Help or Advice with a hand Regrind on a fixed blade

[BladeCommander]

Hey everyone. I have just started getting into the Forgecraft/Old Hickory kitchen knives. I am going to start modifying a few to try out different blade styles and shapes on the cheap. I have 2 Forgecrafts as of now that I bought and cleaned up, but there is light pitting beyond the reach of simple sandpaper cleanup. I was wanting to regrind at least 1 in order to improve cutting performance, and remove the pitting. I have never done a regrind before, so I am looking for a HOW TO, and some advise.

I currently have a 3"x12" Smiths coarse and fine Diamond bench stone that I used to sharpen them. Along with a shapmaker for the final edge. The 8" Slicer is very sharp. I was wanting to attempt a regrind on the Butcher blade because it has a thicker edge, and more pitting. I also have access to a Dremel with many attachments, and all the sandpaper I "should" need up to 2000 grit.

Is this enough to do a regrind by hand? I do not have any large power tools, but a belt sander is on my wish list. Do I need anything else? More stones? Different media stones? Power tools? If anyone has a step-by-step Tutorial they could post that would be awesome too.

Thanks in advance!

Knives in question.

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[BluntCut MetalWorks]

Go to big box store - (HD, Lowe's, ..) - buy 60, 80 & 120 grits sanding belts in 3 inch wide format. Cut to into 9-12" piece and staple gun it onto a scrap wood board. Use it as a waterstone - dunk to clear swarf & grit - to thin/grind blade for most steel types. For extra high alloy blades (m390, s90v, ..) ceramic belt is more effective. Note: try not to grind 1 to 1.5 mm around the edge/apex, you can thin this out later (if you wish) at sharpening time.

Clean up after belt-stone with your 3x12 coarse stone, then hand sand with AO or Sic sand paper 320/400 grit. Then sharpen/shape the cutting edge as appropriate.

 

[BladeCommander]

Thanks Bluntcut for the advice. I did end up getting a couple sanding belts for the main reprofile. At first I used an 80 grit on the stamp side, but after completing that side, the belt was not cutting very well at all. Had to go buy a 50 grit belt and that did the trick. Then went back to the 80 grit, then to sandpaper 150, 220, 400, 800, 1000. Trying to make the finish even after every grit. Final hand rub finish at 2000 grit for a good semi-mirror finish.

It took quite a long time, and much patience to get it even, and it isn't perfect by any means. But I like the way it turned out, and it is a much nicer than it was. Im glad the pitting is removed from the main bevel, and the polished finish should prevent corrosion very well. The carbon steel takes a mean edge, and the high flat grind should offer great performance for slicing.

Here are some after shots to compare to the original photo.

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Anyone with tips or comments are welcome to let me know how I did, or how you have done something like this in the past.
Thanks!

 

[BluntCut MetalWorks]

It looks great. You did a good job with high-sabre grind.

Cutting performance wise, without a low bevel shoulder to wedge thing - it should cuts tall items/vegies better. The width of edge bevel didn't seem to change much from original vs after pics, which might suggest that thickness behind the edge could use some thinning... ignore this, if your new edge angle is much more acute than original.