The long days of Newbyism and Hollow grind hell!

[KellyGlanzer]

We'll its sunny outside today and 13 degrees celcius(55 for the rest of you )
The wife says i should be planting grass and the kids say i should be building them a playhouse.

I had good intentions this morning to do all those things but when i opened the shop to get a few things i could hear a slight sigh come from my grinder as i walked by...... It was true I had been ignoring it. I felt terrible, the guilt was unbearable. I had promised to practice my grinds but I had not fulfilled my committment. I had some making up to do so I grabbed the closest piece of steel and traced out a practice pattern.
The bandsaw jumped to life as soon as i hit the power button. It was to be short lived as i snapped the blade like a twig half way thru my cut. I guess i shouldnt try and turn like that halfway through a cut.
As i rooted thru a drawer looking for a metal cutting jigsaw blade i knew i would soon be grinding and my procrastination would be behind me.
Pushing the jigsaw thru the steel was a lot harder than pushing the steel through the bandsaw, I need to get some more blades and maybe another pulley to speed it up. As i was thinking about things other than what i was doing the jigsaw bounced up bent the blade and almost made my finger a whole lot lighter.
We'll it is almost cut all the way thru. A quick bend back and forth and the piece i needed was free.
A 60 grit hogger,flip on the power and away we go. As i was grinding out the profile i was impressed with the shape i was coming up with till i remembered that i had seen this shape on blade forums a few weeks ago.......oh well it still is a nice shape and i am sure those Busselato guys wont mind.
Slow drop point big deep belly on the blade yeah thats it. Now how am i going to grind out the choil that i want? Hey those crazy guys on blade forum said they tried using the drillpress like a milling machine. Wait did they say it was a good idea or a bad idea? I guess i'll find out right away. I chuck up a nice straight carbide burr and flip on the switch. This works preety slick they must have said it was a great idea. As i rounded a corner on the back end of the knife the chattering caught me by surprize and whipped the blank out of my hand towards the door. Well that wasn't good at all! I guess maybe i should have that knife blank in a vise. Now why didnt those bladeforum guys think to mention that? Maybe they thought it was common sense?
Back to the grinder it was time to hollow grind. As i eased into the first grind right to left not to much pressure i found my groove and felt at one with my knife, this wasnt so bad i was going to be a pro in no time. Now flip it over do the other side left to right start the plunge equal......son of a b#@#$ its not even close. How could i be so stupid. Freehand my ass!
ok calm down lightly match both sides i think they are pretty close now.. ok, that looks alright, not a bad save if i do say so myself.
I'll bet i could do one of those groovy things they do what is that called.... a swage i think.
Here we go keep it straight looks good, how far should i go??? a third a half i dont know. I stop about half way. hey that looks cool just like Johnny Young, should i do the other side? yeah why not. I ease into it, is it even.....$hit thats why not. OK it could be worse lets just make them both a little deeper. Oh great i can't get back in the groove, now there are two groove paths. back and forth they get a little bigger. I'd better stop before this thing is a dagger.
I get out my rare earth magnets that i bought on everythingbay and sandwhich them between two pieces of steel. This is a great way to hold my knife so i can taper the tang like that Lovett guy. As i am about to touch the steel to the belt i realize that i dont really know where to start the taper or what i need to do with the bolsters or the handle material what angle should it be.......
Actually that taper thing is over rated any way and i can always try it on the next one after i do a couple of searches on bladeforums.
I go over to my wood drawer and envision differant pieces of burl highlighting my work of art. Maybe i should just try fitting something cheap first, after all those were kind of expensive. Maybe i should make my own micarta like that Butch guy, it sound fairly straight forward. These jeans have holes in them anyways. The wife doesnt like that idea so i decide to leave it for another day.
I start to drill some holes for some 1/4" nickel silver rod but as I am drilling freehand without that vise i should have bought, I have a vision of the knife sticking out of my chest so i shut off the drill press.

Tomorrow i will buy a drill press vise and then when i have some more time maybe figure out how to use that heat treat oven I bought a year ago.

Does anybody elses brain work like this or is it only me?

Kelly

 

[Matthew Gregory]

Pretty close, but mine certainly isn't as organized or prepared as yours...

 

[wayne37]

I know how you feel,went out into the backyard today and measured out a
firebrick forge I've been wanting to build !

 

[TekSec]

LMAO!!!!!!! Yup, my day was a close mirror to yours, except my bandsaw blade didn't break, it just popped off the rollers like 50 times until I put my spare on! Nice looking start. I just told my gf today that once I'd like to grind a blade once and not have to go back and fix things constantly.

 

[butcher_block]

i know i flat grind for some reasion hahah
its fun work tho isnt it wait till you try a folder its madness

 

[KellyGlanzer]

Forge?......Folders?......bring on the madness muhahahaha...

Sometimes its like golf. I hate what I cannot do and feel like throwing my clubs in the lake and melting every ball in the bag
Can't wait to play next time though who's in?

 

[NickWheeler]

I think very much like that, except I am usually working on 4-8 knives at a time while I'm doing it.

NO, it doesn't work so swell

Your blade is looking real good though

 

[GibsonFan]

Kelly, if you ever give up and want to "dump" the contents of that wood drawer for cheap, give me a jingle!!

No, you're not the only person who thinks that way. That's probably not much consolation coming from me, though

 

[jll346]

LMAO....At least I feel better now, knowing I'm not alone. I grind that one side so good (for a beginner) I actually scare myself. Flip er over and in a matter of seconds Im cursing! I think I have about 20lbs of O1 piled up to collect dust. Switched to 1075/1080 to cut cost with the learning curve.

 

[Frank Niro]

First I have to say I have been all the way there Dad !!! And I still have those moments of excitement (?) when grinding. Then and most important I have to say WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL Kelly !!!!!!!!!!!!! Your writing is most interesting and fun to read and the grinding looks pretty darn good if it isn't your sixteenth or seventeenth blade !!!!! Do more and you will get there !!! There being some improvement each time . Great grinding to all with some for Frank too. Frank

 

[koyote]

Sounds like today. Setting up a disc sander while rough cutting and profiling and fine profiling 6 blades. With a 4 year old in the yard. Oh, and I had to go fix a sprinkler valve. What was i doing?

At least I didn't cut myself today!

 

[Robert Mayo]

Kelly just keep at it i'm sure as Frank says you will improve your grinding skills with practice the more you do the better you get. That blade does not look bad for a rough grind. But get that plaYhouse done you may need it when BAD(blade addiction disorder) sets in because you will be sleeping in there.
Bob

 

[Matt Shade]

You're off to a great start on the hollow grinding. Those false edges are tough to do, and that one looks nice and even.

I'll offer a trick you can use to cheat when you don't have or can't use a drill press vice. Lay a short length of 2X4 on the back of the drill press table against the column (if its a large drill press you'll just have to C clamp it to the table). Then position the knife so that the blade is on the left while you drill the handle holes. The drill turns clockwise, so if it grabs the blade will hit the 2x4 and stop before coming around to take your fingers off. The closer you have the board to the blade, the less room it has to spin, which is why you have to clamp it down on large drill presses.
Of course, having a vice is much better and much safer, but in a pinch this method is a lot better than nothing at all.

 

[KellyGlanzer]

Thanks for the comments guys. I really appreciate having this place here. It is a great community of like minded individuals.

My Daughter and I say Thanks