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Old 12-18-2003, 05:43 PM
Bob Warner's Avatar
Bob Warner Bob Warner is offline
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In what order?

Looking for suggestions here.

When I grind a knife I do so in a certain order by habit but am wondering if it is the BEST order.

When I make a mirror polished blade, I will flatten the entire knife and work it down to about a 400 grit, then grind the blade and take it down to 400 grit. Then heat treat.

After heat treat, I will regrind the flats and then the blade and take them down to a mirror polish.

I just talked to another knifemaker that does it a little different way. Same as me before heat treat but then he mirrors the flats and then completes the rest of the knife, handle and all. After the entire knife is done, he comes back and does the blade. It stays in ugly heat treated condition until the rest of the knife is complete.

Personally, I would probably screw it up and waste all that work on the handle, only to mess up the blade later and ruin the knife.

In what sequence do you do things? I am not necessarilly interested in the grit steps etc, just what part of the knife in what order. Do you complete the flats to mirror and then the blade? Do youwork the flats and the blade, then go to next grit and work them both again?

Maybe there is a better way out there for me.


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Old 12-18-2003, 07:29 PM
cactusforge cactusforge is offline
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Bob, I forge to shape, normalize 3 times then heat treat and temper. grind and finish the blade weather it will be a rustic finish or hand rubbed then finish the rest of the knife. If needed I protect the finish with tape. I like to grind all my blades after heat treating It just seems a better way for me as there are no repeated steps. I wonder if other makers do it this way. Gib


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Old 12-19-2003, 08:40 AM
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Gary Mulkey Gary Mulkey is offline
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Bob,

After H/T I surface grind the blade but leave the rest until later. After finishing the guard & handle I then go back to finish grind the rest of the blade. I suppose that it is simply personal preferance but by doing the blade finishing last then there is less chance of scratching or marring the finish while doing something else. [Maybe it's just that psychologically I don't want to solder the guard on a polished blade and maybe ruin all that work.]

Gary

Last edited by Gary Mulkey; 12-19-2003 at 08:44 AM.
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Old 12-20-2003, 09:05 AM
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We saw out the blade, grind to outlind, drill all holes, scribe guidelines for the edge(s) grind a sharp-angled bevel down to the edge lines on the edge of teh blade, then grind the hollow/flat frind. After that we go to the disk and grind the flats, about down to 150x. Fit the guard/bolseter, drill pin hole(s), send to heat treat.

After H.T. the flats get polished on the disk, then grind the hollows down to final edge thickness, polish the grinds, assemble guard, solder, fit/attach handle, one slab at a time on a full-tang, then shape and finish the handle. I am in the habit of grinding the blade w/o the handle done. Ought to work any way you're used to and whatever you prefer.

Hope this helps. Everyone has their own way of doing things and all are good in some ways and all probably could be modified to improve, if the desire to see other ideas, and implement those one likes, is there. That's why the shows are so great. Almost anyone will discuss their techniques with you when asked.


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