Thread: Lapping (sanding) Balsa - is it necessary?

All,

As a follow on to my balsa strop question...for those of you that have made Balsa paddles...do you really need to sand it? The off the shelf stuff from Michaels looks/feels pretty flat to me...

Just curious if yall did it!

Chris

Originally Posted by Ru4scuba

All,

As a follow on to my balsa strop question...for those of you that have made Balsa paddles...do you really need to sand it? The off the shelf stuff from Michaels looks/feels pretty flat to me...

Just curious if yall did it!

Chris

Should be fine as long as you glue it
to a good flat surface. Like all wood it will
warp so after gluing a visit to a sheet
of wet dry to flatten it may be called for
but a straight edge will let you see it...

The important point with flat is when
changing hones. Hones with a dish
to them will establish different angles and
as long as the spine keeps lifting up
little by little you will get a good edge.

The bevel set by a flat stone will match
the surface of the next hone more exactly
and minimize the amount of work on each
hone.

A key point: flat is easy to match hone to hone
in a progression while a curved surface is not.
A barber with one finish hone and a jar full
of razors will not care very much as long as his hone
and his razors wear together over time.

When I made a balsa strop I had the balsa glued to piece of hardwood, and I did give it a quick lapping on some sandpaper before I pasted it, just to ensure it was flat.

The other useful thing about balsa is once the paste loads with dwarf you just sand it down to fresh wood and repaste! Much easier than trying to clean a piece of leather or fabric.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Thanks much gents! I assume "dwarf" is leftover metal from the razor?

Chris

Originally Posted by Stubear

... once the paste loads with dwarf you just sand it down to fresh wood ...

Good luck and keep us posted!

Does Snow White and the other six persons of restricted growth know about this, Stu?

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

Does Snow White and the other six persons of restricted growth know about this, Stu?

Regards,
Neil

Hehe! Sorry, that should have read "swarf"...! I was logged on with my phone late last night (am now as well actually!) and the predictive typing thinks it's smarter than me lol...!

Yes, swarf is the tiny metal particles that make the paste go grey.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Originally Posted by Ru4scuba

Thanks much gents! I assume "dwarf" is leftover metal from the razor?

Chris

The keyboard has d next to s.
I suspect the poster wanted to type "swarf"
swarf - definition of swarf by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

swarf (swôrf)
n.
Fine metallic filings or shavings removed by a cutting tool.

When I made my balsa wood hones, I bought a sheet of balsa wood from a hobby shop, cut to size, and glued them to hardwood bases (ran the hardwood over a jointer and through a planer, so I knew the base was flat). Looked pretty flat, but when I first used them, the pattern of swarf (the dark marks or bands) left on the balsa wood clearly showed there was a low spot in the center. Held a straight edge across the wood, and sure enough it was slightly low in the center. Lapped them on sand paper, on a granite block, and fixed the problem. Now the pattern of swarf is even. No point in using balsa wood or anything else unless it is flat.