Thanks guys for the help here...it is much appreciated. The knife is very much intended to be a user so it's not required to win beauty contests...but the purpose of stripping and going for a double cut finish is to enable a hard use knife to be "kept well" and to appear looked after...so it will get done again.

I know I have the belts available to take off the D/C and bring the knife to a mirror finish if need be by using the belt sander...but that can take a lot of steel out of the blade...the other way is laborious but using a simple electric sander can get rid of the infi marks if need be...I have done that on a skinny ash before...it just takes a while...anyway...we will see how it goes.

The aspect of "dirty media" strikes me as true...if the draw on the machine was not cleaned out...there is every liklihood the media was past it's sell by date.

This friend though is pretty well into knives and was the original importer of custom knives into the UK...he has re-done my Vought knife three times in the past with no problems...but I think it is truely down to the finish you start with before double cutting. I should have given him a better finish before he started...no worries though...that can easily be sorted for next time.

These trials and learning curves are all part of the "knowledge" that you acquire and benefit from in the long run...ultimately I could afford a CG NMFBM...and I could'nt have sprung for an LE version...so learning the DIY route is the only way to go...