Videos for grinding flats

[doublearrow]

Does anyone know which grinding video that shows how to grind flats truly flat on a KMG or any other belt grinder?I've done some research and tried different things i just can't seem to get the metal to grind flat. If I lay a piece of precision ground metal or scale material sanded flat on a flat surface across the knife blank that I attempted to grind flat the results aren't satisfactory. Then center of the metal seems to be couple thousandths higher than the edges creating a very small gap (around the knife) hardly noticable, but still there. I then epoxy the scales on and the gap dissapears, but a seem of epoxy can be seen if studied closely. Am I being too picky or is this acceptable? If anyone has any thoughts on which videos might show a trick or two on this I would appreciate the help. Thanks in advance. Ryan

[Andrew Garrett]

Ryan,

I often have the same problem. I use a platten lined with pyroceram and it still seems to do that every once in a while. The seam in the belt always bumps the steel up and messes with my hold.

I know of two things you can try. One I do regularly and one I've never done.

The one I do is simple. Commit to a nice long grind. If you are pre-heat treat, this works great. I use a magnet (from Jantz) to hold it hard on the platten and I go for a nice long grind without moving my hand. If I need to cool it down, I have a spray bottle in the other hand. Resist the urge to keep checking it. I just wait until sparks are coming out from under the steel in a uniform manner indicating that the entire surface is grinding. This works ok for me most of the time. After the HT, I do the same thing on slow speed with plenty of spraying.

The other thing is to try the trick Bob Loveless teaches in his book. Use the edge of the contact wheel at an angle to groove out the middle area of the tang. The concept is something akin to a dug-out canoe or an incence tray. If you do it right, It'll look like a great place to hold your poker chips. This lightens the tang considerably and gives you less steel to flat grind. The perimeter of the tang is all that needs to be flat for scale attachment, and this grinds pretty quickly. I haven't tried this because most of my handle designs are thinner than the norm and tough to do this on.

I hope this helps. :usa2:

[SBuzek]

Ryan
What i do to really get a flat surface is I have a granite flat stone i got from woodcrafters after i grind the tang i put a piece if 150 grit sand paper on the stone and hand sand it truly flat only takes a few mins and will do good job.
Hope this helps
Stan

[rashid11]

Seems you're targeting tang area. A few thou should not make much difference
and will be impossible to see after slabs go on.

However, for perfection one must aim



Assuming the platen you use is flat enough (did you check it ?),
you can use dykem or sharpie - color the low-lying areas and grind
till you see no more color on .


By angling the steel and applying pressure in different points,
you can shape metal on a grinder with a very good precision.

Wear gloves with nice padding in finger tip area - just in case
your hand slips.

Another tip - try to get as much metal in contact with platen
as possible. For example, grind handle area as close to "lengthwise"
as possible. Otherwise, grinding at right angle to the belt you'd need to
be very very even or you won't get a perfectly flat surface


Get handle area done before you start with the
blade - it is too easy to slip into the blade territory and damage
grind lines if you do it in reverse order.



And lastly - try to get metal in proper thickness , flat ground stock -
this way you can just leave the tang area alone and only grind
the blade. I do hand-sand tang area with coarse grit followed with a MEK
wipe-off, before epoxying on the slabs.

[Dragon cutlery]

disk sander or granit plate and sandpaper get the best fit you can i see to many makers out there saying how nice there fit & finish is and thay cant get the tang flat enough to be worth gluing wood to i also like the holow grinding the handle sounds like it will save some time hand sanding or whatever

[doublearrow]

Thanks for the help guys. I have a pyrocam lined platen and a granite surface plate I had worked on those. My biggest problem with flattening comes while removing scale. I liked the hollow grinding the tang idea so I bit the bullet and ordered a hollow grinding wheel for my grinder. Again thanks for the help]