Factory Machinery Pics

Here is a knife assembled with undyed covers, and one with the dye not reduced by glazing
Click to expand...

Actually the middle knife appears to have been dyed. However the base material appears to be in the OT color. It should have been ivory, the outer color may or may not be correct as it appears the knife has been buffed too much.
 
These are really poor quality pictures. Some of the tan base knives have had a slight dyeing, some not, all I have seen are buffed, and yes, in my collection of 897UH knives, I have a pretty wide variety of color combinations. The tan was used occasionally for them instead of the ivory (the resulting knife type often called a "buckskin"). And dyes seemed to change with some knives having distinct reds and yellows, while others (most particularly the later ones) were more consistantly colored. A part of this would be attributed to changing operators over the years (and dye strength), but some are because of experimenting with different dyes since the UH introduction in 1967. The dark knives are not buffed at all. Backspring pins are still conical and proud, and the peaks of the stagging on the cover are really sharp, and also proud of the bolsters. My picture is a very poor scan, but the color is a very dark chocolate, nearly black. The nickname of this dyed but unreduced type is a "blackie", and they are an interesting variant, though they are just the product of leaving out the finishing manufacturing step, whether on purpose or by accident. I have blackies in three different UH patterns, all came from an estate collection (where they had been for years), so they were not factory leftovers. Perhaps the collector ordered these from the factory this way.
Codger
 
Codger, I don't know what happened, but I can no longer see any of your images. I see everyone else's, but yours have disappeared.
 
There is a problem with my photohost, Hunt101 (through cupidfish). It should clear up. My gallery is still showing on their site, but I can only view thumbnails there, not full pictures.
 
rac2zo.jpg


Well, alrighty then!

This is a picture of a grinding wheel on a Siepmann GM3 CNC taper grinding machine. The wheel is plastic with a molded in abrasive. Normally this wheel would not be dressed. As the wheel grinds the blade it wears away and opens up a new cutting surface on the grinding wheel. After the grinding cycle the wheel would use a sensor to determine the zero position again. This is the brass retangular item at the top left of the wheel (carbide attached to it). In this photo the machine was set up to run the Kitchenaid knives. They had a radiused shoulder, and to do this the wheel had to be shaped prior to the grind. After the sensing cycle the wheel would advance into the diamond rotary dressor (left of sensor) this would put / keep a constant radius on the corner of the wheel and the shoulder of the knife.

Once the blades receive their grind, they were usually put into a vibratory finishing bowl. Blades were put in along with ceramic stones. The blades were processed until all the grinding lines were removed and you had a smooth surface. Some blades went through an additional vibratory process in a porcelain media that gave a polished finish. We have four of the vibratories in our small scale machine shop using the gray triangular ceramic stones. We use them for polishing before plating on machined parts. It does get nasty between cleanups and rinses, and this picture seems to have been taken after the workers were gone, no one was left for cleanup. Water is usually recycled onsite, the gray metal slurry removed.

raca4p.jpg


Edit to clarify: The Kitchenaid knifes mentioned went on to be glazed, not to the vibratory, as most knives did.

Codger
 
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