Grinding tips?

[Bodork]

Been working on putting together a 2x72 belt grinder. I am still a few weeks from having it completed and hopefully it will work. I've been using a 1x30 sander then a file then hand sanding. I was hoping some of you could share some grinding tips for grinding the bevels and plunge lines. Do you free hand? Use a jig? Support the blade on a tool rest? Any pointers, pictures or videos? Thanks, Mike

[gudspelr]

I do it freehand-it's how I learned. Doesn't make it the right way, just how I do it   . I know of others that use a tool rest, various jigs and other means to try to get good results. As with any tool (especially power ones), there is an unavoidable learning curve that you'll have to deal with. If there's any possibility, get with someone who already has experience. That hands on explanation can help greatly.

As for some of the practical points, here's a link to a WIP that I'm not done with yet:
 http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=110;t=005181

It shows some pictures of how I begin the bevel on the grinder and then "walk" it up towards the spine. Hope it helps at least a little. Just remember to go slow and as I was once told, "look twice as much as you grind". A belt grinder makes some stuff go so much faster, but it can just as quickly ruin something you've worked hard on. Ask me how I know...  

Jeremy

[tippit]

Go to an ABS Hammer In...cheap $65 for 3 days.  Best of the best instructors giving demonstrations on all aspects of making a knife.  Big Plus is in the hands on area you can actually watch over the shoulder of the demonstrators.  You'll be years ahead of just pounding/grinding it out by yourself...tippit

[kbaknife]

Use anything you possibly can to improve your work.
Can you shoot a rifle better free-hand/off-hand or
from a rest?
I've been grinding pretty much free hand for the last 18 years.
And have gotten pretty tired of always having to dedicate a considerable amount of time 'fixing' and tweaking the grind.
Eventually I got tired of it.
I want you to think for a moment about a fellow named Tim Hancock. The man is truly at the top of the knife making game.
In a recent video I watched of him he ground a knife using jigs, round wheels, flat platen and disc sander.
All the time he was at the 2X72 he had the blade on a tool rest.
At one moment he elaborated on that tool rest.
Think of this - I personally have 2  - variable speed belt grinders. $2000.00 each.
I have two mills - about $3000.00 in the two of them.
I have a variable speed reversible disc sander - about $1500.00,
and a surface grinder - another $1500.00.
So about $10,000.00 of equipment comes into play each time I make a blade here at Andersen Forge - just the blade.
And some folks then say that if I use a REST!! it's not a hand made knife??!!
Really??

So, anyway, Tim Hancock at one point in the video stops his grinding and turns to the audience in the room and says, "Don't you owe your customers the best knife you can possibly make?"

I had to agree.

I have since switched almost entirely to grinding with a rest - if I'm making a "normal" knife.
My correction time has almost been eliminated.
I now have a rest that's about 20 inches wide so even large knives are always on the rest no matter how far I go from left to right.
I'm holding my knives on a jig to keep from digging in right in front of the fillet (plunge area) thus causing more "fix time" later.

Everything has improved.

I really do want to give every single one of my customers the best possible knife I can make and stacking the deck in my favor has certainly made that prospect a much more attainable concept.

[tomsm44]

I have less experience than most that have already posted, but I'll add one more thing.  DO NOT get in a hurry.  Go slow.  I have a four step pulley system on my grinder to control speed.  I virtually never go above the lowest setting.  With any type of hand crafted work, "faster" almost never leads to "better".

[kbaknife]

"Slower = better.
Better = faster."

[tomsm44]

I have a production rate of about 3-4 per year, so "better" is still a decade or so away.  I may finally make it to "faster" around retirement age.  

[Lin Rhea]

All the above is good advice in my book. Especially the parts about going to hammer ins and classes. There is no substitute for seeing it done and time at the grinder.

[tomsm44]

I'll second Lin's as well.  I started forging around two years ago, mainly learning by reading, and trial and error.  I had the privilege to spend an hour or two last June watching Lin forge a blade and I learned more in that little bit of time than in all the reading and trial and error I've done.

Matt