Hi guys. Sorry if this is a repeat thread, i looked and didn't find one though. Does anybody know where to buy a decent metal (aluminum or steel I suppose) hand sanding block? Something like the one Kevin Cox had in his recent pictures would be ideal. It is a piece of steel (flat i believe) sanded flat with a wedge shape in the center down to an edge for getting into the nooks and crannys of the bevel. I know it seems like it'd be easy to make one but i don't have a milling machine. I'd sand it flat but mdf is the flatest material I have in my shop. I'm also considering having one made if anybody has a decent blueprint. Which reminds me, i need to check Dan's site. He is liable to have something like this....
homesteadknives.com/products/knife-makers-sanding-block makes one here that looks pretty slick. He has a video on youtube about it under simple life. Looks like a pretty good setup. Looking at how they are made if a guy was good with a file and had some patience it would be fairly easy to get a similar block put together. As for a flat surface for truing it see if you can get a piece of tempered glass from a glass shop for cheap. They sometimes have cut offs. I use an old coffee table top that one of my coworkers was going to chuck in the garbage.
ah....right... i watch that channel too. I forgot about his blocks. I'm thinking, though, it may be a big benefit to have the sharp wedge design for really getting into the bevel. I guess it shouldn't matter though. Not like you're going to have less than a 90 deg. angle there. Thanks for the info
I use an old 1/2" wide planer blade that has been annealed. And wrap wood dowels for getting into curves. Hockey pucks sound like a good idea
Hockey pucks... hmmm.... Wow. That just sounds like it would work too. So, do when i cut it in half, do i use the grinder to get a flat edge? I guess my miter saw would make a nice straight cut too. Thanks guys. I need to go buy some pucks. I'm thinking about a hockey puck handle. Or recycled hockey sticks for scales. Sort of go the Canadian identity route and make a knife using recycled hockey stuff. Are skate blades high carbon?
So dumb question. Did you mean cut in half to make 2 semi circles or 2 thinner pucks. I can see both being useful.
You could go either way, if you have a use. But I cut mine into two half circles, with the cut edge being the back for the sanding paper. It fits nicely in your hand. Also, if you make a couple of cuts on either side of the curve, it works well to hold the sand paper in place.
that's what i envisioned but, when i googled about it to see what kind of puck (what kind of rubber specifically, hard/soft) there were a lot of people making sanding blocks by cutting a puck into two thinner circles. Also, there seems to be some commercially available sanding pucks available out there too. Made me think i had it wrong. Thanks Myth
