Grinding Help Please

D

drlozier

Joined
Jan 4, 2010
Messages
158
Greetings to the masters from a novice. I am a relative newbie to this craft and have made a dozen or so knives. All of my grinding so far has been free hand with a bench grinder and belt sander. After looking at the incredible works of art on this site, I have to ask the question.....how do you guys make such clean and symmetrical hollow/flat grinds on your blades !! Is there a tool I need, a special jig, or is it something that comes with practice. Thanks so much for any advice and sharing of wisdom and secrets.
 
A lot of practice. I use my work rest a great deal to make sure Im level and get my grinds even when doing flat grinds.
 
Just alot of practice and still some days you just kick over the water bucket and chunk the blade across the shop.
Stan
 
For a good, decent DVD on flat grinding instruction, try Harvey Dean"s. I thought it was pretty darn informative.
 
Thanks guys. Funny how sometimes you ask a question knowing the answer but still hope for a different answer. The jig thread Bob sent me to is also helpful. thanks again.
 
Practice, practice and then practice. I usually recommend using the big paint stirrers from Lowes or HD and a 120x belt. You can grind a lot of stirrers with 1 belt if you get a belt cleaner. The main thing is mental, when you're practicing make sure you keep a "this is steel" attitude.

Practice in steps.
Get flats correct, even and centered
Get plunges matching, even and centered
Combine flats and plunges, even and centered
Once you can do the flats and plunges correct grind about 20 more stirrers.
 
I'm incredibly far away from "mastering" making knives. In fact I haven't even completed my first yet. However I can attest to the Bubble Jig. I used it the first time to get the grinds on my first forged piece. I got what I felt were 2 perfect grinds on it first time using it. They're symmetrical and flat and a helluva lot better than I'd ever do freehand at this stage of the game. I didn't cut the plunge lines in yet though because I didn't want to push my luck :D

Knife010.jpg
 
I'm going to order the bubble jig as soon as I set up a pay pal acount. It looks as if it takes out alot of guess work.
 
Jigs seem to be very helpful, I remember a time when it was a heated debate topic about if using work rest on a grinder constituted "cheating" :p A lot of my opinons (I didn't then and don't know consider it cheating) and techniques are based on those days of old ;)
 
al clay said:
For a good, decent DVD on flat grinding instruction, try Harvey Dean"s. I thought it was pretty darn informative.
Click to expand...

Yep, pretty informative; up until the part where he turns the blade upside down when grinding the other side. ???

Like mentioned already, practice is what brings consistency. You want clean, crisp grinds? You've gotta hold the blade exactly the same way each time, at the same angle each time; plus, stand the same way every time, etc...

Another aspect that can only help grinding consistency is proper lighting. Seems to me, you can almost never have too much light.

Oh yeah; forget about using jigs. ;) :)
 
I wouldn't call using a jig cheating, but simply unnecessary. You just grind it flat from the spine to a centered edge. What's the difficulty?
 
I'm not saying it's cheating.... I was just pointing out how much stuff has changed from when more than a few people considered using a work rest while grinding "cheating".
 
Will Leavitt said:
I'm not saying it's cheating.... I was just pointing out how much stuff has changed from when more than a few people considered using a work rest while grinding "cheating".
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I remember when you could get kicked out of the Guild for using jigs, or mills. Yes, things have changed.
 
Thanks guys for all the great advice.... If using a rest or a jig is cheating, is using an electric grinder also cheating ? I had an old antique hand-cranked grinding stone....do I have to use that to be authentic ? The first knife I made was made with hand tools....and it looks like it !! :)
 
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