My flats need help

M

Maelstrom78

Joined
Sep 21, 2013
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I'm looking for flat insight. How do you all do your flats? I don't have any rhyme or reason for finishing mine. I was thinking about finishing the flats to 400 grit and then doing my bevels. What do you guys do?
 
Guys, I think he's saying the sides of the blade, not the bevels.


I do the rough grinding on the belt up to about 240x. I hold the blade vertically by the tang and grind lengthwise. I go fairly gently that way. It is easy to grind too much if you're not careful. Then it goes to the bench and hand sanding to true everything up and progress through the grits.
 
It depends on the knife but I generally like my flats flat and scratch free before I start grinding the bevels.

On a chisel grind I like to hit the reverse flat side as I go through the belts to keep stress down by grinding as evenly as I can. I usually spend so much time on the flats that I can do a double grind faster.

With double grinds I like to get them to around 400 grit and clean up after I do the bevels... then clean up the bevels some more... then the flats again... then the bevels again, lol keep it crisp.
 
Daniel Fairly Knives said:
It depends on the knife but I generally like my flats flat and scratch free before I start grinding the bevels.

On a chisel grind I like to hit the reverse flat side as I go through the belts to keep stress down by grinding as evenly as I can. I usually spend so much time on the flats that I can do a double grind faster.

With double grinds I like to get them to around 400 grit and clean up after I do the bevels... then clean up the bevels some more... then the flats again... then the bevels again, lol keep it crisp.
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I used to do the flats first, but with my limited accuracy in grinding ability, i found it's easier to grind my blade out roughly to 180 first... then there was less flat to deal with. Always end up doing the exact same thing at the end though; flats, bevels... flats... bevels until i can't see a problem with either. usually ends up with my knives being close enough that you couldn't tell them apart if you held them on different days, but side by side, there is always some ..."uniqueness" in each one. Again, all because i'm just not that accurate of a grinder yet. More of a "fix it with files and sandpaper" kind of maker :)
 
I understand that he is not talking about bevels, but I finish mine different depending on the grind. On flat grinds I use the contact wheel and take the flats to 1200 or so, grind my bevel to 600 or so. Then I sand the flats by hand with 800 and leave it. Then the bevel 400, 600, 800 and leave. I do the same on hollows except I finish the bevel on the grinder because sanding hollows by hand sucks! I always do the bevels last.
 
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