Hi All

I eventually got around to stripping my ASH-1. I thought long and hard about it, because I suspected the blade would be very rough beneath the coating. I was not disappointed. There are circular grind marks on both sides of the blade, and I have come to the conclusion that I will not be able to sand them off by hand. Not before Christmas, anyway. So, I have decided that since this will be a working blade, I’m going to leave it like that and concentrate on the edge. The spine, also, was very rough but is a lot better after a couple of hours of sanding.

The stripping was easy with paint stripper and took about 30 min to get all the coating off and out of the talon holes. I sanded the spine and blade with 400 and then 600 grit. Although it doesn’t look that smooth, it feels very smooth to the touch and I think this will assist in keeping rust at bay. Alas, no Infi dimples were to be found on the ASH…
Waiting...

Scraped clean

Nice smooth gray

After 400 & 600 grit

Spine

I noticed something interesting (see pictures). Right after stripping the blade it had a nice gray color but I thought the blade was exceptionally smooth and could see no tool marks. However, as soon as I starting sanding the tool marks popped out like magic. Very strange. I guess there is another coating under the coating, so the speak.

Anyway, then on to the edge. I convexed the DMDC last week up to 600 grit (see pics), so started on the ASH. It is only 50% done on one side (right hand side) but taking shape nicely. I do not like the mousepad and sand paper stationary on a table or bench, but use a hand sander that has a rubber backing. This allows me to rotate the sander and the blade when sharpening the tip so that it becomes easier to keep a constant angle. The rubber on the sander is also harder than a mousepad and allows me to put a little pressure on the knife without rounding off the edge. The DMDC will shave hair, but is not as sharp as I would like just yet. I will go up to 2000 grit over the weekend and then strop. I will post update pics on the result.
Start of the stroke

End of the stroke




Dumpster Mutt:

[img]http://www.overlandrover.net/IMG_0663.JPG[/img]
[img]http://www.overlandrover.net/IMG_8195.JPG[/img]

All in all I had fun and the ASH looks so much more substantial now that it’s naked. Funny, but it’s hard to explain. I’m slightly disappointed that the blade wasn’t finished a bit better, but hey, that’s why it’s coated, right?