Tips on Beveling on a 2X72

i4Marc said:
That's what we're trying to help you with. None of these remarks, or particularly my remarks, are meant to take anything away from skills you've already developed. Can you clarify? Do you want help with more consistent belt ground bevels or do you want help with more consistent jig ground bevels? My point is the same either way. It's about understanding the dynamics of basic grinding mechanics. You will have a better foundation if you learn these mechanics freehand. Then you can apply them more efficiently when you use jigs. Can you post pictures of some of your other blades?
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Agreed and thank you. I trust your judgment and will take it to the grinder with practice which is why I just did so thanks.

Not sure how to upload pictures but here’s a try..

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START WITH YOU WEAK SIDE and KEEP YOUR ELBOWS LOCKED TO YOUR SIDES. This is the simple reply to anyone having beveling issues who doesn't do so. I can't say enough on how much this helps. Luckily I heard it the first time I ever worked on a belt grinder.. and what do you know? I am complimented on my consistent grinds for a new, young maker. It works, it really does.

One thing is that the platen is higher than the contact wheel on a grizzly... makes it fun to try to get the height right.
 
The barefoot boy said:
START WITH YOU WEAK SIDE and KEEP YOUR ELBOWS LOCKED TO YOUR SIDES. This is the simple reply to anyone having beveling issues who doesn't do so. I can't say enough on how much this helps. Luckily I heard it the first time I ever worked on a belt grinder.. and what do you know? I am complimented on my consistent grinds for a new, young maker. It works, it really does.

One thing is that the platen is higher than the contact wheel on a grizzly... makes it fun to try to get the height right.
Click to expand...


Elbows locked helps tremendously
 
Thanks! Gives me a lot of things to be mindful of! Seems like there a lot of little things that add up to a great grind. Kind of like anything else, not just as easy as walking up and quickly being amazing at it. Seems I may have gotten overwhelmed and quickly resorting back to how I knew I could get it done right.
 
Try using imgur or another hosting service. Photobucket doesn’t allow third party hosting anymore.
 
My first grinder I purchased was a Grizzly because a local knife maker I learned from used it. Actually my first grinder was home built as per the $50 knife shop and it was a disaster. Anyhow as everyone knows the Grizzly has one speed. I learned how to make some great knifes IMHO on it. I finally decided to buy a professional knife grinder and purchased a Northridge grinder! I couldn't be happier, it's awesome!

But I thought having a professional knife grinder would make me one! I was wrong! I guess having a top of line sewing machine doesn't make you a seamstress either! But I eventually learned a couple things!

1. A grinder is like your true best friend! It will never lie to you and always tell you the truth! The grinder will only tell you the truth as in where you are grinding! Example if you are tilting the blade in towards the grinder at the plunge instead of keeping it parallel to the platen it will show you where you what you are grinding. It can't talk but it sure shows you!

2. A VARIABLE speed grinder can slowly teach you what your are doing wrong or right!

3. If you start out your bevels with a coarse grit don't go to far after establishing a good flat grind. Then go to a finer grit to follow and work your grind line up! It will do two things. It will take less material off and get rid of any DEEP grinding scratches when you get to the end of your bevel. Keep advancing up in finer grits the closer you get to your final bevel!

4. The more experienced you get the faster every thing falls into place and you can grind faster and farther with each stage of grits!

5. You will still muss up! But if your not learning from your mistakes then you have a personal problem. JMHO! lol

6. I highly recommend a Northridge grinder! It's a truly great design and well built grinder! But it won't single handily make you a professional knife maker as neither will any other professional knife grinder!

7. I still have my Grizzly and use it a lot for various knife building stages other than grinding bevels.
 
Check out the bubble jig. It's not a jig as much as it is a teaching tool.
When I stepped up to a grinder from a file jig, it was the first thing I bought. I got confident using it, put it aside for a while, but went back to it just cause I enjoy using it.
I even mark my blade templates with the final bevel degree that I'm going for.
 
