This is a fixture I made for hand sanding my knives. it is just a piece of 1/8" mild steel that I cut in half then shaped the front of the top piece into a blunt point. then welded the other half verticaly to the bottom and then drilled holes and welded nuts onto the bottom over the holes. it clamps into my vice and has 7 bolts that screw up from the bottom, the bolts push a piece of plexi up to support the tip of the blade while you hand sand. I found that when sanding a blade that was just clamped to a board or piese of metal, the tip of the blade would bend downward with every stroke causing wavy sanding lines. using this fixture gives me a rock solid base to realy bear down on the blade when I'm sanding which speeds up the process considerably. less time sanding is a good thing in my book I can't take credit for the idea. I saw it on another forum made by Nick Wheeler but his is way nicer than mine lol
Very nice. I just might need one of those. I dread hand sanding blades and anything that can help the process is top of the list for me.
Could i ask you to repost these pics? I'm having a tough time seeing them. Or if anybody has a knife sanding fixture/vice/holder they could post. I've been using a 2x2 screwed to the edge of my work bench and a screw through a hole drilled in the knife handle. I wrap the 2x2 in shop cloth and tape. It's worked okay so far but, now that I'm figuring out how to hand sand better, it's time to upgrade. Anything to help make the job easier. I don't mind the sanding at all but my fingers ache to high heaven afterwards in my right hand. (arthritis unfortunately).
Mine is like this (sans curvature) A toggle clamp attached to a piece of MDF shelf with plastic veneer. Dan
In an ideal world there would be no hand sanding. I am still not good enough of a freehand grinder guy to be in that world.
Don't forget to hit the yard sales. I picked up a vice like this for $2 because it was rusted solid, soaked over night and it was good to go.
$2 though... what am i made of money? : ) At this point, anything has got to be better than a 2x2 with a screw to hold the blade.
I love the support you built into this. I have that same problem you did. I'm going to "borrow" this idea ; )
Dan, with this holder you must not have a very wide sanding block then? It wouldn't allow you to get flat on the blade because of the width of the board underneath. Most of the sanding blocks i see are wide bars, milled flat (with a sharp front edge). But they are quite wide and wouldn't work with this type of holder. Can I ask, what type of sanding block do you use? I need to upgrade how i sand. I just got my toggle and was going to make something very similar to the LeClair Knives idea. (definitely with the support). But I'm curious about how you use your design. I also need to upgrade my sanding block, it's just a piece of wood. (so sad)
