Anyone use wheel grinders?

Phil705

Phil705

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When I began knife making I purchased an 8" Grizzly grinder, one wheel is medium, the other more abrasive. Somehow I thought I would use it in blade grinding or sharpening. As of today I think I have maybe used it less then 30 minutes in three years.

I use my belt grinder constantly, but should I be using the grinding wheel more and for what?


Phil Millam
Winthrop WA

ps Looking forward to meeting some of you guys at the Blade West show in Portland. Too bad I can't make the BBQ!
 
If you have a belt grinder you will probably never use a wheel grinder. I don't think I have one in my shop. If I do it has buffing wheels on it. In that case I have 3.
 
dont use a grinding wheel on your knives unless you want to ruin them. they are not meant for knives. use your belt sander.
 
I made more knives on wheel grinders than I have my coote so far and it definitely didn't ruin them, it just took an obscene amount of hand sanding to get good finishes. I hollow ground a lot of knives on an 8" bench grinder, but the finish from a 120 grit stone leaves a hell of a lot to be desired:eek:

You could use the wheel grinder for rough profiling, removing forge scale, knocking off corners etc. All the stuff that is hard on belts.
 
thats what i started on the problem is that the size of the wheel changes as you use it so you constantly have to change how you grind to get your grind lines consistant i still use one to get scale off or rough out shape sometimes but thats about it
 
I used mine in place of a metal bandsaw to profile the shape. I've never tried to do actual blade grinding with it.
Now that I finally got a bandsaw, I'll never go back. :D
 
i did the same thing, i bought one to make knives and found out that it wasn't much good for that. i didn't use it for quite some time until i got my belt sander, at which time i started using it quite a bit.

i commonly use it to rough blanks out of barstock. i have gone through the original set of wheels, wore them all the way down to useless. i have since bought two new stone disks, haven't used them much yet.

i use the grinder very frequently with hard cardboard buffing wheels as hard strops loaded with a couple of different compounds, a course and a finer compound. i use these to do the final polish on the edge and to break the burr before hand stropping. they work very well in this regard.
 
I don't see how using a bench grinder on knives is a bad thing. They tend to generate quite a bit of heat so it would definitely be bad to use it on a heat treated blade. I don't think anyone who knows anything about knives would do that though. Other than that, I use mine quite a bit to rough out the corners and handle areas on blade blanks. It tends to save me on either wearing out belts or digging out the old angle grinder for doing really rough work.
 
I say use it for profiling, as mentioned above. Tai Goo does that, afik, probably some others too. Bench grinders go very fast and I think could be particularly dangerous with the built-in rest attached. Also, as mentioned, they will get your blade hot, so it's pointless if you want to grind after heat treat.
 
I'm just starting out, seven knives so far, but every one has been ground on a 6" bench grinder. I hacksaw my profiles rough, then use the grinder for profiling. I use it to rough cut the bevels, then draw file the rest. Got a hankerin' for a belt grinder for sure, but if all you have is a bench grinder and a bunch of files, you can still make a decent knife. It does get the steel hot, but if you pay attention, and keep a cup of water on your bench, you can control the heat. With so much hand work involved, the grinder is pre-heat treat only for me.
 
My dad gave me his old one, I use it in profiling after drilling/sawing, before file-finishing of the profile. I think it's a 6" wheel, I don't use it for any beveling.
 
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The traditional knife grinding wheel is 36" dia ! They still use them.
 
My cheapo 8" Harbor freight grinder is an indespensible tool in my shop. I use it for profiling, initial beveling, and removing serrations on file knives. I took the rests off and use the entire free wheel. I work bare handed w/ a slack bucket nearby so ruining the heat treat has never been an issue. much cheaper than eating up belts while "hogging out" material. IMO
 
"I took the rests off and use the entire free wheel"..me too
no chance of getting pulled in and caught on the toolrest.

My biggest use - i have thin abrasive cutoff wheels mounted (8" or 10" chopsaw blades)
Works like an angle grinder blade
great for cutting steel and initial profiling - very aggressive and fast
not affected by scale
cheaper and more durable than belts
 
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Depends on what stones you have in the thing, some actualy cut the steel, and don't just create friction/heat. Personaly for ultra rough work I use a handheld angle grinder.

What about a 8 or 9" grinding / sanding disk unit? I think it would be great to true up flats on forged knives.
 
It took me about 5 minutes of grinding on a wheel grinder to discover that it wasn't any fun to me. The noise and vibration of grinding on a wheel was just too much for me. I switched to the angle grinder, and though it's not much better as far as noise, it sure if faster. Plus the curtain of sparks it throws is alwasy fun. Now I have a portaband set up, but I haven't used it to profile any blades yet. Just handle scales so far. So we'll see how I like that.

I haven't used my wheel bench grinder in so long that, after my scroll saw broke, I just unplugged them both and moved that tool table out of the way (they're mounted side by side on the same table).

--nathan
 
some wheels will glaze very easily...then they don't do much at all..
make sure to dress them first and they'll start eating again..

there good for pullin scale off a blade... specially hard scale like that on L6
- i think what keeps people away from wheels is typically how under powered they are ... bet if they came with a true 3/4hp motor... they'd be more respected.

G;)
 
AcridSaint said:
I say use it for profiling, as mentioned above. Tai Goo does that, afik, probably some others too. Bench grinders go very fast and I think could be particularly dangerous with the built-in rest attached. Also, as mentioned, they will get your blade hot, so it's pointless if you want to grind after heat treat.
Click to expand...

Yep, a wheel grinder is the only kind I currently own. I had a several belt grinders, but got rid of them. I forge close to shape, use the wheel grinder to touch up the profiles and file the flats, use hand stones, papers etc on the bevels. I've had the same wheels, medium and course for over 3 years without much wear on them...

I think belt grinders are restrictive, and folks tend to design blades that suit the machine. Once you lay that blade against that two inch wide belt you are committed to that surface, flat or radius. It also makes things like modulating the bevel angle and doing more complex compound or radii and/or modulated hollow bevels much more difficult,… if not impossible. Those types of things would just get screwed up with a belt grinder. It's the subtle things that make the forged and primarily hand stock reduced knives geometrically much more sophisticated than knives knocked out on a belt grinder and/or milling machine…

It may be more labor intensive my way, but I think it's worth it in the long run. However, it may take your most knowledgeable and discerning collectors to appreciate the difference.
 
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