Why didn't you guys tell me?!

bladsmth said:
Misused, an angle grinder cuts flesh deeply and in a way that does not heal well.
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I can attest to this. I bumped my leg with a 4" angle grinder. Just a simple not paying attention little bump. Stripped off about a 1"x2" amount of flesh through my jeans so fast my mind didn't have time to register it. Hurt like a red hot poker stuck to my skin when the nerves caught up to my brain. Nasty purple scar now. Can't imagine the damage it could do if you dropped it on yourself, got it caught in clothing, or any other possibilities.

If you ever have a disk come apart you'll be happy if you are wearing protection. Happened to me once and I said a quick thank you to you guys for warning me to be smart enough to have on face, hand, eye protection and wearing heavy work clothes.
 
I use one with a thick grinding wheel to cut out blanks... but the thin cutoff wheels scare the bejeezus out of me so I use them as little as possible. The thin stock we use can flex and wobble as its being cut and put a load on the side of the disk or maybe your hand twists. With the thick ones its ok because they are made for load in that direction, but the cutting ones, they grenade. Its not quite so bad in thicker stuff.
Also, stay away from older angle grinders with no safety switch. I have an old one with a lock next to the trigger to keep it down, every now and then I bump it and the thing locks in the on position, a very dangerous proposition. I use that one as little as possible but it is convenient to have multiple grinders with dif types of disks on them :(
 
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I can tell you, from experience, that angle grinders and similar tools are VERY dangerous, and you should always wear full face protection when using them. I only had eye protection on when a faulty wheel blew apart and taught me a valuable lesson. 3 layers of stitches right to the cheekbone, and a permanent scar later. Use a belt grinder if you can.
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rjfm1972 said:
I can tell you, from experience, that angle grinders and similar tools are VERY dangerous, and you should always wear full face protection when using them. I only had eye protection on when a faulty wheel blew apart and taught me a valuable lesson. 3 layers of stitches right to the cheekbone, and a permanent scar later. Use a belt grinder if you can.
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I dont see how having a scar that badass is a bad thing

all you need is an eyepatch and you have won gold in the badass olympics
 
OUch. Though I agree on the scar being badass, definitely not going to be using an angle grinder for this purpose. That musta felt real nice!
 
Yeah that is brutal good thing you at least had some eye protection on. Little higher and that eye woulda been gone. The biggest problem with angle grinders and knifes I think is most knives have some curves in them. Cutoff wheels don't tend to like curved cuts very much. Just a little twist on a cutoff wheel and they tend to grenade on you.
 
There are a couple different kinds of abrasive wheels - grinding wheels, and cutoff wheels. You should never use one to do the job of the other. The cutoff wheels are very thin, and if you push them on the side, they will shatter. If you try to cut with a grinding wheel, they get overheated and shed abrasive.

Another very important thing to do, especially with cutoff wheels, is to inspect it EACH TIME before you turn it on -- if the hand grinder slips off your bench and falls to the floor, the wheel can crack. If you have it on the floor and step on it, the wheel can crack. If the wheel binds and the grinder twists in the cut, the wheel can crack. Cutoff wheels are more useful, IMHO, but they're terribly fragile.

Last year, I was doing some fabrication work and had a cutoff wheel blow up on me. I always use one hand on the grinder, and my other hand resting on both the work and the grinder to steady the cut. When the wheel blew up, it caught and shoved the ragged spinning remains of the wheel into my left index finger. It sliced a dime-sized hunk of meat almost clean off and left a bunch of abrasive and fiber jammed into the skin. Ugly. Bled like a stuck pig. Hurt like "H E double-toothpicks" to clean. I fixed it up with butterfly pressure bandages, and it healed well. Regardless of the good outcome I'd choose not to do it again.

All that said, I love me some sanding disks -- the ones with the diagonal strips of sandpaper. Nice for blending welds, etc. Not sure that they have a place in knife making. They could be good for sculpting handles, I suppose.
 
bladsmth said:
One safety note about using any hand held grinder, is that the item being ground needs to have enough mass to not be overcome by the force applied ( like the side of a car being ground during body work), or be firmly held in a vise or clamp. The edge of the grinding wheel delivers many hundred foot pounds of energy, and can send a blade flying across a shop. Anyone who holds a blade in his hand while grinding on it with an angle grinder is an IDIOT.
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Good advice there... I recently picked up a giant vice (thing must weigh close to 80lbs) that I've been clamping stuff down with while I cut, and I can still feel the grinder trying to move it at times.

