2nd one off the grinder

[Chiro75]

Obviously my grinding skills still have a way to go, but I'm pleased enough for now. This one has a 2" blade and is 5 3/4" OAL. Textured blue G-10 ala Dodo. Full convex grind, clay heat treat. Temper line turned out way different than I expected, but it's fine. Fits my hand great. Ugly, but sharp as heck. This grinding things takes some practice, evidently.
I guess I can't attach the same pics in multiple posts, so go to the For Sale by Makers forum and see the Stubbs McGee post for the rest of them. I would say criticism is welcome, but on second thought, keep it to yourself!

 

[Kim Breed]

Did you think about going back to fileing?? It will work out, grind anything you have even wood to work on form. Have fun, it dosen't look too bad or maybe...................................................

 

[John Andrews]

Looks really good! One thing I would do is round the handle and contour the finger grip grooves.

 

[Chiro75]

Kim, what I have found is that the belts heat up the blade and harden it so cleaning up with files is pretty much impossible. My biggest trouble is getting a plunge grind in that stays there. I tend to just barely bring the knife past it now and then, but with a belt even running at 800 RPM it'll ruin that plunge cut. I'm also having trouble flat grinding high enough on the steel to make it a nice flat grind. The conundrum is that if you keep moving the knife off the belt to see where you
re grinding, the chance that you get it back on that flat you established is slim to none (until you have experience), but at the same time you don't know where you're grinding unless you look! Another thing I'm doing is tending to roll the belt into the choil/plunge area, so I get a decent distal taper rolling the knife out that way, but on the return pass I am lifting the point away from the belt and cutting in more deeply at the choil area. So, essentially, that leaves me with a thick middle section, which sucks.

It's just a matter of developing muscle memory, skills, remembering to watch everything, etc. It's frustrating, though, to kind of see your work go backwards a little. But, I can make a knife in a weekend whereas it was a multiweek project before. The skill will eventually be there.

John, as far as the handle goes, it's deceptive. It looks uncomfortable, I'll admit, but it's great in hand. I usually heavily round and contour all my handles, but since I used textured G-10 I left them flat. Once I rounded the edges of the G-10 a bit I found it to be very comfortable. Looks can be deceiving sometimes! Personally I prefer rounded handles myself, but I wanted to try something different on this one and it actually works, although it looks a little crude.

 

[Will52100]

Trust me, it looks a lot better than the first couple dozen to come off my grinder! Even now though I have to go back with the files and touch up the plung sometimes

 

[Bruce Bump]

At least your first couple are usable, I first tried hollow grinding and my bevels met in the middle and left a big hole in the blade.

 

[ragnoor]

For my purposes, I first set the bevels and plunge cuts with files and then go to the grinder. Seems like alot of more work, at first, but really pays off on the grinder and after HT.

Ken (wwjd)