Ken Onion worksharp with Knife grinder attachment

[Gary W. Graley]

Hi folks, looked for a dedicated thread about this but didn't find one that would be right to add this tip that I did for mine today.

I took a piece of 7-8 ounce leather and cut it into this shape and the notch part slips over the frame of the knife grinder and helps keep it in place while the part on the left will be placed behind the sanding belt as a backup, as the metal backing is away from the belt, so if you try to grind something against that platen, you will end up with not a straight grind down but a curved at the top where you push the belt backwards.

It stayed in place pretty good, I sanded down the primary bevel of the Murray Carter neck knife, took a while as I did it at a slow speed and dipped the blade in water often to keep it cool but, with the leather backing it was a lot easier to press the knife flat against the belt.

IMG_6406 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr


Here's the knife I was working on, once I finished up I put some Ferric chloride to darken the Hitachi white center layer of the blade

IMG_6405 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

G2

 

[cbwx34]

Good idea. I don't think it's often noticed that the Blade Grinding Attachment also has a platen to work off of.

Thanks for sharing. Nice knife too.

 

[Rey HRH]

WOuld you mind adding a pic of the leather in place? Thanks.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

I'll set it up tonight and get a picture
G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Here you can see the gap between the belt and the vertical platen on the right side of the blade grinder attachment

IMG_6407 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

I slip the leather backing behind the belt and have the 'hook' of leather straddle the frame section

IMG_6411 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Once in place it looks like this

IMG_6409 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

and from the other side

IMG_6408 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Hope that helps some, if you intend to leave it on all the time, I guess you could glue the leather in place, but this way you have the option of taking it out or replacing it easily.

G2

 

[whtshdwwz]

Gary, i like your solution. I tried some adhesive Velcro and thin stock steel to do the same thing.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

That's a good idea too ! thanks!
G2

 

[AFAustin]

Nice idea and execution, Gary. Makes the platen much more useful.:thumbup:

Andrew

 

[Rey HRH]

Thank you. Now I understand.

I've used that part before and I didn't think about the rounding effect on the edge.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Thanks guys and yes it makes that platen a lot more useful, need to keep the leather behind the belt so you see the small bit of leather that hooks over the frame is pretty narrow, any higher up and it prevents the blade to be pushed against it successfully.

G2

 

[banksy]

Good idea, thanks :thumbup:

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Thanks, it's best to use leather with tighter fibers, loose or too soft wouldn't be as good
G2

 

[cbwx34]

Thanks again for the idea... funny, I've put something on just about every other platen I use, but didn't think about it on this one. After your post, I just glued a piece of leather from a broken 1x30 belt I had... works great, and doesn't interfere with the belts when not in use. Already put it to good use! :thumbup:

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Nice! I'll have to get one of those leather belts some time, sounds like a neat idea
G2

 

[AFAustin]

I made up a little leather platen piece as Gary suggested, and today found a handy new use for it. I have mainly traditional folders and don't like the sharp tangs that some of them have, so I usually round them off. Doing it by hand is a little tedious and so I most often use my WSKO. That's definitely faster and yields a better result, but can be tricky as the belt will nick the bolsters as you try to reach the tangs.

But I found that with Gary's attachment, you can reach the tangs very well and at the same time it's much easier to avoid the bolster. (And even if the bolster suffers a small nick or two, the WSKO makes it pretty easy to polish them out.)

Thanks again, Gary---great innovation.:thumbup:

Andrew

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Nice! and I've done that very same thing to radius the sharpening choils on a few folders so the abrupt corner doesn't catch on material when it slips into that small area, which is very annoying to me

Glad to have sparked some interest in trying that out.
Thanks,
G2