How much grinding do you do before heat treat?

[Nsled]

How much.

 

[Nick-D]

Depends.

Thin stock. Prone to warping. Profile ground and stock flattened only. 0% on bevels

Thicker stock of a more abraison resistant steel, will take it to 80%.

Oil quenched steels will err on the side of thicker so only take it to 30% or may not grind at all.

Size of the knife is a factor too, for hunters in the medium abrasion resistant steels I work with like rwl 34 elmax and s30v really don't take that long to grind hardened so I'll just do it after quench to only have 1 bevel session on the grinder per knife.

 

[Crag the Brewer]

My fingers and knuckles generally get ground after heat treating......

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Depends a lot on thickness. Most knives about 75%. Thin knives, often get no grinding but the profile.

 

[DanF]

Varies, as others have already stated.

 

[Natlek]

Depends a lot on thickness. Most knives about 75%. Thin knives, often get no grinding but the profile.

I wonder is there any difference in steel characteristics / performance between two ? I mean when we HT blade with already grind bevels the steel structure is uniformly formed inside. The same happens with other steel, but then we destroy that uniformly formed structure, we break many connections inside...? Does that change anything ?

 

[JV Knives]

I voted 75% but agree with the crew here. Most important factor would be staring thickness and secondarily , steel selection. Some steels (3v comes to mind) are really hard on abrasives post HT and really do well in the austentize process with a thinner edge (no bacon ).

 

[Horsewright]

I work in two steels. AEB-L I do all bevel grinding post ht. 26C3 I take to bout 75-80 percent prior to ht.

 

[navman]

For me it depends not only on stock thickness but also alloy. AEBL, maybe 10%. S90V 99%.

 

[Sando]

FWIW. I don't grind pre-heat for AEB-L and MagnaCut (yup even that). I do ~50% for 26C3, because I want to control the hamon and to make sure the edge is hardened.

MagnaCut is no match for 36 and 60 grit ceramic belts running fast. The pain for me is the final finish.

 

[Keith Nix]

My fingers and knuckles generally get ground after heat treating......

Mine too!