Zen and the Art of Knife Grinding

C

Chant

Joined
Jan 27, 2006
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In the last few weeks I've developed a huge appreciation (and envy) for the level of calm, focused attention all you great knifemakers must be able to maintain while grinding.

I'm able to maintain that focus until I'm about 90% done. Then, I start to get excited, visualizing the finished knife. I lose focus, slip up, and #@&!*&^#!!!!!!!!!:yawn: Thankfully, at that point I'm going slowly on finer grits, so I can usually recover. The recovered geometry is never as satisfactory as the original, though.

I'm thinking of taking up Buddhism.
 
Jeff,

you'll learn quickly that lower grits are unforgiving :),
as is any loss of concentration.

Get yourself a rubber+graphite tape soft platen for
final grinds. Check out 3M trizact belts.

Don't throw away any spoiled blades - use them for
practice grinding - this is how you learn & experiment.

Build that grinding jig I described - it makes it 100%
bulletproof.

As you put the blade against contact wheel/platen, let
if find the grind lines with some very light pressure, don't
force it.

For some fine grinding, learn to use the very corners of the
platens - grind with the blade not flat against the platen,
but only touching the corner.

Dont try to take off too much in a single grind, few ligther
passes are a better way to go.
 
It's the same thing when prepping a gun for bluing.. ya get real close and start moving quicker... put it down and walk away..
Tomorrow you'll start fresh and GitRdun..
 
I won't even pretend to give much advice, I'll just say your not alone. Take your time and practice.

Great book though :thumbup:

Jon
 
You did buy variable speed right?

I'm a long way from knowing anything bout how to do it right, but I find that I'm better off taking a few blades to almost there, then calling it a day and doing the final steps first thing in the morning on my next shop session when I'm freshest.
 
The biggest thing, IMO, is to lose the irrational anger most of us have.

It's nothing but the irrational reaction to not getting what we think we "should, ought, and must", IE: our own way.

Things won't always go the way you want them to, so learn to accept that. Don't blame yourself when things go wrong by saying things like "I'm so stupid to do that", etc. Instead, try, "I did a stupid thing, but I'm not stupid".
That way you learn from the mistake more readily than if you down yourself and act childish yelling or by throwing things, endangering not only yourself but anyone else that may be in range.

Patience goes right along with learning to control anger/temper and realizing that thinking that things should, ought and must go your way, is truly irrational.

You have your whole life to make that knife, why get upset, or rush, when you know that to do so will increase chances you will cause more work for yourself.

The same goes for taking orders. If you overbook, it will cease being a labor of love, but instead, just plain old friggin labor.
You will hate to go into your shop anymore, and dread hearing the phone ring.

If it ever gets to that point, quit taking orders either until you're well caught up, or you decide to make what you want and not take custom orders anymore. After all, the customer is supposed to be paying for your vision, not his.
If you make what others want, you will be frustrated, as most artists have their own ideas of how things should look. Live your dream, don't let it live you.
[sermon mode off];)
 
Hmmmm....Buddism.
The discription of Buddism is that if s--t happens, it is not really s--t!

I hope you are not catholic because then your philosophy would be "if s--t happens you probably deserve it.:D :D

Some wisdom off my coffee mug.

Jeff, if you find you get antsy at the thought of finishing the blade then do what J Macdonald said, resist the temptation to finish it and come back next morning. When you get too tense you defintely will screw it up.
Now if I could just learn to take my own advise....

Mike Hull has a lot of wisdom here too, do not beat yourself up as being stupid, you just did a stupid thing and every day is a new day and you can try to do it right.

Nick Wheeler has been making knives for more than 10 years and has made a lot of good ones and he once admitted in a thread that he is a nervous wreck every time he steps up to the grinder.
Maybe that keeps us humble with our feet on the ground. You are not alone.
Keep it up.

Mike
 
Mr Hull is so correct ... if it isn't fun...it is labor........patience doesn't mean that you will get what you want every time, but that you will see the required changes.

earl
 
Yo Jeff,
This really sounded/read familar to me. I moderate a Yahoo group dealing with meditation http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/meditationsocietyofamerica/
and have posted lots of times with the title Zen and the Art of Knifemaking. If you search the group, you'll be able to find my posts and pseudo-zen like comments about how transcendent I find knifemaking. And anxiety producing as well! As a meditator, I find that being empty and present with "in the moment" attention while doing any of the steps in knifemaking can bring about inner growth and self control as well as any meditation technique I've ever found. And less screw-ups and cuts fingers and appendages too!
Thanks for sharing,
Bob
 
There is NEVER a time that I haven't been anxious or worried or pissed or angry or giggly tickled when grinding a knife. Maybe not all of these emotions for each knife, maybe not to the extreme it was when I started but they are all still there -- thank God or I'd quit this whole mess and focus on golf.
 
