Free Hand Hollow Grinding Tips.

L6steel

L6steel

Joined
Sep 23, 1999
Messages
5,855
I learned a couple neat tricks that made a lot of difference in the quality of my free hand hollow grinding. I was having trouble getting the plunge cuts at the same angle, and also the tops of the grind anywhere near even and straight. What I did was to make a second master pattern of the blade and cut it where I wanted the grind lines to be. Also, instead of marking the blades my usual way, with a black sharpy, I used a real sharp scribe. It's alot more accurate and it stands out alot better. Another thing I did was put a light directly over my contact wheel. That way I can see both side clearly where before one side was uaully in the shadows. To get the grind started right, I held the blade close to the contact wheel and put the top grind line parralell with the wheel's face. That helped alot with getting the top grind line on both sides at the same angle. Also, instead of doing the initial grind with a 60 grit belt, I used a 36 grit. Took maybe 1/4th the time the 60's do. I did about 90% of the grind with the 36 grit and then finished it with a new 60. All five drop points came out great. The best free hand batch I've ever done. Another area that came easier today was the tip of the blade. I have always had problems getting it thinned down like the rest of the edge, but today I found an easy way to do it. Instead of trying to grind the tip at the same time as the rest of the blade, I left it till I had the grind virtually finished then I just pulled the tang away from the contact wheel and worked the tip with light pressure. Then to make every thing feather together, I ran the blade across the wheel real slow and with not much pressure from the plunge to the tip. I know these tips have got to be in a book or video, but I've never read them. As simple and helpful as they are, they should be in every knife making book! Take care! Michael

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Always think of your fellow knife makers as partners in the search for the perfect blade, not as people trying to compete with you and your work!http://www.nebsnow.com/L6steel
 
Thanks for the tip, Michael. I think I will order some 36 grit belts and try my first grind with them.

Marcel

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For blending grinds (like you are doing between the point and remainder of the blade) I like to color the area I am working on. I take something dark like a buffing stick and rub it on the area I have already ground. When I do my blending strokes I can clearly see where I'm cutting.
 
Jeff
Try a quick mist spray of blue layout dye. It allows you to color the whole bevel on any blade in about 1 second and will dry imediatly if your blade is a little on the warm side from grinding already. Besides a little blue coloring in a dusty shop might brighten things up.
Not my idea, credit goes to Brian Lyttle. Works great for me, try it.

Robert http://members.tripod.com/knifeworks/index.html
 
I do the same as mr Dockrell
with the blue lay out dye it works
great give it a try it really let you are grinding at
 
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