14 September 2005, 08:04
CDHStones for smoothing grinder marks
Well I'm excited. Being new to the knife making business, I have a lot of aw shucks marks in my blades that take forever to work out with hand sanding. I even have a half dozen blades in a pile that I gave up on as they would take too much work to get decent...mostly because they are thin (1/16" stock, fillet and small paring blades) and the flex makes them hell to keep flat on the grinder, at my skill level, anyway.
Well as I am in the garage this evening splattering more water and sandpaper mud on my shirt and agonizing over tired arm muscles, a line from the Engnath web site sprang to mind...about the same time as I saw an old whetstone in the corner. The line goes something like 'stones can handle lots of problems with grind lines' or such...just what I need!
Well, to make a long story a bit shorter, 15 minutes got me farther than the previous 2 hours, with a much better looking end product to boot!
Hot damn, I think I need to revisit the reject pile. I think I can salvage a few yet!
BTW, I was using it all wrong...keeping the blade clamped down and running the stone along the blade, but I seem to end up with really flexible blades, so the backing by clamping to a board helps a lot!
Just had to share...
As always, I am open to suggestions from the experts.