Fletch Helical said:
Yeah that is brutal good thing you at least had some eye protection on. Little higher and that eye woulda been gone. The biggest problem with angle grinders and knifes I think is most knives have some curves in them. Cutoff wheels don't tend to like curved cuts very much. Just a little twist on a cutoff wheel and they tend to grenade on you.
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I've only been at it a day, but it seems like you can make curve cuts by cutting a series of short straight lines around the curve you want, then just grind down the little bit of extra leftover.
 
Grease said:
I've only been at it a day, but it seems like you can make curve cuts by cutting a series of short straight lines around the curve you want, then just grind down the little bit of extra leftover.
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Grease, please take this with a grain of salt as I do not mean to attack you, but you have one day of experience, and you have posted more than one questionable work habbit here in this thread. Yet now you are giving advice on how to use the tool we've all agreed is the wrong tool for the job. Please take a moment to slow down, and get safe shop habbits before you really hurt yourself or someone standing close by. Start with breathing protection. Please don't do any more knifemaking until you address this. And maybe just hold off on the advice column until you have a week or two under your belt. I apologize for that line immediately, but damn, Bladeforums is full of folks dishing out dumbass advise. Try your best not to be one of those. I promise that this post was not intended to ruffle your feathers. If they got ruffled, then I apologize one more time. Either way, I hope the best for you and your knifemaking.
 
Fiddleback said:
Grease, please take this with a grain of salt as I do not mean to attack you, but you have one day of experience, and you have posted more than one questionable work habbit here in this thread. Yet now you are giving advice on how to use the tool we've all agreed is the wrong tool for the job. Please take a moment to slow down, and get safe shop habbits before you really hurt yourself or someone standing close by. Start with breathing protection. Please don't do any more knifemaking until you address this. And maybe just hold off on the advice column until you have a week or two under your belt. I apologize for that line immediately, but damn, Bladeforums is full of folks dishing out dumbass advise. Try your best not to be one of those. I promise that this post was not intended to ruffle your feathers. If they got ruffled, then I apologize one more time. Either way, I hope the best for you and your knifemaking.
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Well stated Fiddleback! I will be a bit more blunt. One of the problems with the internet is that anyone with a keyboard and a connection can pretend they are an expert, and unless someone with experience calls them on it when they start dishing out spectacularly STUPID DANGEROUS advice
some other noob will see someone saying HEY I JUST FOUND THAT IF I STICK MY PRIVATES IN A CHAINSAW MY BLADES COME OUT AWESOME and not knowing any better they will do something dangerous and potentially have a career or life ending injury all because you put something out there that didn't result in consequences in the course of your extremely limited experience. Yes anyone who has experience with a chainsaw will never stick important parts of their anatomy in one, duh! that's obvious. Having seen the results of an angle grinder being used improperly AND HOW YOU USED IT IS EXACTLY HOW THE ACCIDENT HAPPENED what you were telling everyone with an internet connection to do was just as stupid and dangerous as trying to insert one's anatomy into a running chainsaw. Please back down and read for a while before posting anything other than questions, and polite expressions of gratitude to people who will take the time to answer your questions. Especially please read the safety stickey thread a few times. You can hate me if you like, and I'm sure some folks who profile with an angle grinder and haven't gotten hurt yet are going to jump all over me for this, doesn't bother me, I've been doing this for 34 years and still have both eyes, ten fingers and ten toes with all of the flesh they are supposed to have, and no disfiguring scars.

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I think the danger talk about angle grinders is being a little over exaggerated here. They are no more dangerous than a bandsaw or bench grinder.

A bandsaw, mis-used, can remove fingers or even hands not to mention the cost of a quality bandsaw. A bench grinder can throw stuff too, or the belt just tears and whips you in the face or hands.

I have been using an angle grinder to rough cut blade blanks for years and have never had a wheel break, or even cut myself on the wheel. Just use common sense while using it, wear a respirator, leather gloves, ear protection, A FULL FACE MASK, and CLAMP DOWN WHAT YOU ARE CUTTING TO A FLAT STABLE SURFACE W/ A GOOD STRONG C-CLAMP.

Angle grinders are just like any other tool, use common sense, wear the proper protection(:rolleyes:), move slowly and methodically, and only cut straight lines. Although I do not recommend profiling the blade grind with an angle grinder, quick way to produce a crappy, ugly knife IMO.

