanding time.

[@chrisdrew2110]

@@gentrycustomknives8008 your fingers and elbows will thank you.

[@davidcoalkey6074]

I used to work for a company that built dairy farms. We would send a lot of our stainless steel parts out to be electropolished. It's like the reverse of electroplating. The parts would always come back with a beautiful mirror finish. I wonder if that is something that could be used in blade making.

[@nfitzsim]

Depends on the knife. My job we assume .0005 stock removal for electropolish, that could cause issues for folding knives. Fixed blades I imagine it would be just fine

[@Qpid13]

Great stuff as always my man! Any chance you could drop a link to the polishing wheels you use? I am about to buy some new ones and interested in trying what you use.

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

Should be in the video description 👊👊

[@JustJimJr]

Thanks for your knowledge. Is there an easy way for sanding/polishing? Dremel? Y😂yeah i know. What type of sand paper do you use? I just got a bunch of Japanese knives that need help. Thanks!

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

I like the indasa rhino wet paper!

[@Slide4949]

do you do all the belt grinding steps then heat treat. After heat treat the hand sanding? Where does the heat treat come into the mix?

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

Heat treat before any grinding

[@user-ed9vu9wj1v]

How hard did you leave the blade?

[@johnwilliams242]

Another great video... but I have to ask, given the quality and progression of belts these days, is there really a need to hand sand at all? (there's always exceptions) As opposed to belt sanding to a good 400 or 600 grit finish then going to the four-stage airway wheels. This would save a LOT of time and aggravation at the bench hand sanding...

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

Definitely could do that!

[@aaronhankins453]

Hey there, I was wondering how these compact belts differ from cork belts? They look similar. I use cork belts currently so wanted to check before I bought some compacts. I too hate how I typically go through one 220 AO belt per knife. Thanks

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

Good question! I’m pretty sure they are almost the same thing

[@norcalbowhunter3264]

Hey I was hoping you might have an answer to an issue I’m having. When I hand sand my knives as I step up in grit I notice I see weird spots on my blade. It’s kinda hard to describe. It’s just like little patches of metal that looks different. It’s not scratches or anything like that, it just looks different. Would you happen to have an idea of what might be causing this?

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

Could be decarb from heat treat? What steel type

[@norcalbowhunter3264]

@@gentrycustomknives8008 I believe it is 1084. I've had it for a while, so I really forget, bought it in bulk. I looked up knife decarb on the internet and it doesn't look like the pictures I saw, not that I am saying it isn't. I don't notice it until I sand my knife in the really high grits. Like 600+ grits. I guess a better way to say it, is that it doesn't look uniformed. It looks sanded, and it looks okay, but when I hold it under the light you can really tell. It almost feels like I am sanding it wrong, but I've followed so many videos and spent hours working on knives to the same result. I've just been doing 220 grit finish jobs and then putting something like a stone wash on the blade because of it.

[@richardbranton190]

I absolutely hate hand sanding it just kills me hands. I hate it so much i just ordered the sandshark from Tyrell. I want to do some mirror polishing but I only make hunting knives and I think they will get scratched up really bad in the sheath. Do you polish hunting knives at all or am I correct in saying that? Thanks

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

If I do a mirror finish it definitely goes in leather

[@dominicdwk]

How do I get in on the Wraffle?

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

Go to my website!

[@dominicdwk]

@@gentrycustomknives8008 done. I didn’t seen the email before posting. That’s a beautiful chef knife

[@danielbottner7700]

Mirror polish seems to make food stick to my blades. It's a beautiful presentation, but from my experience, not practical for many kitchen knives.

[@gentrycustomknives8008]

That’s a bummer! I was thinking it would perform good, I’ll have to do some testing with it

[@jonfyfazan]

👏👏🔪👌🇳🇴🤠