Lengthwise grinding, plunge grinding, compound curvature platen. Very cool.

Nathan the Machinist

Nathan the Machinist

KnifeMaker / Machinist / Evil Genius
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I am an evil super genius. This is the best idea ever.



This is a platen I made with compound curvature for finish grinding a hollow ground blade lengthwise. I've been wanting one of these for a while so I finally made one and put it in my last batch of platens. It came back from Peter's HT this morning and I got to try it out today. This is the project that made me want a platen chiller in the first place (formed platens get very hot).



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The original purpose of this was to make a tool for cleaning plunges. However it works really well for finish grinding the entire blade. It has a radius that matches my 10" wheel running the length of it and an 1/8" radius running perpendicular to that at the end for fitting up into the plunge. The blade fits the hollow naturally and it is very fast and easy to use.



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I was able to take a blade that was rough ground and heat treated to a nice machine finished grind in a couple minutes. It almost looks hand rubbed and (obviously) there are no fishhooks.



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I've heard of folks using shaped platens and doing their finish grinding lengthwise but this is my first time trying it. It took a couple tries to get the feel for it, but it was actually pretty easy. Zero hand sanding. This was a pleasant surprise for me.
 
Bwahahaha!!! That's the evil part! They're not for sale! I have the only one, HA HA HA HA HAHHH!

Carl_First_Timer said:
Bwahahaha!!! :D

But seriously how does the plunge not get washed out?
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Carl, that's the whole point, it doesn't wash out the plunge, it cuts the plunge. Absolutely perfect plunge. That's the part that is compound curvature. There is no top wheel.
 
That is awesome. I wish you were producing them, and that I had a grinder they would fit on. Looks like an great piece of equipment, and very well thought out. And who doesn't want a little less hand sanding.
 
Wow... I want one of these soooooo badly right now. Dastardly Machinist indeed!

So, how does it still get hot with the platen chiller or is that enough to keep it cool?

Awesome work Nathan
 
I call BS. You WILL sell them eventually because people will buy them and you need to finance your nasty habits. Now that we have that out of the way, lets figure out what radii would be most useful.:D
 
That may also be just right for grinding a recurved blade.

Evil and genius!
 
OzarkMatt said:
So, how does it still get hot with the platen chiller or is that enough to keep it cool?
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Yes, the chiller keeps the temperature under control. Otherwise, running it without the top wheel it gets very hot. I'm using fairly high belt tension to force the belt to conform to the platen surface so there is a lot of friction.
 
jdm61 said:
I call BS. You WILL sell them eventually because people will buy them and you need to finance your nasty habits. Now that we have that out of the way, lets figure out what radii would be most useful.:D
Click to expand...

dr-evil.jpg
 
I'm looking to get a horizontal grinder........I think I might need one of your super cool platens for it......and maybe a reversible motor :D
 
I wonder if having it electroplated with nickle teflon will help? Also, do you use a lubricant on the platen?


-Xander
 
i made a make shift platen much like that but on a 1 inch pipe (this was back in my delta 1x42 days) i used it to get better use of the minamal hp of that crapy grinder but also it worked great on whawk bill blades
 
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