At the Woodcraft "Make a knife" class last saturday, Joe imparted what might be the single biggest breakthru technique I've ever learned.
When "filing, sanding, scraping, smoothing etc" change directions often.
What does that mean?
Well, lets say you are sanding a board. First move from the lower left to the upper right for say, 4 passes. Now switch, from lower right to upper left. For the sake of argument, make an X pattern.
It makes filing or sanding work a billion times faster.
It has to do with your sand paper/file bottoming out. If you keep going in the same direction, you would reach a point where all your scratches are the same depth. The exact depth of the size of your grit particles.
So, the particles of grit can no longer cut, as the high points of your scratches are hitting the paper backing.
This was amazingly evident when we were shaping our bar of tool steel into a rough knife shape. I'd keep on filing and filing in one direction, making little progress.
Joe stopped by and reinforced his lesson. Suddenly, when I changed filing directions, the material was just coming off at an amazing rate. Also, it was coming off the way I "wanted" it to.
Just yesterday, I was using steel wool to clean off some burnt on food spots in my skillet. I was working and working, making little progress, then I heard Joe's voice.....
Started scrubbing in different, alternating directions, the burnt on food came off almost immediatly.
I hope this helps, it has totally blown my mind.
Thanks,
Jim
When "filing, sanding, scraping, smoothing etc" change directions often.
What does that mean?
Well, lets say you are sanding a board. First move from the lower left to the upper right for say, 4 passes. Now switch, from lower right to upper left. For the sake of argument, make an X pattern.
It makes filing or sanding work a billion times faster.
It has to do with your sand paper/file bottoming out. If you keep going in the same direction, you would reach a point where all your scratches are the same depth. The exact depth of the size of your grit particles.
So, the particles of grit can no longer cut, as the high points of your scratches are hitting the paper backing.
This was amazingly evident when we were shaping our bar of tool steel into a rough knife shape. I'd keep on filing and filing in one direction, making little progress.
Joe stopped by and reinforced his lesson. Suddenly, when I changed filing directions, the material was just coming off at an amazing rate. Also, it was coming off the way I "wanted" it to.
Just yesterday, I was using steel wool to clean off some burnt on food spots in my skillet. I was working and working, making little progress, then I heard Joe's voice.....
Started scrubbing in different, alternating directions, the burnt on food came off almost immediatly.
I hope this helps, it has totally blown my mind.
Thanks,
Jim