Doing most of the work with low grit belts?

On hollow grinds 60, 180,then usually 320-400. On flats 60 on the belt and the disc at 180 from
there it goes pretty fast to nearly a zero grind @ 400.
Ken.
 
Since buying the Rod Nielsen removable disc system I only use 50 and 120 grit belts. Once I have all the 50 grit scratches out with the 120 grit belt I switch to the disc grinder. If I want a 800 grit finish I will disc grind up to 1000 grit then go back and hand sand with 800 grit.
It took a bit of getting used to the disc grinder but now that I know how to operate it properly, it is the most used grinder in my shop. It really cleans up my plunge cuts nice. When I put fresh paper on the disc I will cut it a little over sized so it cleans up the plunge. Same as you would track the belt over on a belt grinder.
Jim
 
I only make liner locking folders and do all my grinding after heat treat. I use a 60 grit to start then a 100, 65, 45, 30, and 16. I use this process even on a Persian shaped blade with say a 3" edge top and bottom. Frank
 
For me , I grab a 7" grinder and go to town and remove the first 25% or so, then 36gr, 60gr etc... makes belts last longer for me.
 
After forging and before heat treat.....I'll grind my blades with a 36 grit belt down to .030 to .040. I'll then switch to 120 grit and remove the heavy scratches left from the 36 grit. More scratch removal is then done with 220 grit. At this point I usually go overboard and hand sand up to 600 grit, making sure all lines are running parallel with the edge....most folks don't take it to such a high grit, but...I'm a part timer and can afford to be a little anal retentive.
 
Patrice Lemée;10763258 said:
This week I had the hardest time working on the distal taper of a knife, doing it with a 220 belt, post HT. In chat, Mike Quesenberry said that he did most shaping with 60 grit belts. Can't remember the % sorry, but it was very high. I was scared to do too much with low grit belts but maybe this is a mistake. You've all seen Mike's knives, he doesn't make crowbars. To the contrary, he makes some of the finest and most elegant knives you will ever see. (Can you tell I am a big fan? ;))

So to help newbies or even more experienced newbies like me :o, let's hear what % of work you do with low grit belts.

Thanks

Pat
Click to expand...

Personally I always started everything with the 50 grit mustard yellow 3M belts after Reese Weiland told me about them. Those get after it a long time and after they are plum wore out for most of that stuff I still get use out of them for a long time for doing a lot of other grunt work grinding titanium pry bars until they build up so much heat from grinding I finally toss them. I bought the 36 grit on these as well and that one is a bit much but I've always like that 3m 50 grit yellow belt. Use some Nortons after that to smooth it out finished up by the Trizact belts after that and then move right into hand rub after that.
 
I use to take my blades down in steps with each grit, then I started doing the majority of my stock removal with a 36 and a 60 grit, Only using the higher grits to refine my grinding right at the end. I found it made my belts last longer and the steel became a blade that much faster. I am still slow as all get out, but not as slow as I use to be:p
 
I've been making some kitchen knives out of 1/16" thick S35VN.

To avoid warp, I've been heat treating before grinding bevels.

Because I want to avoid heat during grinding, I use the coarsest grit I can get away with - it makes the grinding go faster.

36 Ceramic -> 80 Ceramic -> Sequence of trizact -> Scotchbrite -> done
 
60 grit blaze does about 70 percent of the work, higher grits just to take out scratches. Lately a lot of my finishing is being done with an ultrafine scotchbrite belt.
 
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