The JL horizontal grinder

[Tom Lewis]

I hesitate to talk about this grinder because I don't think it is still in production, but since I own one I will go ahead and discuss it. After I had my square wheel and burr king grinders, I was selling a lot of knives and had money to buy another piece of machinery. I was thinking about making folders and thought a horizontal grinder would be the way to go. (This was way before the TW-90). I spoke with John Lebanc at a Blade show and bought one of his horizontal grinders.
The JL horizontal grinder is well made. It runs smooth and quiet. The tracking is ok, but not great.
I decided folders were not for me, and don't use the JL grinder that much anymore. I do use it to sand and finish the front part of a full tang blade as you can see in the picture.
Next time, the Bob Dozier grinder.

 

[Cox Workshop]

Cool looking grinder. I can see how it would be handy for folders. How do you tension and change belts?

 

[Tom Lewis]

The first picture shows a round black knob on a lever, and below that is a semi circle piece of metal with slots. The lever moves forward into a slot to tension, and moves back to release tension so the belt can be removed. The tension lever is connected under the table to the wheel on the left of the first picture. The tension lever moves the wheel in and out.

 

[Brock Cutlery]

Thanks for posting that. It gets the idea wheels spinning, npi.