You are and idiot and asking for trouble if you...
- Don't wear proper protection
- Hold the work while cutting it
- Use the "grinding wheel" instead of cutting wheels
- Clamp the work vertically in a vise
- Don't clamp down the work at all
- Try and force the cutting
- Cut with the wheel spinning "upward" or towards you
- Try and grind bevels
- Try and cut curved lines
-...etc...

Almost forgot...

*WHEN USING ANY HAND HELD POWER TOOL KEEP BOTH HANDS ON THE TOOL AT ALL TIMES*
 
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I don't think a bandsaw is anywhere nearly as dangerous as an angle grinder. Anytime you take kickback off the list of tool dangers, it is big IMO. I'd guess that most bandsaw injuries are to fingers or hands. I can't figure out how to injure your face with one. You do have to consider and watch for broken blades though. And the guy in the 2nd link that got his neck slit and died, only way to do that with a bandsaw is with a running start.

http://www.head-face-med.com/content/4/1/1

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general/killed-angle-grinder-144821/

I know your post wasn't directed at me, and wasn't intended to say that angle grinders are safe and cuddly. I just don't think the two tools you compared them to are nearly as hazardous.

Though, if you aren't wearing breathing protection, its all moot. You've skipped the first line of every tool safety warning label.
 
I can't think of anything in a knife shop thats not dangerous, some a little more than others maybe. I operate two blown gas forges, how much danger are you looking for? K-boom!!!!
Its how you work, the condition of the tool itself and just how safety oriented you are that counts.

When I power up the commercial grade 7 1/2 right angle grinder with a 5 pound cup stone attached, I understand I have a very dangerous tool in my hands and if I did not prepare to use it, shame on me.

I've been a shop rat for 50 years, I still have all my fingers and other body parts. Its not that I stayed clear of danger that kept me safe, its working safely thats kept my body intact.
 
Let's face facts, if we're doing things right the knives we make are dangerous. Of all the blood I've shed in making knives, the vast majority of it was caused by cuts received while hand sanding the blades.

When I first started making knives I toyed with an angle grinder and was impressed with its speed and power, but not its accuracy. I saw some threads with people doing REALLY stupid things with angle grinders (mounting them under a table and trying to use them like table saws, for example). My personal experience of them was that they were too inaccurate and unpredictable, so I quickly relegated it to the junk tool drawer. Yes, it has its uses, and yes a few folks swear by them as knifemaking tools... but personally, I wasn't impressed. I got far better results with the HF 1x30 than I ever did with the angle grinder.

So when I see these threads praising the virtues of the angle grinder, I just think "I hope they know what they are doing".
 
Angle grinders have there place, and it depends on one's preferences. I have one, but I don't use it for knifemaking, the bandsaw does a nice quiet accurate job of profiling knife blanks from stock, and the Wilton square wheel grinder does the rest of the job. With dust collection next to the grinder the machine runs clean, whereas an angle grinder will send crud in all sorts of directions, not to mention sparks.
 
I am somewhat hesitant to venture into this area of the forum as I am not a knife maker. I do enjoy reading the threads started in this area and this one caught my eye. I work for a material supply company in the concrete construction industry. We sell alot of diamond blades for cutting concrete/masonry/asphalt. One of our suppliers has come out with a series of new products which basically consist of diamond cutoff wheels and grinding cups designed for steel. I have been demonstrating them recently and in my opinion, they eliminate alot of the problems encountered with resin/abrasive wheels. They cut considerably faster. The spark trail is around 75% less than that of the resin wheels. They almost eliminate the smell/dust you get with resin wheels. They do not lose depth of cut. They last approx 50 times longer. They are seem to be less noisy. The cut that you get with this product is much smoother - it does not seem to jump near as much as resin abrasive wheels. Probably most important, they are much safer as you should not experience any breakage as the shank is steel, not resin/fiberglass. I am not advocating/selling this to the members of this forum, simply introducing something that you may not be aware of. I have been demoing a 4" and 6" cutoff wheel and a 4" grinding cup - they do seem to be an innovative tool that is a step up from what has been available in the past. The price isn't exorbitant.
 
Just for the record there are more than just cutting wheels and grinding wheels. There are combo wheels which can do both. They aren't thick enough for hard pressure like a pure grinding wheel but they also don't fly apart if you twist em a lil.

Also, I don't see the problem cutting with a grinding wheel. It takes longer as you're removing more material and can't exactly "cut", you have to make wedge shaped slices, but how would the disk get hotter than when using it to grind?
 
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