Sanded blades and duel durability

[Obi-Ben]

So, sanding blades with a fine grit can improve light diffusion and make for a more even blade, but how does this affect its durability? Just to be clear, I'm not concerned with the blade breaking in half. Rather, is a sanded blade less resistant to surface wear from dueling? I would imagine it would be more prone to marks and impact abrasions because a sanded exterior is softer. After all, when you sand the blade, you're removing tiny bits of the outside.

Has anyone experimented with this? I don’t have anyone to experiment with right now to know how dueling can mar the surface of even an unmodified blade-tube. Does anyone have a picture of a heavily used and abused blade, sanded or unsanded, that they can share?

[Luke-SkyMarcher]

I sand the outsides of all my blades. Dueling really hasn't beat them up noticably IMO. And the great thing is, if they do get battered somewhat smoother, all you need to do is take sandpaper to them again and - good as new! (almost)

[Shadar Al'Niende]

On a side note (forgive me luke)

What grit does everyone like to use to sand their blades with?

[Luke-SkyMarcher]

600 grit is what I normally use. Most people use something a little rougher, something in the area of 400, I think. I just use 600 because that is what I have a good amount of on hand. It works for me.

[cardcollector]

I always thought you sanded the INSIDE of the blade.

Wouldn't a blade sanded on the outside make it... uncomfortable to get hit when dueling?

[FenderBender]

600 grit is great. Any lower and it gets TOO much. and dims it I think. CC, it doesn't change the texture so much as it gets rid of the outer glare from outside light sources and diffuses the blade light enough to make it look fuller.

[Jedi-Loreen]

No cc, it doesn't rough up the blade that much.

It's also a lot easier to evenly sand the outside of a blade.

I use 400 grit on my TCSS battle blades and go around the diameter, not down the length. It can give a slight effect like the Corbin film does when you do it that way. But you need a little coarser grit to make the "lines" around the tube.

[Clockwork]

I'm going to have to go with CC on this one. I always sand the inside of my blades with a sandblaster (granted, this makes it easy to get it evenly sanded). I have both outer and inner sanded blades and there is no comparison. The inner sanding completely gets rid of the "light in a tube" look.

[Luke-SkyMarcher]

I actually do both. I sand the outside and sandblast the inside. It can really make a difference with a 3/4" blade, since it helps cause the whole blade to light up, not just the inside.

[Count Malik]

I also have sanded my some blades, i have mixed emotions about them however. In some cases it helped and in others it didn't... but in the term of dueling... no they dont show any dents chips... a few scraches though (but its polycarbonite it will scrach eventually... when dueling) but its hardly noticable and doesn't take any effect of color out of the blades brightness.