how to make a steel doming/dapping punch for jewellery making.

Step 6 Sand the dome

In this step we continue to shape the punch with sand paper and remove the tool marks from the previous step.

Depending on how coarse the file or grinding stone was in the previous step, start with either 80 or 120 grit paper.

With the sanding stick use the same long strokes that you used with the file. The idea is to remove all the tool marks left by the stone or wheel.

Inspect the dome once you have sanded its entire surface. Then take a loose piece of the same grit paper holding the piece of paper in the palm of your hand rotate the dome against the paper. This help to even any out the sanding marks and leaves the dome with a uniform surface for the next grade of paper.

For a scratch free finish it is essential to remove all marks from the previous paper before starting on the next grit. So using the 240grit paper make sure you can't see any deeper scratches left by the 120 paper before progressing on to 320 or 400- It will be impossible to remove these later with having to start the sanding again.

Repeat this step, working your way through the different grits of paper coarsest to finest right up to 1200.