Pheer 427, Esteem, or KMG?

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Aug 23, 2015
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Im looking for a new grinder and ive narrowed the search down to the pheer 427, the esteem grinder, and the KMG grinder. All of them seem to be variable speed, but the pheer seems like its a little lower quality than the esteem/KMG. What are the pros/cons? and does anyone here have a esteem grinder? i havent met too many people who have the esteem grinder.

Also, how long will they take to ship?
 
Hey Weiss, I have boned up on most of the 2x72 grinders on the market--those you listed are all good grinders, I would actually rank them 1. Esteem 2. Pheer 3. KMG One thing I don't like on these three is a spring for belt tensioning instead of a gas strut. Another grinder that I feel is a better value than any of those is the AMK: http://amktactical.com/epages/3c926...26a50-9aba-43a5-9571-098ee03f1288/Products/33 it comes with both a flat platen and a contact wheel--the principal of AMK is Allen Poe, and they will rig your grinder out however you want--for example, I got mine with a 3HP Leeson motor and a 12" contact wheel, and a vertical/horizontal flip plate. Any of these grinders will serve you well, often it just comes down to what you want your machine to do. I'm not sure about the other grinders, but typically Pheer, Esteem and AMK have a few base model grinders in stock, so shipping should be quick.

If you have any more questions, especially on the AMK, feel free to PM me.
 
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Cant really go wrong with any of them. We have an esteem and its an excellent grinder.I personally like it better than the KMG's Ive used.Ive heard a lot of good about the Pheer. Ive used a KMG a lot too and its a rock solid grinder, not my overall favorite for pure knifemaking but still a great grinder.I see the KMG as more of an industrial grinder myself, nothing wrong with that though. We keep a Coote around too...
I personally prefer direct drive and that's after using both direct drive and belt drive a lot.
 
i would love to hear pros and cons. i think they all do the same thing ? (excluding horizontal/vertical).
 
Kmg belt driven drive wheel, no paint or powder coat.
Esteem direct drive, powder coat.
427, costumer service is great, dude uses easily sourced material and welds it together, from what i can tell.

Look at a Northridge Grinder!, ive been breaking my head over which one to choose too and this looks like the best so far.
Everything cnc machined, powder coated, direct drive. Look at the Northridge thread thats up right now too, check out their u-tube videos also.

Im leaning hard towards a Northridge, followed by Esteem
 
Just be glad you have all these choices..Not too many years ago we had about 2-3 choices and all of them very expensive and not as good a choices as we have now..The grinder market is huge and practically saturated now compared to what it was.
 
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I will quickly add that if the Northridge is within your budget, it is by far the best quality of all mentioned--possibly the AMK is equal. My next grinder will be a Northridge.
 
I have a Pheer 427 and love the direct drive with VFD. Jose provides great service. I am not familiar with the Esteem but I would take the Pheer over the 3 step pulley system of the KMG.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk
 
I have a Pheer 427 and love the direct drive with VFD. Jose provides great service. I am not familiar with the Esteem but I would take the Pheer over the 3 step pulley system of the KMG.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

+1 on that one, wish KMG would direct drive and powder coat.
 
Esteem. I really like mine, very stable and smooth. Brett is a good guy. He was very willing to answer all my questions.

Russell
 
Matthew Gregory designed a direct drive attachment for the kmg if you decide to go that route.
 
I have a new esteem and a kmg with all the options both in 2hp vfd.

The esteem has a flip base, the kmg doesn't (I made mine).
The esteem runs smoother with less vibration and belt wobble.
The esteem is direct drive, the kmg is a pulley setup.
The esteem comes with recommended settings for the spacing setup and Brett's customer service is the best I've ever experienced.

The only negative was that the kmg small wheel holder was better imo, but there is a guy that makes an adapter arm to use the kmg wheels now so even that is gone.

The kmg is a good grinder, the esteem is a couple levels above the kmg for pretty much the same price or less.
 
Hey Weiss, I have boned up on most of the 2x72 grinders on the market--those you listed are all good grinders, I would actually rank them 1. Esteem 2. Pheer 3. KMG One thing I don't like on these three is a spring for belt tensioning instead of a gas strut.

I have an Esteem and I took the spring off and added a gas strut. I dont notice any difference with the gas strut, although there are many variables in how much tension and location etc.

I like my Hardcore and I think the Burr King/Hardcore is the way to go.
 
The only negative was that the kmg small wheel holder was better imo, but there is a guy that makes an adapter arm to use the kmg wheels now so even that is gone.

.
I think USA knifemaker makes a small wheel holder that uses kmg small wheels that fits the bader,tw90 and esteem grinders?
 
I think USA knifemaker makes a small wheel holder that uses kmg small wheels that fits the bader,tw90 and esteem grinders?

I got it from pfundlab, the one on usa knifemaker is for the old style, the new Esteem has a slightly different offset. At worst you can just turn the arm around and use the flush side to get the alignment.
 
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