Rounding Spine

Hi Guys, howya doin'?

I was looking over the collection the other day, and I noticed a few knives that need their spines rounded off. Some of them just came with unfinished spines, and others have acquired nicks from scraping garlic off a garlic press, banging them on pans, etc. I am sort of assuming putting the things in a vice and going all shoeshine-style on them with some sandpaper is the way to go. Anyone done this? What sort of grit or type of paper have you used?

-Scotto

 

I would pad the handle or whatever you put in the vise with towel or something soft to keep the vise teeth from marring you knife.
I suggest taping the blade with a couple of layers of blue masking tape to keep the paper from scratching the blade face.
Now you can sand! :BF

I would start with 120 then once the shape desired is acquired move up to 220, 400 or as far as you care to go.

 

I use automotive sandpaper on linen, P120, to start with.

 

Backing the wet/dry sandpaper with duct tape will make it last longer.

 

I do a push pull while rocking on a 400 stone.

 

I use a stone. but I know just enough to be dangerous.

 

Great thread!

 

I use a stone like a sanding block to round and polish mine.

 

Make some thick leather jaw faces for your knife. Multi-purpose.

 

I started using a 600 grit belt on my 1x42 belt grinder from HF.

Picked up the sander for $42.00 ish and has more than paid for itself in time saved rounding spines.

 

I use sand paper.

 

I have done it using a HF 1x30 sander using a 600 belt like MattS. I didn't have the nerve to use something more aggressive and the 600 has worked well. Also use a Dremel @ 7000 rpm with 120 grit sand wheel to get the edge off. I finish with the shoe shine sand paper method to get a nice round polished spine. As suggested use blue painters tape to tape up the blade face exposing only the area around the spine to be rounded. Buys you a little time on oops's depending on what you are using.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

Get some J-flex belts. 80 grit, 120 grit, 220 grit, etc

cut them through the tape joint to make them long strips and use them like a show shine cloth. they stand up to a 2 hp motor running flat out on a belt grinder, they will stand up to being used by hand.

 

Hi!

I use very cheap grinding sponges first with 80,220,500 and 1000 sandpaper first.. than micromesh pads with 1500 and 4000.. those mm pads make anything perfect, also great for polishing the horn bolsters and remove any gaps between handle and bolster.
Eays cheap and i can sit at my kitchentable and make everything shiny again any time

 

Great thread love reading everyones replies I usually go sanding block but i have used a few different methods mentioned above. I really want to try adding duct tape backing or pennman style j flex belts.
Anyway scotto whatever you choise i hope you share yoyr results

 

I do the ol' 400/1600/3000/5000 grit progression on the 72" belt grinder. Then hit it with some polish to really bring out the mirror. Just to be a pain in the ass, that process literally takes me less than 20mins to do five knives.

I cant imagine making knives or rounding choils/spines without one.

If I was to do it by hand, I would take the corners to 45 degrees with a rough stone then get a 220/400/600 grit linishing belt from the local hardware and shoe shine the bejeezus out of it.

 

Chad, where do you get 1600, 3000, 5000 grit 2X72 belts?

 

For myself, I've found that a slack 240 ceramic belt (XK870F) does a nice job and rounding the spine or at least knocking the corners off.
Doesn't take long to go through the grits but hand from there.

 

Make some thick leather jaw faces for your VISE.