knife buildig question?

[amicus]

I ve been working on putting a handle on a Helle knife blank. Im done with the handle and hopefully will post a pic tomorrow. My questions is... how do you get rid of scratches on the blade? I was a little careless and scratch the blade with my dremel. Can I do it with just sandpaper? Should I be able to do it with the dremel and an atthachement? I think the knife came out really nice but the scratches are bothering me. Any help would be appreciated. Gilbert

[joekeith]

Know what ya mean.  I gotta a few scratches on my blade.  I'm waitin' to hear the "proper" way to get rid of 'em.  I'm thinkin' they'll need to be buffed out.  
  Anyone know the best, easist way to get rid of a few "oops" scratches?

[Plywood Bender-laptop]

Well, i would just leave them on this knife and order a new blade.  With the handle mounted, it will be tough to sand down beneath the scratch.  I asssume the marks are fairly deep if coused by a Dremel tool.

On the next one, keep the blade covered in masking tape until the very end.

Carl

[wmcclendon]

As Carl added, keeping the blade covered in tape is the key, but I usually end up with some small scratches that really show up on the polished blade.

I end up clamping the handle in a vice and getting a nice flat bar (12" rule works well) and wrapping this with wet sanding sandpaper.  Start as coarse as you need to get rid of te scratch (I think I usually start with 220 or something) and then work down to 1500 or so.  Always sand in the same direction and keep the paper good and wet.  When you get done, the blade should have a nice polished finish once again.  The only drawback is the Helle name will be gone from the blade.

Good luck!

[varmint]

What if it's a damascus blade??Would the same precedure mess with the pattern??

I've made 2,one for myself and another I gave to a friend.Mine I don't really care about,but the other really bothered me,although my buddy was ecstatic and said it just added character it still bugs me just thinking about it..........

[Jeremy]

varmit, if you scratch a damascus blade you either live with it, or sand/buff out the scratches and re-etch the blade.