When to grind

GDOK

GDOK

Joined
Feb 4, 2011
Messages
115
I've read several comments saying I should always grind my knives after they have been heat treated to prevent the blade from warping, but I've seen many demonstrations where the maker grinds first, then hardens, or grinds most of the steel, hardens it, then finishes the grind.

I've also come across heat treat service providers that say things like "make sure you blade profiled and ground correctly before sending it. Anything you want to change after hardening will be nearly impossible to grind out"

Let me know what you think. What do you do personally? Are some of these methods flat out wrong?
 
There is no flat out wrong. The answer is "Depends"
What kind of equipment do you have,what type blades are you making,thickness of the blades.All are a factor.
I grind mostly folder blades,3/32 or 1/16" thick,so I profile and H/T and then grind.On fixed blade knives of 1/8" or more I rough grind then H/T and then finish.

Stan
 
SBuzek said:
There is no flat out wrong. The answer is "Depends"
Click to expand...

Exactly... it just depends.

Most of my work is from .090"-.250" thick, so I take almost all my blades to the point where they're basically ready to sharpen and use before HT... but there are reasons for that.

For one, I use one of the best HT firms in the business, and they're very good about keeping my blades clean and straight. If I was doing my HT at home with less-than-optimal equipment, I'd be a lot more concerned about decarb and warpage, so I'd leave some meat on them.

Second, I work with a lot of high-wear-resistance steels, yet I prefer a fairly fine finish... it's sheer folly to harden CPM-3V or Elmax, grind it and then try to hand-sand the rough scratches out; it can obviously be done, it just takes forever. If I did a lot of belt-finished or stonewashed blades I'd be much less concerned about getting them clean and smooth before HT.
 
Okay, that's some excellent info right there. Thanks guys!

My blade will be 1/8", most likely 154cm. I don't know of many HT services. I've seen Texas Knife has HT service offered but Paul Bos' Service looks much more promising. What else is out there?
 
Peters HT is one of the best from what I hear, and I will be using them for my knives when I get the last new ground
 
I grind all of my knives except for really thin stuff like kitchen knives before HT. I have done almost all of my HT myself and the cure for warping in my experience is a stress relief cycle before hardening. James is right about some of those abrasion resistant super steels. I have hand sanded 3V once and if you thought Cru Forge V was no fun.......:eek: Peters tells you not to take the edge down any thinner than .015 and that is plenty thin for about anything other than a kitchen slicer.When I put together my little mid tech project, I am seriously thinking about using the HT guys in Providence who specialize in salt bath HT for high speed steels and such because with salt, you can literally take the blades down to final finish with little problem.
 
I grind everything around .060" after HT.
On stainless blades above .090", I do it one of two ways:
Grind to a very rough bevel with a 120 grit belt, and then HT. These are usually .090" kitchen blades, and will be ground to their final bevels after HT.
Grind to a nearly finished blade with a final finish of 400 to 1000 grit, and an edge of .010. These are usually .125" bigger blades. (My buddy polishes his CPM-S35VN before HT)
On all but the .060" carbon steel, I go to 400 grit and make all the details as crisp as I can. The blade edge is about .020".

Peter's HT is super, but not cost effective unless you get it done in batches of ten or more.
Texas Knifemakers does great work on stainless.
I haven't used him in a while, but D'Alton Holder did great work for very reasonable prices. His contact is:
http://www.dholder.com/contact.html
I haven't used Paul Bos, but never heard a complaint from those who do.
 
Great info, guys! Thanks a ton. I really appreciate the help. I think I'll be sending out some blades some time next week! This is getting exciting
 
I'm going to use Bos. They are right down the road from me. I just need to get up to 20 blades so I get the discount(almost there). I should have everything ready for gun show season.
 
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