Why Angle Grinders are AWESOME (and why you guys are mean)

M

Munky88

Joined
Jun 1, 2008
Messages
1,844
Is this some kind of forum joke? new guy shows up, wants to make knives. you guys cradle him under you wing point him off in the "right direction"
by assuring him that all he needs is a file and hacksaw. He spends hours lovingly shaping his craft, while you guys sit and laugh at the poor guy needlessly working his ass off.

You guys are horrible people. finally got an angle grinder (DW831) for 50 bucks lightly loved, with a respirator, some drill bits,
and grinding discs and HOLY CRAP 4 knives shaped in an hour out of 2 pieces of metal. Even if it wasn't that fast, it would still be worth it for the flying sparks and raw manliness.

So to the new guy; Please do not fall victim to this fallacy. You CAN use a hacksaw and files,
Rubbing them together for hours on end while everyone on the board laughs at you behind your back.
Or you can save yourself, throw sparks about and get an angle grinder. Though to be fair you'll still need a wussy double rasped half round file, and single cut bastard mill file for fine stuff.

Going to try to make a jig so i can do the grunt of beveling with it too.
 
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We were wondering when you were going to figure that out...:p

But there are some women on here, so we're not all dicks...

Get yourself some stacked sandpaper disks. They come in low grits like 36 and 50 and you can control how much you take off a little easier, unlike hard grinding wheels. They can gouge pretty quickly. Also, take your time and don't grind too long between quenches. It is very easy to let your blade heat up and accidentally harden on you. You'll find out when you go to do your presicion file work and sanding.

If you don't feel like unclamping it from your knife board to dip it in water, you can use compressed air to cool it off - that is how I cool brass guards when I'm shaping them after the handle is on, so i don't have to get it wet. Just make sure the blade isn't too hot when you cool it, or its counter productive.

Hmm... what else did I strategically leave out...:D
 
Angle grinders get mentioned here 2-3 times a week, it seems. Are you saying you've never seen that in the 9 months you've been a forum member?
 
Hey there guy. I'm not affraid to say it. I'm sure there's a lot of quality built into your knives. I have always noticed that the knives that looked poorly also work poorly . Good luck jack, but there just is no short cut to do it right unless you do get involved with the forums or lots or experience where there all sorts of good and great makers to help you get better faster.
The people here are sincere and offer what they know for free with an attitude to help out. When you get that far where you see some help will give you a boost up, the peolpe here will still help you even after your insults and the ignorance you have shown. Not me, unless I make a mistake of reaching out to you in my desire to help. Frank Niro
 
Frank Niro said:
the peolpe here will still help you even after your insults and the ignorance you have shown. Not me, unless I make a mistake of reaching out to you in my desire to help. Frank Niro
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I hate when people take me seriously.

I have made 4 knives with a 30 year old drill being my only power tool. Which coincidentally also throws sparks, but not in a good way.

Yes you can, but for little money you can have it so much easier. The people here are all pro's and I am sure people are never mislead on purpose. and I am quite sure there is not a widespread conspiracy to trick people into using inadiquate tools. still a little unclear about the lizard people mind you. the people recommending hacksaws and files have probibly just forgotten how much harder it is.
 
That problem with angle grinders for new guys is that it's very easy to ruin whatever you're working on. It is indeed a faster way to remove metal.

There's a young guy that's been asking me for help and he's stuck on using a 7" angle grinder for all his stock removal. He's grinding the steel down thin to the point that it turns red with heat, yet has no way of thermal cycling the steel to better condition it for a knife.

So long as a fellow understands those type of things, then they'll be okay to do some roughing with an angle grinder.

And for the record, I think this fellow was just giddy over his new grinder and make a spunky post to be funny... I doubt he was being serious. At least I hope not if he wants to get any help on here ;)
 
When I did my first knife, I did it with a hacksaw and files to profile and grind, even though I had a bandsaw that had a dull blade (I bought a new one down the road for my second knife) and 2 angle grinders (my dad's tools). I could have used the angle grinders to do the edge, but I wanted it to be perfect, so I used my filing jig for extra precision :)
 
NickWheeler said:
That problem with angle grinders for new guys is that it's very easy to ruin whatever you're working on. It is indeed a faster way to remove metal.