If you want to be precise and grind blade bevels without mistakes and corrections, use a tool, fixture, whatever that assist you in doing so. Use new 36 grit ceramic belts at the fastest speed your machine will handle, I run 5400 sfm. People that do this for a living grind at closer to 7,000 sfm and use a pressuring lever to make the grinding go faster.

The reasoning behind this is, make the fewest number of passes, removing the greatest amount of material at each pass, at the correct attitude.
There is no advantage to grinding free hand as the term is stated, other than bragging rights that you can do so. I can grind free hand, if needed; I can grind with a jig and get far better results at a much faster speed.
When I started grinding, I thought like most that it was important to be able to grind free hand. Now that I'm in my mid 70's my time seems much more valuable so I'm going to grind bevel as fast and as accurate as possible. High speeds, sharp ceramic belts and at the same approach angle each time.
The more you progress the more you will find that grinding bevels is time consuming and can be tedious. It's after, the bevels are ground that the knife making begins.
Perspectives change as you age.

Enjoy the work you do in the shop, Fred
 
KnuckleDownKnives said:
I would say yes it comes with experience and possibly rushing it. I started out using a 36 grit ceramic running very fast. I screwed up every blade I made chasing mistake after mistake. Now I use an 80 grit belt at slow speed and just did 8 knives and have not had to chase a single mistake. At this point it's going much faster because I'm not chasing mistakes and the overall quality is by far much better.

View attachment 840701
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I have made hundreds of knives over the last almost ten years and I now routinely use an 80 grit ceramic or sometimes a sixty grit ceramic belt and I have slowed down my speed as well. There is no shame in taking a little longer to grind a blade if your bevels come out professionally and you will be a lot prouder of your work when you grind at a speed and grit that is confidence inspiring and controllable. Do what works the best for you. Good advice for any knife maker in my book. Larry

yaZgl4lm.jpg
vUcbKh2m.jpg
 
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LCoop said:
My first grinder I purchased was a Grizzly because a local knife maker I learned from used it. Actually my first grinder was home built as per the $50 knife shop and it was a disaster. Anyhow as everyone knows the Grizzly has one speed. I learned how to make some great knifes IMHO on it. I finally decided to buy a professional knife grinder and purchased a Northridge grinder! I couldn't be happier, it's awesome!

But I thought having a professional knife grinder would make me one! I was wrong! I guess having a top of line sewing machine doesn't make you a seamstress either! But I eventually learned a couple things!

1. A grinder is like your true best friend! It will never lie to you and always tell you the truth! The grinder will only tell you the truth as in where you are grinding! Example if you are tilting the blade in towards the grinder at the plunge instead of keeping it parallel to the platen it will show you where you what you are grinding. It can't talk but it sure shows you!

2. A VARIABLE speed grinder can slowly teach you what your are doing wrong or right!

3. If you start out your bevels with a coarse grit don't go to far after establishing a good flat grind. Then go to a finer grit to follow and work your grind line up! It will do two things. It will take less material off and get rid of any DEEP grinding scratches when you get to the end of your bevel. Keep advancing up in finer grits the closer you get to your final bevel!

4. The more experienced you get the faster every thing falls into place and you can grind faster and farther with each stage of grits!

5. You will still muss up! But if your not learning from your mistakes then you have a personal problem. JMHO! lol

6. I highly recommend a Northridge grinder! It's a truly great design and well built grinder! But it won't single handily make you a professional knife maker as neither will any other professional knife grinder!

7. I still have my Grizzly and use it a lot for various knife building stages other than grinding bevels.
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Thank you for you information! Makes great sense to me and gives me hope. I will for sure be using your tips and others, so I really appreciate it.

PS: I went from a crap harbor freight 1X30 to an Ameribrade 272 which I put my own 3 phase motor and vfd on it. This grinder seems very rigid and well built, so far I am very pleased with the quality!

