What's going on in your shop? Show us whats going on, and talk a bit about your work!

I don’t have a lot of shop time right now due to school and volleyball season, but I’m working on an order of 10 2-blade trappers…5 medium and 5 regular sized. These are the 5 medium ones…gonna take a while but I’ll get em knocked out. Same guy ordered 7 of them and I finished them right before school started, but he ordered 10 more the week school started. He’s keeping me busy, and I’m thankful for him, but I may be sick of making of 2 blade trappers for a while!!haha
 

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Ben Kabisch said:
I don’t have a lot of shop time right now due to school and volleyball season, but I’m working on an order of 10 2-blade trappers…5 medium and 5 regular sized. These are the 5 medium ones…gonna take a while but I’ll get em knocked out. Same guy ordered 7 of them and I finished them right before school started, but he ordered 10 more the week school started. He’s keeping me busy, and I’m thankful for him, but I may be sick of making of 2 blade trappers for a while!!haha
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Why does someone want 17 two blade trappers?
 
With someone sitting on them.
 
This is one hour of grinding with one 24 grit belt on my little 2 x 42. Blade is 11” long AEB-L at 61 RC in .187” stock. Don’t know how fast that is compared to you guys with proper equipment but these belts are a game changer for me in time savings. This is now a very subtle convex and definitely under .020” bte (yes I apex during coarse grinding).

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Coarse satin, roughed up tang for glue adhesion and I’m ready to move onto the next blank, and repeat until I have enough blades to put handles on that I can finish in time for postal run Friday.

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Took a coffee break and a phone call. Then glued up liners for that one and the machete. And just now finished eyeballing an apex to base the blade geometry on. Used a worn 36 grit for that, now switching to 24. Same steel stock and hardness as the Hudson Bay above, slightly less tall blade but four inches longer.

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David,
That belt isn't used up, it is just barely getting started. You probably don't have the grinder running fast enough and aren't pressing hard enough to fracture the grains and expose new cutting corners. The belt glazes and stops cutting efficiently. Use a piece of a broken grinding wheel or a diamond dresser to expose new grit. People often don't get good life from ceramic belts because of the speed/pressure issue. If it is still red, it is still good. Many folks get dozens of blades from one ceramic low grit belt.
 
Good morning Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith ! I always appreciate your valuable insights. I’ve definitely considered much of what you said above already, and here is how things look for me at this time in regard to them:

I can’t push any harder than I do with my grinder or it stops.

I do push as hard as I can and cut lots of grit off. The belts are significantly flatter when they get to the point that the one I showed above is at. (Crag the brewer can attest that I have at least once encouraged him to push hard as well.)

My belts are just over half the length of the belts most makers are using, so I’d expect normal life for them to be just over half what you refer to.

I can get several normal sized knives out of a single belt; these knives from yesterday are monsters. :eek:

I recognize this change could be a great benefit for me, but I’m not in a position logistically or financially to do the kind of shop overhaul that is required for me to change to a 2 x 72 grinder.

This is my reality right now, and I consider myself blessed to be able to share the joy and love of performance cutlery with fellow knife lovers at fair prices within my humble means.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Use a piece of a broken grinding wheel or a diamond dresser to expose new grit.
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This, however, I have not tried. I've used rubber "belt erasers" but they are more effective for me on OA belts I use on handles than ceramic I use for steel. I have a coarse Baryonyx Manticore stone that I bought thinking I would use it at home, but I don't really use it. I will bring it to the shop and try it as a belt dresser.
 
Rubber belt cleaners just remove debris from the material you grind, like wood or micarta bits. You need something to dress the ceramic and expose new, sharp surfaces. The belt will be at a finer grit (sort of) afterward, but will still grind. Almost like getting two belts out of one!
 
Interesting, thank you. I admit skepticism on how useful I will find a dressed semi worn belt, but I am going to try it. I assume the Manticore stone will be sharp enough to fracture and expose fresh ceramic. I'll use the end of it so I don't take away from the sharpening surface of the stone, in case I ever decide to use it for sharpening after all.
 
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