Hi, This may be a bad idea, but I'll ask anyway. Would it make sense to use a Norton Wetstone 4000/8000 grit (I use a straight razor so I use this to sharpen it from time to time)? A stone like this is very flat and very smooth so it seems like it might work well with reed plates (draw plates, right(?) as I don't intend to remove the blow reeds). However, never having done this, I don't want to do something stupid.
Last Edited by on Aug 19, 2012 11:44 AM
I don't know how big it is, but to get the reedplate flat, I find having a big flat surface area on which to lay a big piece of sandpaper advantageous. Is the surface of the stone perfectly flat? Also, if I could only move an inch or so in either direction it would take me all day.
I use mostly 320 grit sandpaper for reedplates. I find 400 grit takes forever! I had used 600 grit a few times and may sometimes use that as a finishing touch, but I wouldn't choose to use that high a grit for the whole job.
Good points. With regard to flatness, I think the stones are very flat. However, they may not be big enough to move the reed plates around easily. I may still try it a little and see what happens. Thanks.
@arzjac - I am a big fan of the granite surfacing block + sheet of sandpaper system. I sharpen my chisels that way and get them sharp enough to shave with. You say 320 takes less time than 400 - makes me wonder what the question is. Your goal, I think, is to get the plates flat, and have a good finish. If you need to start with 220, or 150, 0r 100 = there's nothing wrong with that. The trick is to choose the right grit to do whatever cutting/shaping you want to do and get it done. Then it is a fairly quick process to proceed up through finer grits to get the surface finish you want. (When I sand wood shells to remove a scratch or flaw, for example, I spin them on the lathe and start with 400 but go all the way to 12,000 wet before final polish.)
Anyway - if you simply sand in a different direction on the reed plate - say, 30 degree angle to the left for the 120 pass, 30 degrees to the right for the 180 pass,or whatever - then you can quickly see when the finer grit paper has removed all the scratches from the previous grit. If you can still see scratches from the previous pass, you haven't gone far enough. When all the scratches are in your current direction, move on to the next grit. Done. Once you pass 600 it becomes very difficult to see the actual scratches but for this purpose wet @ 600 is probably more then enough. ---------- /Greg
My goal is flatness. Finish is less important since I cannot appreciate any difference in airtigntness with any grit beyond 400. I would even argue that 320 grit may be as good as I really can tell but I am biased by the appearance.
I do not want to take off too much material and so I am hesitant to start off at a lower grit than I have to. And "better" is the enemy of "good" - If i work on the finish, I run the risk of doing something I don't want to such as making the surface lopsided. I guess I never found I needed to finish the surface to a scratch-free shine. And I think of myself as being picky about flatness/airtightness.
Rgsccr, Using a stone that fine would take nearly forever. Stones like that are for polishing more than sanding, and like Greg Heuman said they are not flat.
Richard Sleigh has a video showing sanding of a reed plate.
Thanks everyone. Good info - I'll give it a try with the wet/dry sandpaper and a flat surface. I googled Richard Sleigh to find the video Harpengr is referring to, but couldn't find it. Does anyone have a link? Rich
400 Wet/Dry on a flat surface...count your strokes. This will work on things other than brass too. ---------- Mike VHT Special 6 Mods Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas - When it needs to come from the soul...
@harpninja - if the plate isn't flat to begin with, you'll be there all day with 400. You can do it - you're just wasting your own time. Just watch the scratch pattern. If you start with something like 320 or 400, after a very few strokes you'll see how flat the plate is or not. Then you can jump up to a coarser grit - just sand until the bright parts are all gone, then work back up through the finer grits, using a different direction each time as I said to make it easier to see whether the last grit's scratches are all done. Polishing is nothing more than replacing coarser scratches with finer ones until you can't see them any more, and beyond. ---------- /Greg
It has to be really wet. I do this everyday and it goes faster than when I used to use 220 dry (i'd get the kind that doesn't clog too). You get a nice polishwithout even moving up in grit.
I hated flat sanding with dry paper. It clogged, was inconsistent, and dirty. You can use a fair amount of pressure with the wet paper, fwiw.
I check things against a flat piece of glass...no issues.
Who said anything about dry? You can get wet-sand paper all the way down to 80 grit, probably below.
Check things against a flat piece of glass? You cannot see 400 grit imperfections. You should SAND on a piece of thick glass for flatness, or better yet a granite surfacing block - they are surprisingly reasonable and are what I use. You should not use too much pressure or you will just be bending the plate as you sand it - so all bets are then off about whether it is flat. You determine flatness by observing the scratch pattern.
I don't sand reed plates for a living. But I make wood mics, which takes using chisels, which have to be sharpened (aka evened out/flattened) - I get mine sharp enough to shave with. When I start they look all scratchy from the 80 grit I use to get a complete new surface (that's only on severely damaged tool or one I've never sharpened before.) When I'm done they have a mirror finish. I go way past 400 - but that would be totally unnecessary on a reed plate. ALL done wet. Here's another hint - put a drop of detergent in your spray bottle - helps the water sit down/soak into the paper. ---------- /Greg
I have another question, I hope you guys don't mind. By the way, I really appreciate all of the help people on this forum are willing to offer. I found the Richard Sleigh video on sanding the draw reed plate, and it appeared to me he did it dry. Was I missing something, or can you do this dry? I experimented with a Lee Oskar E that I don't play often, starting with 220, then 320, 400 and finally 600 (all dry but using wet-dry paper). I taped the sandpaper down on a piece of tempered glass, and followed the pattern he shows. While this seemed to work, but the question is whether or not the paper needs to be wet. Thanks. I also gently did a bit of gapping. I think the harp plays a little better (not that I noticed much of problem before.
Last Edited by on Aug 20, 2012 11:54 PM
Here's my 2 cents: When you sand wet - you can spray the back of the paper and then there is no need to tape it - it will hold itself. When you sand wet you can rinse metal powder away easily. When you sand wet you get more even results and the paper lasts much longer. With all that said, there's nothing WRONG with sanding dry but it will be harder to "feel" what's going on - particularly if there is some oversized particle trapped in the work (probably not an issue with reed plates sin e they would end up in the slot) ---------- /Greg
As usual, Greg is spot-on. I just though I'd add a link to a 9"x12"x2" thick granite surface plate, $35.35 shipped (continental US). I have a couple. Many uses!
