I'm trying to motivate myself to get back into the shop, finish some projects and start a few more. One thing keeping my motivation down is the tedium of hogging out blanks. I have a cheap 4x36 belt grinder with a 6" disc on the side, and a 6" bench grinder. That's it. It takes forever to shape a blank from barstock, and generates a lot of heat in doing so. Gloves help for a while, but they get wet from dunking the blade in the water bucket and start letting a lot of heat through. I'm talking probably 2 hours to get a basic 1/8" thick 440C blank hogged to a kitchen knife. Add that again to vee grind...starting with a new Norton 60 grit Zircon belt.

So my question: Would a more powerful grinder allow me to get more stock removed before having to dunk and cool the blank? How long SHOULD it take, assuming a new 60 grit belt?

Thanks in advance!

I'm wondering how much of the blade on how big a knife you want to consider in the grind time.

2x72" belt grinders are kind of the standard. The longer belt combined with more horse power and torque allows you to use more of the belt because you're actually breaking the crystals of the abrasive.

The major advantages are good tracking control and power delivered to the work piece. Adjustable speed is a great advantage if you're working to a fine polish or doing micarta or wood handles. Slow means not burning the material.

I have two commercial JL (laBlanc) grinders. Both are variable speed. One is 1.5 hp the other is 2 hp. Either work well with the 2 hp just being better. These fellas will blow a stream of sparks you would not believe. I use a 5 gallon pail of water under the grinder to catch sparks and ground steel. I also use it as dunk tank to cool blades.

You have to expect some heat. Bob (grind) Engnath used to use a pusher stick when he ground as well as gloves. A sharp belt will reduce this, but things still get hot.

A typical time to outline grind blanks from flat stock is maybe 10 minutes using 36 grit belts.

I do a flat ground 4" hunter in ATS-34 or S30V with a tapered tang to 80 grit in about 15-20 minutes. Takes longer to go to 120. At 120 I go to the hand block to do 120, 180, 320, 600, 1200, and 2000.

Times are longer with VascoWear and shorter with carbons steels or 1084/15N20 damascus.

A hollow grind is nice with a big grinder as one can go all the way to a very fine finish with a big (10" or greater) flat wheel.

There is a design for building your own on our web site. See below. Mike Alexander has built two of these ... one a about 1.5 hp I believe, the other is 5 hp. Will do an outline grind really quick! BTW, the grinding wheel is always the most expensive part. The site also has drawings for salt pots, a scribe, and a knife vise.

I use a 9" disk sander to help do large flat surfaces and taper tangs. Is 1 ph variable speed machine built with a K&G platter. Is usually fitted with 120 grit.

Thanks Mike. I suspect that my peoblem is that with pressure heavy enough to get good work form the abrasive I stall the motor. Underpowered! I'm talking about knives in the range of a 6" kitchen or 4" drop point hunting knife. Useful sizes...not that Bowie isn't useful, so maybe 'practical' is a better choice of words.

I've seen your grinder plans, and while intersting they are probably a bit outside my ability with my current tools. My goal is to make and sell a few, upgrade equipment, then repeat until I have a decent shop, then start supporting my other hobbies. I just can't justify (right now anyways) the cost of a proper belt grinder...especially on the low volume I'll be working...even if I build my own.

I wonder if there is a market for selling knives based on the semi-finished blanks like TKS sells...??? Handle work and hand finishing is fine, actually a little fun, it's the heavy grinding that turns me off.

My results are like posted above in that I use a Bader- well 3 actually, with variable speed. The ability to change belts quickly, longer belt life, more power and the ability to vary from 1/2" needle wheel to 14" monster and a platen is too good to pass up. The 2x72 belt as set up on a Bader allows excellent control, fine detail and slack belt ability.

Bader looks really nice, but at over $1300 base and $2000 for variable speed 2 Hp, I'm a LONG way from owning one.

Now for realistic options for someone who has knife making as a third hobby, behind hunting/guns and fishing/boats...???

Just remember that quality abrasives, ie the belt itself is more important to a degree than the machine you run. If you aren't making much headway, I'd think you may be using a belt that isn't course enough, and perhaps which is designed for wood vs metal.

The grizzly belt sander is one option for getting a belt sander for not a huge investment ~$300, and takes standard 2X72 belts.

Knife making is a 3rd hobby, and the type of grinder does make a difference. There are other "grinders" out there, when you consider the time and pain saved by having a good machine from the get go it's a no brainer. Do you scope you .375 Ruger ultralight weight with a tasco or do you put a Leupold or more on it and be done with it?