New is no excuse for dumb.

[Chief RID]

I have found out a couple things the last few days that I am sure most folks know but this newbie to any type of metal work is jumping in and not afraid to try. Thank goodness for pawn shop junkers.

I fired up the dremel and went to experimenting on a broken Schrade 8OT. Let me expound a bit. Polishing with the 414 or 429 with the 421 polishing compound and a light touch just lets you know how rusted, pitted and scratched your blades are. The 425 polishing wheel should be called a scratching wheel instead. The 240 grit sanding drum is nothing but a grinder on a knife blade. A felt wheel at 15,000 rpm will take a pretty good knife tip and turn it into a knife hook if you catch the tip in the wheel.

I am back to the sanding block and wet sandpaper for a while. Oh! sanding drum grinding can start all kind of explosions on your ammo loading bench if you do your knife restoration there.

[TripleF]

Ahhhhhhh yes, the fine lessons of experience!!

Fun though, isn't it?

[muskrat man]

dremels have no place in blade repair/restoration

[Chief RID]

Agreed! I was never the sharpest blade on the bench. I am trainable though.

[coffeecup]

Agreed! I was never the sharpest blade on the bench. I am trainable though.

Well, that's more than they said about me when I started kindergarten . . .

[glennbad]

dremels have no place in blade repair/restoration

Agreed. I've been able to use them for some things, but for most operations, they do not work well for me.

That said, I like to use the sanding drums for smoothing the curved insides of knife springs, and for cutting easy open notches.

Glenn