Buy some good steel. 1084 or O-1 or 5160. Forget about a speed controller for the 1X30, it might not work anyway. The speed of one of those units is fine. You can do a lot of the more delicate sanding by hand in finishing work. $90 in steel and shipping will get you a good batch of steel. Enough to last many months, maybe a year.
If I thought it would make you go and work on knives, I'd send you a batch of steel to get started on!
In the mean time,
get some paint stir sticks from Home Depot (they are free) and grind out some practise knives to decide the final shape of your first project. They are about the size of a bar or steel. Pretend they are steel and do it just like you will for a bar of metal. Profile, bevel, shape, smooth, etc. (don't try to HT the wooden knives, it doesn't work).
I strongly suggest a drop point hunter. Simple, not too hard to grind, easier to HT, useful after completion, and everyone will recognize it as a knife.
Once you have made several wooden knives, take a piece of mild steel (Home Depot -$5 for 3ft), and make several practise blades. Then you will be used to the grinder speed and can use the good steel. You can use the mild steel practise knives to practise the HT on the knives. Better to burn up one of those first. They won't get hard (just a little) , but you can use them to determine what color the steel looks like at non-magnetic, and what happens when you stick it in the oil.
Again, the more practise you get, the more chances of the first good blade coming out OK.
Don't worry about not being home in time to do some weekend work. With all those rich fellows serving weekend sentences, they always release the general prisoners from the county lock-up on Friday morning.
Stacy
Put your anvil on a stump, or a log.
HEHEHEHE!!!!