Some questions

[Toxey]

Hi ,I have a question or 2 for you guys ,since the search function is not working for me.
First off let me say that I have become to admire all of you knife makers.
Yalls gringing abilities are sure impressive.
I started on my first knife last week and I have to tall ya.Its going to take a long while to get the hang of this.
My first knife is made of L6 an 1/8 inch thick.A small little utility blade.
I now know why you put a plunge cut in the steel before grinding the bevels.I keep trying to fix my mistake and if I dont stop pretty soon,I am going to run into where the handle starts.
First question is,what grit and weight belt do you use to make the plunge cut?
I understand that I am suppose to run the belt a little off the side of the platen and hold the steel at about a 45 degree angle.
Second qustion.How much quenching oil will I need to order for small utility and hunter blades no thicker than 1/4 inch and about 9 inches max length?
I am thinking of ordering Tough Quench thru Brownels.
Hopefully in the near future I will be able to upgrade my account here at Blade Forums and send some pics of a knife worthy of being shown.
Thanks for all your help.

 

[B Finnigan]

I fought that problem also and I now use a bolt on file guide. You just butt it up against the side of the platen with a little belt overlap. When you switch sides the plunge will still be in the same place. You still have to have a steady hand and keep the blade travel/pressure even but you have one less variable to worry about. It also gives you a little more beef to hold onto when you are doing small blades.

I use either 120 or 180 grit but I am sure others use different grits. If you use a 220 you will have a little forgiveness and be able to correct an off angle grind before it gets too bad.

 

[DAMNENG]

TOXEY

If I may make a suggestion or two, If you are not doing your hardening indoors, i.e. you have plenty of ventilation, get yourself a gallon of automatic transmission fluid and use it as a quenching oil. It is fairly fast but smells like a saddle blanket after a summer day's ride. Put it in a container with a flat rim on it so if you need to snuff out flames you can simply set something flat of top of the container. Flames are usually two or three inches at the point of entry of the blade in the oil and it will smoke quite a bit. Once you have mastered the process and know your are going to continue with the craft you can invest the money in some quality heattreating oil. Oh yea, the oil works fastest when preheated to about 130°F before use.

I used to have the problem of not getting the grinds even at the ricasso, until one day I got ticked and decided to practice until I got the process figured out. I took two foot-long sections of mild steel barstock about 1/4 X 1 and started about three inches from one end and I proceeded to cut the bevels in the barstock just like I would a blade. When I finally got them matched up, I moved back about 1/2 inch and cut another set of bevels. I repeated this process until I ran out of room on the first piece of barstock. I then repeated this process on the second piece. It took me about three hours total ( I had to take a break to get the kinks out of my kneck), but when I was finished, My brain and my muscles were well familiar with the process. I think I went through two or three 100 grit belts. This little exercise cost me about $10 total for the belts, steel and electricity. One of the best investiments I ever made. I find, for me, that practicing a new technique on an expendable section of barstock rather on a blade I plan on finishing, greatly reduces the amount of time to master the technique. Getting the knowledge to to a technique is the easy part, training your body to do what your mind tells it is another thing. Grinding is something you need to do on a regular basis or your body forgets or looses the muscle tone to perform properly. I have one stringent rule for grinding, if I have been away from the griner more than a week, I never start grinding on a half finished knife, I always start a new one to regain the feel of the grinder. By the time I have gone through the coarser grits, 36, 60, 100, I have the feel back and can then proceed with finishing both blades. If you don't want to start with metal barstock, get some hardwood strips and practice on them first. The feel is slightly different but the technique will be the pretty well the same .

Hope this helpes.

Jim A.

 

[Mike Hull]

You do your initial plunge cut with a 40-60 grit belt, usually. Don't run that off the side of the wheel. Those are X weight belts and are not made to bend sharply and will cut into the beginning of your plunge.

You hold your steel at a 45 degree angle after you have your parallel center marks and grind a sharp bevel almost to each mark on either side. That is done on a worn belt so it breaks the sharp edge of the blade stock and will not cause undue wear of your newer belts by knocking abrasive particles off with the 90 degree sharp angle of the steel to the belt.

After you do those things, put on the belt you want to grind your bevels with and start about 1/8" or so short of where you want the grind to end at the choil area.
After your course grinding, put on your J weight belt and then run it off one side, using a piece of scrap to break the edge of the belt over, repeating on the other side.
Run the side off that you will be grinding towards the choil with and it only needs to be off the wheel about 1/8"-1/4" max, if that.
As you grind and come back towards the choil you'll see why you rolled that part of the belt over. As it contacts the beginning of the grind, it will take it from a 90 degree cut to a radiused cut, that's why you leave space to spare there on your rough grinds. It leaves you room to bring that area in gradually. I wrap a couple of thicknesses of masking tape around where I want the grinds to stop, but start out short of the tape as mentioned above.

That way it's easier to make both sides end in the same place.

Make sure to leave plenty od material on the blade after each grit to allow for the next grit to clean it up without taking too much material off.

 

[Toxey]

Thanks alot guys for all the info,I am soaking it all in.
DAMNENG,using bar stock material is probably what I need to do,gonna get some tommorrow and start practicing.And auto tranny fluid I can get easily,,,thx
Mike Hull,, thanks alot for your very well described instructions on plunge cuts.
Getting excited to get back out there tommorrow.
Although my blades so far are a bit crude,but can any of you remember that first blade that looked somewhat like it suppose to and stood back and said'''wow I did that.