Best cheapest hand held power tool for grinding an edge

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Bare Knuckle Honky

Joined
Apr 9, 2022
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176
What is the best and cheapest for the job , I was told an angle grinder would be good, by a hardware store employee, Any differing opinions?
 
If freehand is an option a cheap belt sander from harbor freight would give the most versatility...

But I feel like some angle control is needed here lol, something like a belt sharpener from worksharp should work.

Definitely not sharpening my Reeve's or Hinderer's with it, but it will put a rough bevel on a peice of 1095 stock lol.
 
I do some stock-removal knife making, and the angle grinder is my best friend! With a 1/4 inch thick cutting wheel, it will hog steel all day! I can get right down to the lines I scribed, and then got right into grinding my bevels! When everything is shaped the way I like it, I switch to an 80 grit flap disc for removing the rough grinding marks. I can go down to 220 grit for sure with that thing, and once I have a proper set of burrs for my die grinder, I will be able to to 99% of my shaping with just those tools.

NOW.....

Are you planning on sharpening a knife with a grinder?

If so, don't.
 
Shorttime said:
I do some stock-removal knife making, and the angle grinder is my best friend! With a 1/4 inch thick cutting wheel, it will hog steel all day! I can get right down to the lines I scribed, and then got right into grinding my bevels! When everything is shaped the way I like it, I switch to an 80 grit flap disc for removing the rough grinding marks. I can go down to 220 grit for sure with that thing, and once I have a proper set of burrs for my die grinder, I will be able to to 99% of my shaping with just those tools.

NOW.....

Are you planning on sharpening a knife with a grinder?

If so, don't.
Click to expand...
It would be used for sharpening a condor engineer bolo as well as sharpening various knives with zero or little to no edge
I have a diamond sharpener and carbide ones and ceramic honing rod but I’m not pleased with the degree of sharpness I can attain
the best edge I can do is: kind cut paper and can cut duct tape sharp,
when I use my Mexican file guy he can get any machete paper cutting sharp with a file which is the standard I’d like to achive
so I though maybe an angle grinder would work I am a white belt at sharpening and my friend is a black belt, so I thought cheating using an angle grinder might work.
 
shane45-1911 said:
Yes.

What are you talking about? Putting an edge on a knife? As in re-sharpening?? Or are you simply trying to make a crude prison shank????
Click to expand...
I recently heard schrade machetes aren’t heat treated, which is nuts I can’t believe anyone would own a machete or combat knife that wasn’t: full tang, carbon steel and heat treated
can you tell if a blade is heat treated by looking at it?
 
Shorttime said:
I do some stock-removal knife making, and the angle grinder is my best friend! With a 1/4 inch thick cutting wheel, it will hog steel all day! I can get right down to the lines I scribed, and then got right into grinding my bevels! When everything is shaped the way I like it, I switch to an 80 grit flap disc for removing the rough grinding marks. I can go down to 220 grit for sure with that thing, and once I have a proper set of burrs for my die grinder, I will be able to to 99% of my shaping with just those tools.

NOW.....

Are you planning on sharpening a knife with a grinder?

If so, don't.
Click to expand...

^This
 
Bare Knuckle Honky said:
It would be used for sharpening a condor engineer bolo as well as sharpening various knives with zero or little to no edge
I have a diamond sharpener and carbide ones and ceramic honing rod but I’m not pleased with the degree of sharpness I can attain
the best edge I can do is: kind cut paper and can cut duct tape sharp,
when I use my Mexican file guy he can get any machete paper cutting sharp with a file which is the standard I’d like to achive
so I though maybe an angle grinder would work I am a white belt at sharpening and my friend is a black belt, so I thought cheating using an angle grinder might work.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you need practice sharpening and based on the tools mentioned and blades, namely the condor, you need to add a faster, more course stone to your repetoire. The condors I've had are thick and needed to hog off a lot of steel to get them where I wanted them. Set the edge with a course before moving on. The course stones are the workhorses and do most of the work.
 
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Bare Knuckle Honky said:
I recently heard schrade machetes aren’t heat treated, which is nuts I can’t believe anyone would own a machete or combat knife that wasn’t: full tang, carbon steel and heat treated
can you tell if a blade is heat treated by looking at it?
Click to expand...

This is just a bad line of thinking. Don't care about the schrade comment, the carbon steel and full tang specs are not indicators of a quality machete.

Only a few can you tell if it was heat treated by looking, with a hamon or differential heat treat.

IMO, there's no reason to buy a schrade machete unless there are no other options. It would be about my last choice, only above fantasy knives/zombie painted machetes.
 
bikerector said:
Sounds like you need practice sharpening and based in the tools mentioned and blades, namely the condor, you need to add a faster, more course stone to your repetoire. The condors I've had are thick and needed to hog off a lot of steel to get them where I wantrd them. Set tge edge with a course before moving on. The course stones are the workhorses and do most of the work.
Click to expand...
Interesting my dmt stone is a fine one but they make a course and extra course stone so I should probably buy one, my condor engineer bolo is definitely even thicker than my Indian and pakastani kukris and those are beasts, the convex grind the bolo came with was a tad dull for my liking.
 
Bare Knuckle Honky said:
Interesting my dmt stone is a fine one but they make a course and extra course stone so I should probably buy one, my condor engineer bolo is definitely even thicker than my Indian and pakastani kukris and those are beasts, the convex grind the bolo came with was a tad dull for my liking.
Click to expand...

You would be all day with a fine DMT setting the edge on that condor. Fine is nice for making a sharp edge sharper or touchups but too fine for setting an edge.

If you're mostly working on soft steel like machetes and condor blades, don't bother with the DMT. A regular sharpening stone will do great on that. They may still be out of stock, but the baryonyx manticore or mutt stones are the workhorses of choice for me on machetes and similar. Both would be in extra course grit ranges, the manticore extra extra course. It doesn't clog up with metal quickly either. Let the mudd build and keep sharpening.
 
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