is wood a viable training medium for blades?

D

drano

Joined
Jul 17, 2005
Messages
311
im trying to aquire some plunge cut skills. im kinda tired of all the scrap steel thats amassing.

as my title suggests, is wood viable?

ive tried a few blanks of wood. but im wondering if i become proficient with wood, will the skills transfer over to steel ?
 
Many have tried that and improved their grinding skills. It will teach you fine control. You can use paint stir sticks to mimic thin stock and 1/4"x2 1/2" "lathe" strips to approximate thicker stuff. It grinds so fast, it forces you to be careful.
 
That does make sense, you could practice a lot of plunges on just one paint stick. I'm just getting started too, and I find grinding is real easy except for the beginning and end of the blade, lol...

So far I've been using a dummy guard clamped onto the blade stock to guide me (holding the 'guard' against the platen to help keep it straight/consistant/same on both sides), but I think I need to pony up for a nice hardened file guide.
 
I went down and got a couple of yard sticks from the local hardware store.

I got a lot of blade blanks out of them. I ground out about a dozen of them before even trying to grind steel. I think it really helped a lot.
It made me aware of my lighting, my grinding position. the height of my grinder. repitition helped with the plunge. The wood grinds fast so it teaches you a light touch.
I highly recommend it.
 
Any practice will help, and as the other guys have said, wood is good.
I hope you have a variable speed grinder and can crank the rpm's down, not only for the practice wood but to do steel as well....just my opinion.

Try the grinding with the large wheel for hollow grinds, and also try using the platten for flat grinds.....and maybe a work rest on each and without the workrest.....they all are good to get used to and feel quite a bit different to do....
 
Ive been grinding mild steel to practice my grinds and find it very helpfull. Its cheap as all get out and should grind simmilar to knife steels in general. I'll have to try soem wood to see if it helps clean up my plunges.
 
YES it is . I went down to home depot and bought myself a sheet of HDFB( the kind that is like paper dust all glued together) This is what I use to make my prototypes with. It is chead, and easy to cut and drill. If you dont like the shape re do it or toss it in the stove LOL. As for the grinding and finishing "training" not so much so a good trainer. I mean you can pick up the basics but it does not....feel the same under your hands when working it. My suggestion is to Flatten out some old car leafe springs and aneal them in wood ash or use a and old saw blade scrap.These are useable and cheap steels to obtain to "train with" and will also make quite servacable knive too.
 
Instead of just practicing on wood, make something that you will be proud to give as gifts to friends or your children. I made many of these, wooden knives,
for my son's birthdays when he was young. I went through the same processes used for Real knives. Blade, guard, handle pommel. They are great fun to make and you can still get your practice in.

Fred
 
I made about two dozen wood knives before I ever made a knife that would hold an edge! It was invaluable practice.
 
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