1st Attempt - Crash and Burn

Today was my first attempt at grinding a blade. I have put together dozens of kit knives and finally put some money into a grinder and took the leap into making my own blades. I started with a 5/32 piece of stainless steel. I put some painter's tape over the blade and drew out a pattern. I rough cut the pattern out on the bandsaw and finished profiling the blade on the grinder. Up to that point all was going pretty well. My intention was to hollow grind the blade on a 6-inch wheel. after chasing the plunge lines around for a while I burned through the blade. Obviously this is going to take a lot of practice and steel. But a bad day in the garage is still better than a good day at work!

I am going to try to post some pictures, hopefully they will show up.

Yes, hollow ginds are tricky. Not having a whole lot more luck than you're having. You might want to try flat grinds until you get a little bit better aquainted with your grinder. Also simpler steels like the 10XX series or 5160 are cheaper to screw up than stainless steel is. There are people out there who will heat treat it if that is a job that you want to farm out.

All in all, you did well on the profiling and the plung line looks good. Don't be discourage. It's kind of unusual for someone to make a good blade the first time out. Sometimes it takes several trys.

Doug

What Doug said.The only thing I can add is,I only do flat grinding,
and have done so since I started making knives.I have tried hollow grinding
but I have failed.They say once you learn it,it is eaiser than flat grinding.
Good luck.

God bless,Keith

My hats off to you for trying hollow grinding first. But my guess is you learned alot on that one! I recently cut my first ever from a bar of 1080. Had a nice 1/8" thick, 2" long piece left over I smoothed up and then bent into an L for a file guide. I'm sticking with flat grinds for awhile. I now a fella that only does scandi grinds, with a jig - sells alot of knives too.

You might consider going to your local scrap yard/fab shop and see if they'll sell you some scrap mild steel flat stock that's a comparable size to the blades you want to grind. I actually started out hollow grinding and THEN moved to flat grinding (which I thought was harder to learn at first, oddly enough), but I practiced on a good handful of scrap steel before I committed to a piece of knife steel.

I also only did chisel grinds for my first few blades before trying to grind both sides. Practice makes perfect...

I'm fairly new to this also, but I prefer hollow grinds for hunters and flat for kitchen cutlery. After looking at your picture a couple of thoughts came to mind. 1) a hollow grind works best if you keep the height of the grind line up from the edge at a height that is compatible with the width of the steel, the diameter of the wheel and your marked center-line. There's a widget on the forum somewhere that calculates that height for you. For example 1/4" steel with a 1/16" center-line has a grind height using a 10" wheel of about 1". A 6" wheel with thinner steel would be appreciably leess than an inch.

So, first step is to grind the blade steel at 45 degree angle on each edge with an old belt. The I start grinding up from the edge with a new belt, adding a little more pressure as the grind approaches the tip. This pressure creates a natural taper, and frankly is just happens as you try to bring the grind line to the center-line marked on the edge. After a number of passes you develop the "groove" for the wheel and once you get into that the grind is as much feel as sight. Slowly bring the grind line up with each pass measuring each for "equal-ness" of the height of the grind.

One other thing I learned, never quit on a grind line. Always keep suitable pressure from ricaso to tip, and that means doing something to protect your fingers 'cause the tip gets mighty hot!

About practice steel, that's fine and you can buy strap steel at any home supply store, but my thought would be to start with A2 tool steel. Even the precision ground, which saves a ton of elbow grease is pretty cheap. I've seen it 1/4 x 1.5" v 36" for like $60.00, on line. You just never know what will be your "masterpiece".

I started hollow grinding with 1/4" stock. I think that is better for beginners 'cause you have a lot to remove and therefor more time to learn how to grind and opportunity to make adjustments (corrections) to the final blade.

Jay

All of us have a drawer or box with a blade or 7 like that one! Don't get discouraged.

As others have said, get some practice steel and learn how you and your grinder need to dance with each other. Keep at it and practice.

Of, FWIW, I'd play a bit more with that blade now and then just to see what you can do with it. I have a blade I started in 1993 that I STILL haven't finished since I didn't like what it looked like after the first pass. I pulled it out of a box last year and it has changed 3 times since. I MAY finish it sometime this year. It's the one I pull out when I get frustrated with a blade I am currently working on. It reminds me that no one is perfect and gets me back into a working mindset.

Charlie

Thanks to all for the advice! I knew it was an "ambitious" first project, but I have learned a lot from my mistakes. I plan on turning more steel into dust this weekend.

Sticks said:

About practice steel, that's fine and you can buy strap steel at any home supply store, but my thought would be to start with A2 tool steel. Even the precision ground, which saves a ton of elbow grease is pretty cheap. I've seen it 1/4 x 1.5" v 36" for like $60.00, on line. You just never know what will be your "masterpiece".

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In my experience, the steel from a home supply store is about 2 or 3 times more expensive than what you'd pay at a scrap yard, if not more, depending on where you're shopping. I still buy it to make templates from though, as it tends to last longer than cardboard and is easier to trace a scribe around.

the first thing I'd do (after getting some free 1/4 inch mild steel) is replace that 6 inch wheel. the minimum hollow ground wheel I'd use for any medium to large knife is an 8 inch wheel and if the blade is on the larger side, then a 10 inch wheel. After 30 years and I'm cheap, I've learned where my limits are on an 8 inch wheel. Abandon that 6 inch wheel unless you are going to do pocket knife blades!!! As for flat versus hollow... boy, I really prefer hollow. My grinder has a home made attachment that comes out in front of my wheel and then a 1/2 inch steel rod (I call it a post) that the end runs right up to the wheel. I love it! No free handing, no slipping. I can do curved grinds because the spine of the knife rides on the top of the round rod and allows the handle to be lifted or lowered on both left and right hand grinding. I love it. Congrats on your sander, maybe some modifications and experience and you'll be turning out great knives!! Keep it up!!