- Joined
- Oct 26, 2000
- Messages
- 2,468
Hi All,
Well, after fiddling with patterns for a couple of weeks I finally settled on one and started grinding it out yesterday. I am fairly handicapped in that I only have a 1x30 Delta grinder so I have the choice of a narrow belt or a chinzy platen to lay the blade against. Makes it really difficult to get surfaces flat let alone hollow grind!
Anyhow, I took a 1/8 chunk of ATS34 and ground out the shape with a disc grinder then fine tuned it with the disc on my Delta grinder with 60 grit. After drilling the pivot hole (I'm making a folder) I then began the bevels. Right away I noticed that I wasn't removing much material from the middle of the blade. Sure would be nice to have a rubber contact wheel. Got me thinking about the Burr King in my buddy's shop in VA that I used to use years ago...
I decided to try the disc grinder and gently hogged out some of that middle area. Then threw the blade back on the Delta and smoothed it up as best I could. Mind you, I quenched the blade continuously but I am still expecting warpage in the heat treat. I figure every time you see brown or blue you're probably creating a stress area. I'm wondering if annealing the blade would help combat this?
Finally I ended up with a rough blade shape with main bevel and a false edge although the bevels are not very symetrical. I'll tell you, my hat is off to the guys who can grind these things out by hand. They're friggin hard! BTW, I'm no stranger to grinding metal having worked in a blacksmith shop and made lots of jewelry and metal sculpture so I was prepared for a challenge and I found one.
Couple of thoughts. I had a lot of trouble keeping the bevel lines straight and am thinking that a fixture like the one in Terzuola's book is probably the answer. I thought I'd give the freehand method a try first but it seems insanely difficult. I do have a knifemakers magnet that I got from TKS and that helped a lot but it was still not easy.
Another small problem was that I kept losing my point on the blade and had to reestablish it quite a few times. Also, the cutting edge area was very consistent until the last inch toward the tip when it starts to thicken a bit and I just couldn't seem to thin it to match the rest of the edge. Maybe I'm letting up as I reach the end of the pass but I was making a conscious effort not to. Any of this sound familiar?
I have a Jet attachment for my 1 horse grinder on the way so hopefully I'll be able to get a rudimentry contact wheel in operation this week. One thing's for sure, I'm really liking this!
------------------
Peter Atwood
email:fountainman@hotmail.com
[This message has been edited by fountainman (edited 01-14-2001).]
Well, after fiddling with patterns for a couple of weeks I finally settled on one and started grinding it out yesterday. I am fairly handicapped in that I only have a 1x30 Delta grinder so I have the choice of a narrow belt or a chinzy platen to lay the blade against. Makes it really difficult to get surfaces flat let alone hollow grind!
Anyhow, I took a 1/8 chunk of ATS34 and ground out the shape with a disc grinder then fine tuned it with the disc on my Delta grinder with 60 grit. After drilling the pivot hole (I'm making a folder) I then began the bevels. Right away I noticed that I wasn't removing much material from the middle of the blade. Sure would be nice to have a rubber contact wheel. Got me thinking about the Burr King in my buddy's shop in VA that I used to use years ago...
I decided to try the disc grinder and gently hogged out some of that middle area. Then threw the blade back on the Delta and smoothed it up as best I could. Mind you, I quenched the blade continuously but I am still expecting warpage in the heat treat. I figure every time you see brown or blue you're probably creating a stress area. I'm wondering if annealing the blade would help combat this?
Finally I ended up with a rough blade shape with main bevel and a false edge although the bevels are not very symetrical. I'll tell you, my hat is off to the guys who can grind these things out by hand. They're friggin hard! BTW, I'm no stranger to grinding metal having worked in a blacksmith shop and made lots of jewelry and metal sculpture so I was prepared for a challenge and I found one.
Couple of thoughts. I had a lot of trouble keeping the bevel lines straight and am thinking that a fixture like the one in Terzuola's book is probably the answer. I thought I'd give the freehand method a try first but it seems insanely difficult. I do have a knifemakers magnet that I got from TKS and that helped a lot but it was still not easy.
Another small problem was that I kept losing my point on the blade and had to reestablish it quite a few times. Also, the cutting edge area was very consistent until the last inch toward the tip when it starts to thicken a bit and I just couldn't seem to thin it to match the rest of the edge. Maybe I'm letting up as I reach the end of the pass but I was making a conscious effort not to. Any of this sound familiar?
I have a Jet attachment for my 1 horse grinder on the way so hopefully I'll be able to get a rudimentry contact wheel in operation this week. One thing's for sure, I'm really liking this!
------------------
Peter Atwood
email:fountainman@hotmail.com
[This message has been edited by fountainman (edited 01-14-2001).]
