I hit a little milestone! For me, anyway.

Self Made Knives

Self Made Knives

Well-Known Member
I love those "Featured Maker" posts, but there is one question on there that always bugs me! Machine finish or hand sanding. I shoot for a perfect grind every single time and NEVER NEVER NEVER get it. I keep thinking, how in the heck are these guys able to get such good finished grind. I always spend an hour hand sanding.

That is, until just now. I just nailed my first mistake free grind!!! Took that last pass and there it was, I need a football to spike! This is my 15th official blade, not counting a few practice ones. Probably 20 or so overall. Of course the next 15 probably won't be this lucky, but I'm all smiles tonight.
 

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Good stuff Anthony. I'm still a few blades behind you and hand sanding like a demon. Nice to see it will pay off
 
Anthony,
Congrats :clap: and keep going, after the next 20-30 another light bulb or two will go off. Then at a 100 and it keeps happening at a 1000 then 2000 then 3000 and I hope it only stops after I'm gone!
 
Congrats on your accomplishment! In my case I still like the look of a hand rubbed blade compared to a machine finish and find myself doing it more often than not.
 
That sure looks good Anthony - looks just like I "dream" of grinding.... good work.

Ken >
 
Don't get me wrong George, I prefer the looks of a hand finished blade too. What I'm talking about is the hand "shaping" a blade with sandpaper to fix and straighten up grind shortcomings. I spend way more time on the hand sanding than I want to on most of them. They look fine in the end and no one but me knows, but I'm sick of it! This blade will be abrasive blasted and black oxide finish, so nailing a finish grind on this style is a big time saver.
 
Beautiful is a stretch! This is my survival knife design (you guys are probably sick of seeing it) and it's carbon steel. This finish is mainly for corrosion resistance, but it gives is sort of a tactical look too that people seem to like. A couple people have asked for it in stainless, which would probably be a good idea, maybe someday.
 
Very nice work, Anthony. So often when reading your posts, it's like I'm hearing myself talk. We're at very similar points in our knifemaking career, and it's nice to know that the struggles I'm having aren't unique- rather they are the same growing pains everyone seems to have.

Your comment about hand-shaping vs just sanding for the look had me laughing. The first batch of knives I made after getting my grinder left me dumbfounded. I think I ended up draw-filing all of them to get the bevels flat and was pretty pissed about it. "What did I buy a grinder for?! I'm still making knives with files and sandpaper!"

I'm finally getting blades off the grinder that are shaped completely, but I'm a hell of a long ways from taking one off the grinder and calling it done the way I read about on these forums. As if I could take it off the grinder, just put the handle on, and give it to someone. What's worse is that they all look great to me now *UNTIL* I start hand-sanding. Then it's like "why do I grind past 220? I'm just going to start hand sanding there anyway?!"
 
Ok was trying to be kind and sensitive. Why the heck marr up a clean hunk o steel? Lol I figured as much. Wee bit of sarcasm in last post all in good nature though.
 
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