bench grinder for sharpening

J

jwalker497

Joined
Jul 28, 2007
Messages
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I love my knives of all kinds but I am TERRIBLE at sharpening. I dont have the time or the inclination, I want a system that is simple and quick and effective. I came acrrorososs bench grinders and I wasnted to hear your thoughts if there was a good grinding system that can simplify this issue for me.

As an aside note, I am first and foremost looking for a system for my edc knives but it wuold also be nice to be able to charpen household and garden stff like axes and machetes, etc.

Any products fit the EDC and or Both roles?

Thanks
 
As a rule of thumb, a grinder doesn't make things easier, it just makes things faster. If you're not at least baseline competent at sharpening manually you run a high risk of destroying a blade on a grinder.
 
Yep, not a good idea to get/use a grinder if your not skilled at sharpening already. Not only can you very quickly ruin a blade because of how fast it can take metal off but, a grinder can also very quickly overheat a blade and/or its edge completely destroying its temper/heat treatment if your not very careful.

I suggest you look at controlled sharpening systems like the Wicked Edge, Edge Pro, exc.
 
Viel S3... That's what I grind (and sharpen) all my knives on.
 
That's awesome Armadew!!!
I love the fact that Matt grinds blades while wearing leather! Too cool!
Joe
 
perhaps with a set of those paper wheels specifically ment to sharpen knives... but not with a stone wheel no.... not unless VERY proficient.
 
Work Sharp KO with blade grinding attachment is what I use, easy to set the angle and I can turn the speed down to keep from removing to much metal too quickly.

That Viel S3 looks nice though, first I've seen it, bet it gets the job done in quick order.
 
I have been using grinders for 45 years. Skyhorse and others are right on when they say grinders are unforgiving. The Worksharp is probably the way to go as an intro. to paper wheels, belt sanders and buffers. Learning how to manually sharpen proficiently will be a skill that will never leave you and will teach you about angles, bevels, and the steels your knives have. If you do get a Worksharp or other grinding type sharpener start out with inexpensive knives to get the hang of it.
 
I use a 1x42 Kalamazoo grinder, it's nice slow speed works well for sharpening.

I recommend against the use of powered sharpening systems though, you will ruin more knives than you will fix without already having good sharpening skill. For a new sharpener it will be nothing but bad and lead to very poor habits.
 
A bench grinder is never a good idea. People do sharpen on belt grinders, but you need to be careful not to over heat (ruin the temper) the blade. It takes practice. The Ken Onion Work Sharp would be a good choice if you like the power tools route.

Don't be the guy who does this to a beautiful blade.
[video=youtube_share;bRbmzk9V9fA]http://youtu.be/bRbmzk9V9fA[/video]
 
I don't honestly think you can sharpen a knife at machine speeds without water cooling and NOT damage the temper of the edge. It might only be the smallest part of the edge, but that's the part that does the cutting.

Might as well just use a strip of mild steel at that point.
 
Consider a Tormek wet grinder sharpener. Its ten inch wheel runs very slow , and is water cooled. They have an eight innch size as well.
Expensive but very cool.
 
Another vote for the WorkSharp-KO Edition, with the Blade Grinding Attachment. Easy angle control and variable speed eliminate most of the issues high speed grinders present.
 
I've been using the Ken Onion worksharp on a number of my knives; no adverse affects to report here FWIW...

Same goes for my paper wheel setup.


Aren't pretty much all factory edges ground on a belt grinder?
 
If by bench grinder you mean the cheeap tool with the hard abrasive wheels sold at most hardware stores... then noooooooo You will do more damage than good. destroying the heat treat at the edge and taking WAY too much steel.

IF you mena a purpose ebuilt belt grinder for grinding or sharpening knives, then... maaaaybeee.... But likely you're still going to do more damage than good.

A simple guided hand system works great and takes no time at all if you know what you are doing. If you don't have the time or inclination, then send them out to a professional sharpener. Josh at Razor Edge on here does some impressive work. and can even reshape/regrind a blade if it needs lots of love, or an improvement in cutting ability. He uses a water cooled belt grinder... so no loss of heat treat.

As was said above, if you don't know how to sharpen then a power tool will only let you not sharpen them faster. and do more harm than good. Depending on the steel and the heat treat it can take surprisingly little to "burn the edge" or soften the apex..
 
Czechmate said:
Aren't pretty much all factory edges ground on a belt grinder?
Click to expand...

And many factory edges are often remarked to chip very easily, and then "clean up" after a manual sharpening. In most cases this is simply the damaged edge steel being removed.
 
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