Newbie Question about maintaining my grind angle

J

jlouis976

Joined
Feb 25, 2008
Messages
396
So I have some steel blanks about 1/4" thick and I want to make a camp knife out of them. I cut my shape out and that went well, but when I tried to put the angle/edge on my blade.........well things just got ugly. I tried to use a grinding wheel and I couldn't keep the angle on the edge consistent. Do you have any recommendations for a Newbie who doesn't want to spend a ton of money on equipment? I have a wheel grinder, files, sharpening stones, all your basic shop tools and.......well thats about it. Am I dead in the water or is there hope for this project? :confused:
 
When I very first started out, I would try to set my grind angle for the finished bevels from the very beginning. This proves very difficult to perform consistenty, especially free hand. Then through asking and reading here, I discovered that the angle changes throughout the process of grinding. In other words, start with a steeper angle to thin the edge down (many people break in/begin their bevels at 45 degrees) and gradually walk the angle up the blade towards the spine (grinding with increasingly shallower angles with the spine moving closer and closer to the grinder).

Using a right angle grinder greatly complicates things, so it may be a good idea to use files to create your bevels for your early knives. Search through google (type your search query followed by site:bladeforums.com) for threads on draw filing or filing and you'll find some great help.

Experiment and have fun.

--nathan
 
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On a related track, and not trying to hijack the thread, how does one avoid making a larger than desireable amount of steel foil when grinding the bevels? On some of my earlier knives, I lost an awful lot of the originally planned profile to steel foil whilst trying to get the bevel right!
 
Practice is the biggest thing. You'll be a lot better at knife 100 than your first. Be sure to keep your first so you can look back on it and chide yourself.
 
Still have my first. That one won't be going anywhere. I'm actually pretty proud of it, even with its glaring flaws. The biggest thing that bugs me about it, is I made a guard from horn, which has since shrunk away from the stablized wood handle and left an ugly gap. Grrr...
 
First couple of knives I ever made were similar to your situation. Here's what I did. I used the rest on the grinder, got a small piece of 1/4" x3/4x3/4 steel and a pair of vise grips. By clampling the 1/4" steel to the grinder rest with the vice grips (very tight, like you have to use both hands to close them) I was able to create a "stop" that I could consistently run the spine of my blade against. By this method I was able to get a very nice hollow grind which matched on both sides. A couple of caveats; the motor can get in the way if this is your typical two wheel grinder and your blade is long, don't ever ever take the vicegrips off or you will loose your repeatability, the vice grips must be tight so they don't vibrate loose or move during the course of the grind, aluminum works better for the stop because it doesn't scratch the spine of the blade as bad. The final comment is one of safety. You need to adjust the rest and setup to keep your bevel just slightly above the tangential line of the grinding wheel. If you get below this "center" you will jam the blade between the rest and the wheel. Since the wheel is moving in a downward direction you will get all kinds of torque, screw up your blade, create a projectile, jack up your wheel and create a really bad day for yourself.

If you can handle all of that, good luck and happy grinding.

P.S. My first knife was thick cause I wanted it to be "tough". After hours of my nose to the grindstone I started to get frustrated. If you intend to do the whole thing by stock removal, save yourself some time and go thinner on the blanks. It will save you much aggravation and get you to that completed knife faster, which is important to boost moral and keep you interested in knifemaking. It can be easy to loose steam when you first start out, especially if the process of making a knife is frustrating. I would recommend keeping the first couple of knives small and no thicker than 3/16".
 
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Ah yes....that makes sense now. AM isn't my time of the day :D. I always leave my edge thickness near 1/32, maybe tad less until I'm ready to sharpen. Then, if I'm making a traditional edge, I go from there. If I'm doing a zero edge bevel, I'll convex grind down to the edge. Also, as you're moving towards the finished bevel dimensions, switch to higher grit belts (and slow the grinder if you're able). It's easier to work on getting the bevel right with firm, but still light, pressure on a fresh high grit belt. It will also tell you if you succeeded on getting a good flat grind on your initial grits (low grits can hide some waves in the steel).

--nathan
 
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