There's a young guy that's been asking me for help and he's stuck on using a 7" angle grinder for all his stock removal. He's grinding the steel down thin to the point that it turns red with heat, yet has no way of thermal cycling the steel to better condition it for a knife.

So long as a fellow understands those type of things, then they'll be okay to do some roughing with an angle grinder.

And for the record, I think this fellow was just giddy over his new grinder and make a spunky post to be funny... I doubt he was being serious. At least I hope not if he wants to get any help on here ;)
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we need a tool that grinds while heating to critical and quenches in one pass with cnc :D
 
Munky88 said:
I hate when people take me seriously.

I have made 4 knives with a 30 year old drill being my only power tool. Which coincidentally also throws sparks, but not in a good way.

Yes you can, but for little money you can have it so much easier. The people here are all pro's and I am sure people are never mislead on purpose. and I am quite sure there is not a widespread conspiracy to trick people into using inadiquate tools. still a little unclear about the lizard people mind you. the people recommending hacksaws and files have probibly just forgotten how much harder it is.
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Your post was quite obvioulsy tongue-in-cheek at least that is how I read it.

I think I may have seen somebody mention a file and hacksaw but that was to like an 11 year old with a 50 dollar knife making budget.
 
Recently, someone was proudly posting a picture of their hacksaw and files every time a newbie asked how to get started. I think that is where it came from.
 
Brian Fellhoelter Knives said:
Me too.

You gotta be pretty careful on this particular forum or people will jump your a$$.

I post very little here because of it.

I thought post #1 was damned entertaining.
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Hey Brian!

Yep, You got that right!!

Now the Newbi. If you think a angle grinder is fun, wait until you get the chance to grind on a real grinder like the big boys use. :eek:

If you can, attend a hammer-in. You'll learn a lot!:cool:

M. Lovett
 
bjalongi said:
Recently, someone was proudly posting a picture of their hacksaw and files every time a newbie asked how to get started. I think that is where it came from.
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I'm surprised no one else is on to this. In every 'new maker help' thread there's always at least 2 people incessantly allocating the sole use of hand tools, whilst banishing power tools like a catholic priest damning birth control.
And while I agree that power tools can potentially destroy work faster then they can create it at times, your going to be upgrading to them eventually and when you do your hard earned hack sawing skills wont save you.
 
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Nah, I show my ass here from time to time and nobody ever gets their panties in a twist.

Munky88, I understood your post was a joke. I will make two semi serious comments though:

1. A hacksaw and file work pretty fast if you're doing it right, and they do a nice job.
2. An angle grinder goes fast, but seldom does good work. I've done it before, and if you're handy with one you can certainly get 75% there pretty quickly, but mistakes are easy to make. You will notice these mistakes and they will bother you more as your standards increase. Then you will likely use the angle grinder less.

3.. If you're a paying member you go to the real shop talk. We just keep this one here to keep you noobs stumbled up with hacksaw and file information....
 
Raymond Richard says, "The angle grinder is the hottest thing in my shop."
He used one once to anneal all the blades in the shop.....at the same time.
Or was that a stick welder?

Stacy

Seriously,
The angle grinder is too fast for a 15 year old kid who won't listen to advice in the first place. Most of those we recommend starting with files and a hacksaw need to slow down and read a book before doing any work,anyway.With experience any power tool is faster than hand work. However, few power tools are better than hand work.
When you are learning, slow and controlled is better. "Wax on Wax off." ( most of the people I am referring to won't get that, without google.)

Some of these youngsters would try to hold the blade in one hand and the grinder in the other. That post would look something like this,
" i dont hav a vise and i hold the blade in mi hand and the grunder got caut in mi pants and i was wondr how how u folks stop bleding lol"

Stacy
 
bladsmth said:
Some of these youngsters would try to hold the blade in one hand and the grinder in the other. That post would look something like this,
" i dont hav a vise and i hold the blade in mi hand and the grunder got caut in mi pants and i was wondr how how u folks stop bleding lol"

Stacy
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Now THAT is funny stuff and so true!
 
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