A quick tutorial...

[Phillip Patton]

Howdy!
Well, it's been awhile since I contributed much to this forum, so I decided to share something that has made my life a lot easier. Maybe you all are using techniques and tooling like what I'm about to describe; if so, forgive me for wasting bandwidth. Anyway, here goes.

I like recurve blades. A lot. And it just so happens that many of my customers like them too, which means I make them now and again. Now, recurves are not the easiest blade to grind, in fact, probably the most challenging, particularly the "inside" curve. That area is just a pain to try to grind well using a flat platen, because the edges of the platen like to grind grooves there.
So, I decided to make a grinding attachment for grinding that inside curve. Here it is:

The surface is leather (richard j gave me the idea for using leather. Thanks Richard!), which I ground to a radius which pretty closely matches the curves on most of the recurve blades I do.

Here you can see the curve on the surface:

Here's what a blade looks like coming off the grinder using this attachment:

 

[Phillip Patton]

I made this thing several months ago, and fell in love with it. Having it come off the grinder that smooth and clean makes hand sanding soooo much faster and easier.

But one thing I've been having trouble with is keeping the grind lines nice and sharp through the hand sanding steps. I had two sanding sticks, one flat, plain micarta, the other flat with rubber glued on. Well, the rubber one tends to wash out the grind lines, and the flat hard stick didn't work very well because of the curves.

So today I made another one. I just ground it on a slack belt to give it a gentle curve for sanding that "inside" curve on the blades.

Here it is:

And here is a blade handrubbed using the new stick:

Sorry for the poor pictures; I should have used my lightbox...

Hope this helps someone.

Phillip

 

[Tinbasher]

Thanks for that info, I am about to try my first recurved blade and I was wondering how to go about grinding it,
Richard

 

[richard j]

i'm gald to see what i showed you is working out and making things easier. good post too. the next time you come over i'll show you some more tricks that you can use.

 

[Ryan Minchew]

Thanks for showing that. The second knife I made was a recurve that a draw filed, I've never tried one now that I have a grinder. After seeing this I might have a go at it for grins.

 

[jll346]

Great info. Thanks for sharing.:thumbup:

 

[go mike]

Thanks for all of those pics. They explained a lot more than words ever could.

 

[tito]

Man, I wish I'd read this two weeks ago - might have saved a blade...

 

[WalterDavis]

Thanks! I've been wanting to do a curved, double-edged blade and I think I might be able to do it now!

 

[Patrice Lemée]

That's cool.

Thanks for sharing.

Patrice

 

[Edro20]

Phillip you are amazing. WOW. You're a natural. Very great stuff.:thumbup::thumbup:

 

[robloveday]

Great tip Phillip. I'm going to make one. I would really like to see pictures of the entire blade, and hopefully the finished knife when you get a chance.

 

[Dan Pierson]

Thanks a lot for the tutorial. I need to make one some day.

 

[Matthew Gregory]

Phillip, you're just too cool. I'm going to have to try that...


You going to Blade this year?

 

[ddavelarsen]

Man that's some beautiful grinding Phillip! :thumbup: The curved platen is a great idea.

 

[Sam Salvati]

Phillip, don't you have a rotary platen? Wouldn't this accomplish the same thing? I LOVE the idea of the leather.

 

[blgoode]

Man I dont think I could attempt that withought knowing I'd screw it up. GREAT WORK!!!!

 

[ArtinNC]

I have a question what kind of glue did you use on the leather and how long does the leather last??
I know it doesn't make any differance how long the leather lasts if you get a good grind and finish.

Thanks, Art

 

[jim moyer]

Sweet grind lines Phillip.

 

[DCL_dk]

Thanks for sharing this will remember this for when ii build my kmg style grinder

DC