to grind or not to grind.....

Mike Martinez

Mike Martinez

Well-Known Member
Hello fellow dawgs,

I'm in need of some advice.... I have a ton of blades to prepare for heat treat (Peter's) and would like your opinion on whether to grind prior or post. The OAL is 7 inches and the blade is roughly 3" long 1/8" thick and 7/8" wide. I'm using stainless. Thanks in advance.
 
Last edited:
Not if the heat treater really knows what he's doing. Stainless will be air cooled or plate quench. Either way warp can be dealt with.
 
I would grind then to the point of ready to roll the edge to sharpen then hand sand up to at least 400 grit. SS blades will be wrapped in foil so decarb will be all but non-existant and hand sanding out 220 and lower belt marks on SS will not be fun.
 
With Peters I dont thinl you will have a roblem I have never gotten a wrped blade fron them even on my thinnist piece. They take great care and make sure everything is straight before it is sent back to the customer. So you could go either way.
 
Mike,
I prefer to grind the bevels after HT. I like the way the grinds come out crisp. You do go through a few more belts, But Like the end result.
To avoid overheating I dunk the blades and then only wipe the side I am grinding. As soon as I see water steaming off the back of the blade, It's back in the bucket.

You can do a 50/50 batch and see which way you prefer?

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
I do not quite understand your question, Mike. The blade is roughtly 3" long, 1/8" thick, 7/8" wide. Do you not grind the cutting edge at all? After done by Peters for heat treating, then start grinding the edge from 1/8" thick? Or do you grind the edge to a certain thickness before heat treatment? I am just curious.

I have been grinding stainless and HSS the edge to .020" to .030" before sending out for heat treating by Peters and Paul Bos. I certianly like to know more about which ways are favored by other fellow dawgs.

Jerome
 
Some people do most of there bevels after heat treat several top notch master smiths do it after heat treat , but on stainless its a heck of a lot easier to grind annealed you can almost take them to the final finish on 1/8" stuff in stainless and be nearly done when they come back.
 
I'm all for grinding to finished size and 400 gt finish. Saves belts and time. Once I take my blades out of the SS foil, I go straight to 400 gt and I get crisp lines. Also, I don't like the idea of taking the temper out of a blade. I'm sure you can master that with the sensitive thumbs but a bit painful. Good luck.
 
Thanks guys. I decided to pre-grind the blades ( I typically grind after HT on kitchen blades) since they are so small thin. Also, have any of you had any issues with defoos belts not grinding stainless well?
 
Mike,
Stainless is always hard on belts. The added elements that make it stain resist also make it more abrasive
resistant along with longer edge holding. THe Deerfos were a OK belt for the money but I Prefer the VSM belts from Germany I get through www.trugritcom

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
I expected as much but wasn't sure of the magnitude. The deerfos ceramic belts seemed to scrape the material off rather than cutting it... on a friend's advice I tried a 50 grit cubic zirconia belt from some unknown supplier and it cut so much better. I remembered hearing that stainless cut betters on zirconia so it may have just been my imagination leading me to a convoluted conclusion. Anyhow, I do find the 3M 967 to cut extremely well on all steels ( glad I still have a few fresh ones hanging around.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top