Another PIC test:

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Fred.Rowe said:
If you want to be precise and grind blade bevels without mistakes and corrections, use a tool, fixture, whatever that assist you in doing so. Use new 36 grit ceramic belts at the fastest speed your machine will handle, I run 5400 sfm. People that do this for a living grind at closer to 7,000 sfm and use a pressuring lever to make the grinding go faster.

The reasoning behind this is, make the fewest number of passes, removing the greatest amount of material at each pass, at the correct attitude.
There is no advantage to grinding free hand as the term is stated, other than bragging rights that you can do so. I can grind free hand, if needed; I can grind with a jig and get far better results at a much faster speed.
When I started grinding, I thought like most that it was important to be able to grind free hand. Now that I'm in my mid 70's my time seems much more valuable so I'm going to grind bevel as fast and as accurate as possible. High speeds, sharp ceramic belts and at the same approach angle each time.
The more you progress the more you will find that grinding bevels is time consuming and can be tedious. It's after, the bevels are ground that the knife making begins.
Perspectives change as you age.

Enjoy the work you do in the shop, Fred
Click to expand...


Thanks Fred! Gives me hope as some people talk down to the way I've been doing it! Thanks for taking the time and tips!
 
LARRYZ10 said:
I have made hundreds of knives over the last almost ten years and I now routinely use an 80 grit ceramic or sometimes a sixty grit ceramic belt and I have slowed down my speed as well. There is no shame in taking a little longer to grind a blade if your bevels come out professionally and you will be a lot prouder of your work when you grind at a speed and grit that is confidence inspiring and controllable. Do what works the best for you. Good advice for any knife maker in my book. Larry

yaZgl4lm.jpg
vUcbKh2m.jpg
Click to expand...

Thanks Larry, your knife blanks look beautiful and those are the grinds I would like to consistently come off the grinder with!
 
Here's a knife blank I just did using the tips from you folks above! This was done freehand of the 2x72. Flats are sanded by hand to 600g and the bevel 400g on grinder. Very happy with the lines, may take it up to 800g. The advice above gave me a lot to work with and I feel I have more of an understanding of what I need to do and what I was doing way wrong. So I appreciate everyone input, thanks!

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It won't help you as much with those saber grinds but for full flat I like to angle the knife so the is a longer contact with the platten. A grinding magnet can be a big help as well since it pulls the blade into the flat. Something to think about with large flat grinds.
 
Maineiac1,

Your grinds look very good! And in fact, your grinds from the pics you posted of your older knives look very nice too. I hope you didn't take my earlier post as being negative about jigs. Jigs, work rests, push sticks and other tools are perfectly fine. Whatever helps you work the fastest and most efficiently is just smart. The point was only to give yourself a foundation from which to understand what you are doing. Like a person who wants to be a designer or painter, going straight to computers or to canvas and paints will not be as fruitful as if they had a strong foundation in drawing by hand. When advanced tools are used before the basics are learned you become a slave to the tool and its limitations. By developing a hands-on understanding the principles you become the master and the tool does your bidding.
 
i4Marc said:
Maineiac1,

Your grinds look very good! And in fact, your grinds from the pics you posted of your older knives look very nice too. I hope you didn't take my earlier post as being negative about jigs. Jigs, work rests, push sticks and other tools are perfectly fine. Whatever helps you work the fastest and most efficiently is just smart. The point was only to give yourself a foundation from which to understand what you are doing. Like a person who wants to be a designer or painter, going straight to computers or to canvas and paints will not be as fruitful as if they had a strong foundation in drawing by hand. When advanced tools are used before the basics are learned you become a slave to the tool and its limitations. By developing a hands-on understanding the principles you become the master and the tool does your bidding.
Click to expand...
Thank you! I understood what you were trying to say and when I went back to trying freehand I could understand by the feel of what was happening and why I was getting wavy lines. I also was using too much pressure trying to rush to a good grind, but realized in order to have a clean line I needed to slow down as I went up in grit size to work out the kinks! Hope the next blade comes out this good and my frustration will reside haha.
 
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