My first time.

Chris Railey

Chris Railey

Well-Known Member
I am about to make a run of kitchen knives for the first time using thin steel 3/32 and 1/16. They will be ground post HT. My question is with thin steel like this what grit do you guys start with? My guess would be 120 maybe even a ceramic 220? Going full flat grind on a 2x72 grinder. I grind freehand if it matters.
 
I start at 60 grit ceramic on steel that thick. If it was a little folder, sure- 120 would be fine. But remember that you aren't just knocking off the corner of the thickness. Once you create a flat bevel on an 8 inch chef knife- that's a whole lot of steel to remove. There is a tremendous amount of blade surface area that is in contact with the belt. It won't cut as fast as you expect it to.

I use 60 until my bevel is ground up to at least half way. (about the level of the handle pins) Then you can switch to 120 ceramic to make sure that you get down past all the 60 grit scratches. I complete all of my cuttng at 120. Then I'll surface condition the blade to 220grit to get it ready for hand sanding.

The more familiar you get with doing thin steel, the farther you can take the knife with higher grits. The steel you use also matters. Stainless that is already heat treated will make you want to stick to the courser grits longer. Carbon steel grinds like butter by comparison, and you will want to get to a finer grit before the grinder eats the blade.
 
John Wilson said:
I start at 60 grit ceramic on steel that thick. If it was a little folder, sure- 120 would be fine. But remember that you aren't just knocking off the corner of the thickness. Once you create a flat bevel on an 8 inch chef knife- that's a whole lot of steel to remove. There is a tremendous amount of blade surface area that is in contact with the belt. It won't cut as fast as you expect it to.

I use 60 until my bevel is ground up to at least half way. (about the level of the handle pins) Then you can switch to 120 ceramic to make sure that you get down past all the 60 grit scratches. I complete all of my cuttng at 120. Then I'll surface condition the blade to 220grit to get it ready for hand sanding.

The more familiar you get with doing thin steel, the farther you can take the knife with higher grits. The steel you use also matters. Stainless that is already heat treated will make you want to stick to the courser grits longer. Carbon steel grinds like butter by comparison, and you will want to get to a finer grit before the grinder eats the blade.
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Thanks I will do that. Its 1095 by the way.
 
Great catch John and thanks! I always leave a little meat there and in the tip when I do bigger knives. I grind the handle belly down after I fit and shape the scales. That way I can custom fit the handle swell to the scale material. I have done a few in the past, finish shaped the swell then after the scales went on it felt like there was no swell. I have an old spindle sander I use to fine tune the contours. I do not harden my handles so it's not too bad unless you go above 1/8 thick then it takes a little patience. I guess if I planned my scales out better or had more experience my method would not be necessary. I have made a personal goal to work hard on my fit and finish so I guess I am playing it safe. Since we are talking, do you think the chef's knife is too wide? It's a full 2 inches wide and without the scales it looks a little like Shamoo to me...
 
It sounds like you have a well thought out plan.

Handles, specifically the length and size of them overall, have proven to be the most challenging aspect of knifemaking for me. Trying to get the handle just right is an art- so much so that once I get it right I keep that design as a template and I design future knives around the established handle.
 
John Wilson said:
It sounds like you have a well thought out plan.

Handles, specifically the length and size of them overall, have proven to be the most challenging aspect of knifemaking for me. Trying to get the handle just right is an art- so much so that once I get it right I keep that design as a template and I design future knives around the established handle.
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That is a good idea. It would be easy to make a general handle template and use that for any knife of similar size even if you drew an original design you could use your template for the handle, smart work.
 
It works fairly well within genres of design. For example, I have a Chef knife handle that will go on all kitchen knives of that size/use. A fillet handle, a hunting knife handle, etc. It's very easy to add curves, etc to a handle to make it match a new design when you already have a pretty good idea of the dimensions you like for a handle. I also find that if I start designing a knife around the blade, I will end up designing the handle to match the blade and the dimensions will be all wrong. The handle dimensions are usually pretty critical to the knife. It's a lot easier to start there and then grow the blade out of the handle.
 
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