Thanks, everyone...lots of good advice here.

rashid11 - I have a ceramic platen on the way, and am planning on ordering a new platen soon for a soft rubber/graphite backing. I do have a jig (though not as good as yours - mine attaches to the platten, rather than the knife), but I've been trying to learn better freehand control, which is where I'm having problems.

Gringogunsmith & J. MacDonald - I was at one point "walking away" when almost finished, and resuming the next day. That did work pretty good, though it made it harder to pick up and continue, for fear I'd mess up. On my last one, I tried to take it right through and messed up again. I think I'll go back to the "walk away" method. Makes sense to leave the finer details to a fresh mind.

Mike H.- good advice for any creative endeavor. When I find myself having one of these irrational reactions, I recite a line from T.S.Eliot's "The Hollow Men" to myself --
"Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow"
It reminds me that everyone trying to create has these problems, that I'm not stupid, and that it's OK.

Mike - glad to hear Nick and others also get nervous at the grinder (not glad for them, of course, just glad to know it's not just me!)

medit8 - I'll check out those posts. I LOVE the meditative aspects of knifemaking. So different from what I get out of my day job! So far, the only anxiety-producing aspect is the final grinding (though there are plenty of other impatience-producing aspects I also need to get a handle on), and I'm sure I'll get a handle on it eventually.

Tracy - If you can make the knives you do without purging all your emotions, then there may be some hope for me! I'll keep practicing. BTW, while I myself would never feel comfortable centering out favorite makers on this forum, I will tell you that my wife says your knives are the most beautiful she's ever seen :) :thumbup:
 
I found that listening to different types of music changed the way I grind... could be BS, could be subconscious, but I found that if I listen to something more in the realm of melodious rather than caustic my grinding improved -- significantly. Granted, I can barely hear the tunes over the noise of the grinder and the dust collector, but there is no doubt that things turn out better listening to Bill Evans or Coltrane rather than Rob Zombie.
I'm not sure how much I'm feeling the 'nothingness' of Buddhism when I'm doing it --most likely the opposite, in fact, but I know if I want to be productive I need to listen to bebop and not industrial.
 
Back when I commuted into Toronto (1.25 hrs each way, through heavy traffic) I developed an appreciation of classical and baroque -- kept me calm and relaxed amid the nasty traffic. Maybe I'll throw on some Bach, and save the heavy metal for hand sanding :thumbup: .
 
Mostly highy recommend turning off the music when one is working on a bandsaw. Slightest loss of concentration can lead to a nasty accident.

same for buffing.

The rest should be OK :)
 
"Oversharpen the blade, and the edge will quickly dull..."

Lao Tsu, from "The Tao Te Ching".

This means, "Know when to stop". You might be interested in reading the chapter I wrote on Blade Grinding in BLADE's "GUIDE TO MAKING KNIVES".

There is a whole lot of philosophy/faith/meditation in grinding. That's why I love doing it so much. I have learned, after many years of experience, that as soon as I think "Wow, I'm really making this look easy", that a mistake will immediately follow! Never fails.

Get that book! It will help you.

RJ Martin
 
Years back, i did a good deal of Buddhist studies, Zen sesshin meditation, etc...I think the tenets of zen are often seen to be studies into "nothingness" and "emptiness" but in reality, it all centers around one-ness. I would say that to grind with a Zen mind, one should strive not to empty the mind, but to become one with the blade, feeling it as yourself, moving across the belt. Emptying your mind will simply relax you....taking that next step of concentration to feeling every dig and grind that the blade makes I would say, is where the Zen is.

Zen isnt trying really hard at the gas station to pump exactly 20.00 in gas in one pump....its pumping 20.00 in gas in one pump without even thinking about it...when its there, there is no "try"....

Sorry to wax philisophical, but this stuff hits home to me in many ways.
 
I have a problem when I am grinding or working with power saws where my eyes go out of focus and I have to force them back into focus. I'm not sure if this is due to lack of sleep, but it only happens with power tools, which makes it extremely dangerous. It happens most when I am ripping long boards on the table saw.
 
TikTock said:
one should strive not to empty the mind, but to become one with the blade, feeling it as yourself, moving across the belt.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you're asking me to repetitively gouge myself with an abrasive belt until I get too hot, then dunk my ass in water, then gouge, then dunk...

I'm thinking I'll avoid the entire 'Zen' experience altogether, thank you very much!

j/k :D

FWIW, I know where you're going, and I think you're right. You do your best work when you lose yourself in the work... focusing so intently on what you're doing that you are NOT truly aware of it, you're just doing. Every now and again that happens for me, but the instances are few and far between.
 
Heh!

Yeah, I think you know what I meant, and I have had moments like that, too....

Its almost like getting into the groove....until all the sudden the knife is ground and you dont remember grinding most of it.
 
I'm still far too unsure of what I'm doing to have those moments -- but I know them from other areas of life. Maybe once I've done another few dozen knives I'll find the zone.

David - how's your paragon working out? I'm waiting (impatiently) for my evenheat. I've got 6 blades ground now, and I don't know what to do with myself while waiting...
 
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