Coarse Sandpaper Recommendations?

[Eating Pie]

I just reprofiled an S30V knife, and it took…. FOREVER! UGH. Obviously the 50 stones would have come in handy here, but I just can’t justify the cost for something I will only use a few times (I probably would never even get them broken in).

A cheap solution would be coarse Sandpaper. I already use the 3M micro fine paper at 1u and .3u, and it works great. This is paper designed for sharpening and holds up well for multiple uses (and mirrored the S30V!). So a few questions.

Is there coarse sandpaper designed/recommended for sharpening?

Anyone used coarse sandpaper with the Wicked Edge? I always like to hear experience/advice on new things!

Thanks.

-Pie

[Ken Buzbee]

Just stop in to the local auto parts store and get the wet dry. They generally carry 400-2000. Not sure about anything coarser than 400 though.

Meguiars makes some that’s a little better (more uniform) 400-3000 iirc. Autogeek carries it, among others.

I’ve used it on lots of knives, but never with the WEPS.

Ken

[Tom Whittington]

I have a bunch of auto body wet/dry from 1000 to 3000 but nothing less. I don’t see why coarser grits of aluminum oxide or silicon carbide paper wouldn’t work though. I have rolls of 120, 240 and 320 hanging around that I usually use on stock finishing, but I haven’t used that on the WEPS thus far. Maybe when I resharpen my kukris I’ll try that since it’ll need something aggressive.

[Phil Pasteur]

The problem with most sandpaper is that it doen’t last very long when used as you would like to do.
I used to use sandpaper quite a bit when I first got my WEPS, but like ApexGS… never the coarse stuff. I did use 600 grit some, but that would not help you.

You can get diamond films from Ken Schwartz that go as low as 40 grit IIRC. But he will only sell them mounted to AL or glass last I checked. By the time you did that and got paddles, I don’t think you would save much money, if any. You could search for the 3M diamond films, though I did that once and could not find anything but large lots for industrial use.

To answer your question directly, to my knowledge there is not any coarse grit sandpaper that is designed for sharpening.. but you might be able to use the 3M Diamond PSA stuff, if you can find it and mount it.

You might just think about getting the coarse diamonds from WEPS. They probably will be used again down the road.
A man can’t have too many tools because the right tool for a job will save much time and frustration.

How long did it take you to reprofile the blade in question? If you cut that in half, would the time saved be worth $65 ???

[R. Jeffrey Coates]

“How long did it take you to reprofile the blade in question? If you cut that in half, would the time saved be worth $65 ???”

>>> not to mention you would have it for future use as well. I do not have 50 / 80s …YET But if I did I am sure I could/would find a use for them. Especially on first sharpenings of a knife.

[Eating Pie]

How long did it take you to reprofile the blade in question? If you cut that in half, would the time saved be worth $65 ???

Well, let me put it this way. If I took that time and cut it in half, my wife would still kill if she knew how much I spent on the WEPS in the first place! 😀

I’ve kind of been taken by surprise here. I actually thought there was an abundance of low-grit sandpapers for sharpening! Especially given how well the high grit 3M PSA paper works. Bummer man!

What would be ideal is if I could get the stones and paddles unattached. That way I could use something like double-sided tape and only attach the 50/80s when I need them. I’d then have the paddles available for something like a balsa strop.

-Pie

[Blunt Cut]

Get cheap 1×30 AluminumOxide sanding belt resin cloth back, 40 thru 2K grit. Want ceramic 40-120 grit, get norton blaze belt. Cut & resin/expoxy, then heavy grinding away. Ok to wet grind too. These strips are very durable and will last a long while (many reprofile).

Remember to clean loose low grit/particles to minimize unwanted scratches.

[Eating Pie]

Get cheap 1×30 AluminumOxide sanding belt resin cloth back, 40 thru 2K grit. Want ceramic 40-120 grit, get norton blaze belt. Cut & resin/expoxy, then heavy grinding away. Ok to wet grind too. These strips are very durable and will last a long while (many reprofile).

Remember to clean loose low grit/particles to minimize unwanted scratches.

Awesome!!

I now have a query out to Lee Valley on their Blue Zirconia vs. Aluminum Oxide belts. At under $4.00 per set of belts, this is exactly what I was looking for!

Thanks!!

-Pie

[Ken Schwartz]

For steel like S30v, diamonds and CBN are the way to go. Aluminum oxide based solutions are not. Solutions include diamond papers (I have them down to 165 microns), plates (I have Atomas down to 140 grit which work quite nicely), the plates that come with the Wicked Edge and diamond and CBN sprays and other formulations. I have CBN as coarse as 80 microns and even some 200 and 300 micron preparations. I also have other diamond and CBN solutions for sharpening S30v. You can also apply CBN on waterstones which lets s30v sharpen with relative ease.

Plates generally don’t go past 1200 grit so here you should use diamond films or compounds. I have a full range of CBN grits so it is certainly possible to use these for the entire sharpening process.

Using waterstones alone without CBN on it or papers with alox ir sic is just an exercise in suffering.

—
Ken

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