![Embarassed :oops:](./images/smilies/icon_redface.gif)
of course you are right,Rockwell, I play with cast bullets, It must be getting to me.
After bringing to rough shape using a 36 or 80 grit belt on my 2X72" belt grinder I just keep going over it with successively finer grit belts down to about 220 grit. I then clamp it to a wood block in the vice and further draw sand with wet or dry paper until I get down to at least 400 grit before heat treat.
600 grit is even better as the blade will be easier to clean up after heat treat. After heat treat I block sand in steps starting at about 320 or 360 working up to at least 600 again. Block sanding this way makes for a very clean and straight surface. Any flaws in the sanding,no mater how slight, will stand out in the finished blade. I then finish off with a buffing wheel on a bench grinder using white stainless compound. It is very time consuming but the finished knife comes out nice as you can see. It takes about two hours to cover the blade with each sanding grit so I will take several days to do one only working 3-4 hours a day. Say you are sanding with 600 grit and you discover a scratch that 600 won't remove,you will need to go back to400 grit and rework that entire surface before continuing with the 600 grit or it will ruin your final finish. No shortcuts can be made if you want the best possible finish.
The area hardware stores carry wet or dry sandpaper but are very high priced. Find a paint shop that services automotive painters, they will have W&d paper up to 2000 grit and most likely be half the price of the hardware or big box stores. I sand until I feel the grit start to dull and throw it away and get a new piece. Save those worn pieces for other projects that are not as labor intensive.
Great hobby, have fun.
Oh, I forgot to say, this knife looks smaller than it is. The blade is 1/4" thick 2" wide and almost 10" long. One of the things I try to do is to make the design look balanced and graceful so it appears smaller in pictures than it is. That aspect in design is what many knife makers fail on. Draw it on cardboard,cut it out and handle it for a couple days to see how it looks/feels in the hand before cutting steel.