Hi All!
I'm having a bit of trouble with my bevels migrating upwards over the course of grinding. On the last two knives I've ground, I tried to leave a forged finish on the flats but ended up removing them entirely as the bevels continued to work their way upward toward the spine, eventually just becoming a full flat grind. I tried to mitigate this by putting pressure toward the edge as I ground, but it wasn't enough to prevent the issue. I always forge in my bevels before grinding and to date I've been forging them pretty close to where I'd like them to sit on the finished knife, but should I be forging them shallower just assuming they are going to drift up during grinding? Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
Hello Zack,
Forge the same angles just keep the very edge thicker, we normally advise around the thickness of a nickel coin. Always remember- the cleaner and smoother your forging, the more control you will have in your grind thickness. I like to start with a grind line that touches my edge and then steer it towards the spine, walking it up the bevel on every pass. What is most important, bar none, as that you develop the skill to lay down one single grind line, then find it and stay on it every time. If you pull your blade away from the grinder and see facets, or more than one track made by the belt, you need to stop progression until you get them all back to one line. Progression of that single line is done by careful pressure in the direction that you want the line to go, thus NOT creating another line, but cutting one side of the single line a little deeper. In this way, you can stop at any point up the bevel and have a smooth, straight, plain you are happy with.
"One test is worth 1000 'expert' opinions" Riehle Testing Machines Co.
|quoted:
Hello Zack,
Forge the same angles just keep the very edge thicker, we normally advise around the thickness of a nickel coin. Always remember- the cleaner and smoother your forging, the more control you will have in your grind thickness. I like to start with a grind line that touches my edge and then steer it towards the spine, walking it up the bevel on every pass. What is most important, bar none, as that you develop the skill to lay down one single grind line, then find it and stay on it every time. If you pull your blade away from the grinder and see facets, or more than one track made by the belt, you need to stop progression until you get them all back to one line. Progression of that single line is done by careful pressure in the direction that you want the line to go, thus NOT creating another line, but cutting one side of the single line a little deeper. In this way, you can stop at any point up the bevel and have a smooth, straight, plain you are happy with.
Hi Kevin, thanks so much for the reply. The bolded part is what I think I've been missing. I've been practicing my grinding a lot and my bevels have gotten pretty flat, but I have been laying the as-forged bevels directly on the belt rather than trying to work my way up. I will try this on my next project.
Hey Zack, If you want forge finish on your flats, it is best to set it up in your forging: don't forge your bevels all the way to the spine. Rather, forge the bevels only 1/3 - 1/2 of the width of the blade. Here's a photo with some forged full-tang hunters (ignore the top and bottom blades.) You'll have to look closely to see the edge bevels, but they're there. The most important thing is that there is a flat (parallel sides) section down the spine of the blade, and it must match the desired thickness and distal taper of the final blade.
The grinding is just as Kevin described, and you should be able to lay it flat on that forged bevel for your first pass without worrying about wiping out the spine.
Let me know if any of that description was unclear.
This one is the third one down from the top from my previous image.
Hi Jordan! Thanks so much for your advice, and beautiful work. I've typically forged my bevels to approximately the point I want them to end up, but I'm actually working on a chef knife now where I forged them a bit lower and am using the grinding method Kevin described above. Both are helping tremendously and I'll be sure to post the result here when I'm done.
I'm glad to hear it Zack! I look forward to seeing your results.
Cheers,
Jordan
Hi All!
Just dropping in to thank you again for your advice. It has been tremendously helpful and I've managed to retain a forged finish on my last two blades, though there are certainly many things still to improve on! Attached is the one I finished last night.
