My first attempt at making a knife

Feezle said:
Do you guys do your bevel with low grit belts? I'm shaping with 36 grit and then I did most of the bevel work thus far with the same. I guess I'm just confused at what point you would change grits in the beveling process.
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I do most of my bevels with the 36 grit, I switch to a 60 then 120 so i don't risk deep scratches close to finishing operations. After 120, I am only working on the finish of the knife, this includes the bevel finish.
 
I use 36/50/60 grit depending on the blade blank material and thickness. I HOG off most of bevel with the most aggressive grits and I find that I have better control of the initial set of my bevel with this technique. I always leave a little extra material where I WANT the final plunge to end and will go back to finish that with 80/120 grits. You can spend a lot of time chasing the plunge if you are trying to set it perfectly on your initial beveling.
 
Feezle, get those too! Use them to square things up on your drill press or any of another zillion tasks, but get a proper carbide faced file guide. You can grind right up against them with your grinder and it won't even scratch em!
 
Be proud man. I've been trying to complete my first knife for over a year now lol
Life just finds a way to get in the way. You seem like a quick learner though. I went through 10' of mild steel trying to practice grind with a craftsman 2x42. Still haven't figured it out haha.
Gonna finish building my grinder and focus on it again.
Anyway like I said you did good man. Definitely something to be proud of. Not alot if people have finished their first knife I've seen alot if guys that start and never finish or if they do it doesn't look ad good as yours (no offense to anyone). Keep at it man
 
Thank you! This one is technically my second blade as I still have my first one that I haven't finished yet. I need some thinner wood for scales as it is quite a bit smaller. My first completed knife though. Next one will be quite a bit better.

Look up Walter Sorrells on youtube. He has a video on common grinding problems. His videos among others are very helpful! Also pick up some paint stir sticks at Home Depot and practice getting an even bevel on those. I just did the other day to try a double edged dagger. Also knocked out a couple of prototypes in minutes instead of spending hours making something that looks stupid.
 
OK some general questions. Let's assume saber grind. Pre-heat treat. Getting ready to heat treat. Have to sand it down. Can this be done with the belt grinder or are you stuck with hand sanding? Also are we sanding the bevel and the flats? If so how do we keep a crisp line where the bevel meets the flats? Or do we not care?
 
Feezle said:
OK some general questions. Let's assume saber grind. Pre-heat treat. Getting ready to heat treat. Have to sand it down. Can this be done with the belt grinder or are you stuck with hand sanding? Also are we sanding the bevel and the flats? If so how do we keep a crisp line where the bevel meets the flats? Or do we not care?
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I'm not sure what you are asking. Did you grind the bevels with a belt grinder? If so, isn't it ready to go? There is no seperate operation, you grind it up to the grit you want before HT then HT. I usually go up to 220 or so prior to HT. I use my 2x72.
 
I was under the impression that you then had to sand it as well. If that is not the case then I am a happy man. Do you hand sand after you heat treat? I think maybe I'm just getting confused on the steps. I know everybody does things differently.
 
Feezle said:
I was under the impression that you then had to sand it as well. If that is not the case then I am a happy man. Do you hand sand after you heat treat? I think maybe I'm just getting confused on the steps. I know everybody does things differently.
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what grit is it at now? Bottom line, if you like the finish, then stay there. If you like a brushed finish, you can stop at a scotch brite belt, or a cork belt. If you want a mirror, hand sanding is pretty much the only way to go.
 
Ok awesome. I much prefer a brushed finish. Thank you so much! You have been very helpful with all of my noob questions!
 
There was no coming back from my screwups. FFG it is...ugh.
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I snapped one of the bolts that hold the flat platen in place on my grinder yesterday. Luckily I had some extras. It got me thinking and then doing some research. I don't think I'm supposed to be in changing the position of my platen and as much as I have. I've been grinding bevels with about a quarter of an inch between my platen and my belt. Then I would move the flat platen closer to the belt when I needed to surface grind. From what I'm seeing it looks like I've been grinding my bevels with way too much of a gap. And if I'm not mistaken that's likely why I have a lot of weird convex looking bevels instead of flat.
 
the belt should just make contact with the platen with NO gap. otherwise, the belt will bunch up on the leading edge of the workpiece (it does this to some degree no matter what, but you want to minimize it).
 
Feezle said:
I snapped one of the bolts that hold the flat platen in place on my grinder yesterday. Luckily I had some extras. It got me thinking and then doing some research. I don't think I'm supposed to be in changing the position of my platen and as much as I have. I've been grinding bevels with about a quarter of an inch between my platen and my belt. Then I would move the flat platen closer to the belt when I needed to surface grind. From what I'm seeing it looks like I've been grinding my bevels with way too much of a gap. And if I'm not mistaken that's likely why I have a lot of weird convex looking bevels instead of flat.
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Yeah there shouldn't be a gap at any time. If you're slack grinding, you should remove the platen, other than that no gap.
 
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