The process of knife making and Edge retention

Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I'll put the use of a mister setup in a simile that my generation will understand.
"Switching to a mister system from grinding uncooled is like switching to a power mower after cutting grass with a manual reel mower." (You kids will have to look them up)
or
"Switching to a mist grinder is like switching from a dial phone to a cell phone." (Hmm, most of you kids will still have to look that up.)

OK kids, try this:
"Switching to a mister system is like switching from a dial-up modem to 802.1 Wi-Fi." (I had to look that one up.)
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My grandfather had an old reel mower and mounted a small B&S engine on it. He also had some sort of jig for sharpening the blades. That thing meant so much to me. Sadly, we recently lost it in a barn fire.

Sorry for the slight derail. Carry on!
 
Stuart Davenport Knives said:
My grandfather had an old reel mower and mounted a small B&S engine on it. He also had some sort of jig for sharpening the blades. That thing meant so much to me. Sadly, we recently lost it in a barn fire.

Sorry for the slight derail. Carry on!
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Cool memory, sorry to hear you lost the stuff itself. Both are precious.

I "grew up" in a sharpening shop, sorta. The main thing my Grandpa sharpened in his shop was reel-type lawn mowers. He designed and built his own type of reciprocating lathe to sharpen the blades as they traversed that arc. Part of the sharpening service was to clean and repack the wheels, since the blade came out for sharpening. Man have I taken apart, cleaned, and re-packed a whole lot of reel mowers. My folks had a commercial powered reel mower when I was a teen. "We" (I) used that every week for years. Makes a really nice cut.
 
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Stuart,
I remember the conversion kits to add a 2HP B&S motor to them. I still have slip stones that you used to sharpen the blades. They are the same stones used on a scythe.
IIRC, they still use reel mowers on golf greens .... as nothing cuts grass cleaner than a sharp reel mower. Of course, they are powered now, but the mechanism is the same.
 
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In the meantime, my POS electric lawn mower that is ~ 2 years old, no longer works...blah.
 
Older stuff seems to work better and last longer and was better made. Last Fall, I replaced my 1970's ThermoPride boiler in the house. I still use a Simplicity Lawn Tractor from 1983 or 1984...it's only a few years younger than I am!
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I'll put the use of a mister setup in a simile that my generation will understand.
"Switching to a mister system from grinding uncooled is like switching to a power mower after cutting grass with a manual reel mower." (You kids will have to look them up)
or
"Switching to a mist grinder is like switching from a dial phone to a cell phone." (Hmm, most of you kids will still have to look that up.)

OK kids, try this:
"Switching to a mister system is like switching from a dial-up modem to 802.1 Wi-Fi." (I had to look that one up.)
Click to expand...
Thanks for making me feel old Stacy. I didn't have to look any of them up. :(
 
Added Mister stuff to my Christmas list last night...wife rolled her eyes. She wants to buy me clothes. LOL.
 
navman said:
In the meantime, my POS electric lawn mower that is ~ 2 years old, no longer works...blah.
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I asked a local tractor mechanic what he would recommend that I get for a tractor - thinking he's going to give me a dealership and a model ...
He opens up his phone and shows me a Ford 3000 ... he says "get one of those," *you* can still do maintenance on it. I guess diesel exhaust fluid and filters and the like make his life hard.

Anyhow, I might invest in one of the cheap Amazon misters ... I burned the tip of a blade that I was grinding last week.
 
I am on my second cheap Amazon mister system. I forget what the problem was with the first one, but they are very affordable.

The only complaint I have, and it's my own fault, is my pancake compressor is really too small to get the job done, especially when grinding blade after blade after blade. It kicks on way too often, afraid I will burn it out. I am not sure what the minimum recommended compressor size is, but I am really thinking about getting one of those big tall units, so that it works better. That's what she said.

Right now I just use a flood of water, which sucks during winter, but we don't have winter here in San Antonio, so it works out.
 
daily_grind said:
Thanks for making me feel old Stacy. I didn't have to look any of them up. :(
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Lol! Neither did I... Does that make me old?
I'm not even 50 yet... Does that make me old? I dunno... Certainly feel it sometimes!
 
I'm looking at a 6 gallon harbor freight compressor. Is that big enough or should I get a bigger one?
 
Taz said:
I'm looking at a 6 gallon harbor freight compressor. Is that big enough or should I get a bigger one?
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Mine is a 20 gallon if I remember correctly and it runs quite a bit when I use my mist system. You need to look at how many cfm your mist system requires at whatever psi it’s designed to operate at. I’d think a 6 gallon would run almost continuously. The cheaper mist systems can also have cheaper (quick connect) fittings which leak so you lose quite a bit of your air there. I have a cheap one and one that costs 10 times more and, although they both work, you get what you pay for. My compressor runs more using the cheap one. I use a 5 gallon bucket with a lid for a water tank.
 
Push mowers-thats a blast from the past.

I love those old reel mowers....some were incredibly smooth. If the reel was on ball bearings and it was sharpened and adjusted just right you could spin that reel like a top. My Grandpa would touch his up with a file and it cut that Rough St Augustine lawn like no Gas powered rotary mower could.
 
Stuart Davenport Knives said:
As a Benchmade and Spyderco fan, I can tell you that I think Spyderco does a slightly better job with heat treatment altogether, but both companies do not "wreck the temper" of their blades while grinding/sharpening.
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I appreciate your comment....
Admittedly I am ignorant to how these mass produced knives are manufactured.
 
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