Questions for the masters... W.I.P.

I

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I posted my first knife a while back, and yielded a ton of info from you guys in that thread, and the search function. Someone even offered to heat treat my first for free!!! I got my first grinder the next day, and wrecked the blank trying to buff out a scratch. (The Grizzly is faster than you think it would be!!) I got busy teaching myself the fine art of not destroying good steel on the grinder, so I have been neglecting this site. After 4 "decent' blades, I have made one that I want to finish like I was selling. I have a few quick questions for anyone wanting to help out a struggling beginner... Thank you in advance, you guys are awesome!! I promise to post more, so you can see your advice at work.

1. Is there a trick to getting a good finish on the flats with the Grizzly's crappy tool rest? I have been hand sanding the flats because I chew up everything I attempt to do on the grinder. That works fine, but it's SLOW. Any tips on surface grinding would be appreciated.

2. What belts do you guys use when you get past 220? The 3M belts I have been using get SUPER hot really quick, and I haven't enjoyed using them at all. Is this a curse with all fine grit belts?

3. What do you use to smooth out/contour the handle area? I have been using hand files, but I feel like graduating to power tools for this and the drum sander attachments for hand drills look super cheap. I have gotten some results with the drum sleeves on the arbor of the grizzly, but it's kind of rigged on and inconsistent.

Pictures of the W.I.P.!!! .250 5160. Planning on hardening it myself, after I experiment on some 5160 that I'm less attached to.
photo-3_zpsf344edf1.jpg
 
A disk grinder is the best power tool for finishing flat surfaces. I don't have one, so I do them by hand on a surface plate. You can work them on the grinder platen to remove material, but getting them truly flat that way is difficult at best.

The finer grit belts work much better for me at low speeds. I struggled quite bit with this when my grinder was single speed, once I got a VS setup the light bulb came on and I figured out why. The Grizzly may just turn too fast to use the finer grit belts very well, you can make up for this to an extent with the right technique but VS offers major advantages when it comes to finish grinding.
 
I use the grinder to do most of my profiling, but I clean it up with my dremel. Looks like a nice blade.
 
I had a Grizzly - the first thing I did was get rid of it. It is way to fast. Get a variable speed.

Tim
 
I actually like the grizzly. It's not perfect, and it definitely has its good days and its bad, but how did folks ever make knives before variable speed?

I will look into the disc grinder. That may be the solution I'm Looking for. Thanks for the heads up, Justin! I think I will stick to hand rubbing anything over 600 grit. Truth be told, finishing anything past that is kind of a novelty anyway. I like function over form. The more used it looks, the more I like it.
 
There was a posting here a few days ago(?) showing modifications on a grizzly. It meant another motor with pulleys, and I believe an extension to 72" for the belt. From what you are showinbg you are doing very well. My approach at this stage with what you tell us is would be to go to the hand sanding. Your strong interest to do it right, is in my opinion the way to go ! Frank
 
Frank, I saw that somewhere!! I have been wanting to try it, but the ends just don't justify the means right now. I appreciate the compliments!! I am going to drill this one tonight, and harden one of the clip points I made based on info taken from right here. This forum is like the knife makers encyclopedia!!
 
I have no advice but I can commiserate. I make myself cry every time I try to use a fine grit belt or try to use my disk sander at all (its fast too). I spend an hour or more with a file and sand paper fixing what I did in seconds lol.
My personal big limiter with fine grit belts (Besides the speed) is the chatter of the seam against the platen. I've seen people put a scotch bright belt under their main belt to absorb that, but I don't have enough clearance on mine. Yours may.
 
Well, there you go now, !! A new friend is showing me the benefits of a variable speed disc grinder with changeable discs and even one disc with a slight bevel. That would allow fopr the grinding of a long blade. It's some machine alright and I figure I just may end up with one in my ahop. This one is made by Rod Neilsen. Frank
 
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