Well, I now have some 1084, 1095, and AEB-L steel in some 48" lengths. Today I finally got this “station” set up. Tuesday I have a friend whom is a Physicist, heat treater, and knife maker coming over to grind out 2 of his knifes and teach me the basics. Hopefully my 2 flex neck lamps show up so I have good lighting on the grinder. I have been working to Transform my Garage for the last 2 weekends. Now I will actually have room to work, and the Metal stuff will be away from the Wood stuff. Been a long couple of weeks. Now, hopefully I can start to Play again with some knives!
Well, here is I think what you are looking for. The first picture was of the machine with it in horizontal mode. I put the different attachments onto it and changed it to the vertical position and took some pictures.
Variable speed.. When on slow it creeps..awesome. nice and quiet. Next is to add the cool mist and associated fluid contraptions so I can grind on hardened stuff too.
Ohh My! That is so much fun! Thank God I have all the experience I do currently with the Wicked Edge. Every subtle little movement and pressure is transmitted to effect what is going on with the blade.
With the Wicked Edge we are going by hand, and only dealing with the edge. Making a knife is the same thing but at a larger scale!
Thank god the Wicked Edge has the guide rods to keep one part of the body mechanics equation constant. That way we can concentrate first on stroke, stone twist, leading or trailing edge passes, grit progression, and left to right hand pressure differences..all building in muscle memory to get better and better and more efficient at sharpening. All of these same things go into play making a knife but at a larger scale and since it is a fast moving belt, the little tiny variations in twist, or drag, or pressure and angle can make a huge difference!
This is awesome and I am even more glad I have a Wicked Edge now than ever!
[quote quote=“Zamfir” post=23144]Ohh My! That is so much fun! Thank God I have all the experience I do currently with the Wicked Edge. Every subtle little movement and pressure is transmitted to effect what is going on with the blade.
With the Wicked Edge we are going by hand, and only dealing with the edge. Making a knife is the same thing but at a larger scale!
Thank god the Wicked Edge has the guide rods to keep one part of the body mechanics equation constant. That way we can concentrate first on stroke, stone twist, leading or trailing edge passes, grit progression, and left to right hand pressure differences..all building in muscle memory to get better and better and more efficient at sharpening. All of these same things go into play making a knife but at a larger scale and since it is a fast moving belt, the little tiny variations in twist, or drag, or pressure and angle can make a huge difference!
This is awesome and I am even more glad I have a Wicked Edge now than ever![/quote]
You are exactly right Eric… Every subtle pressure makes a difference on the blade. Sometimes you almost just have to think, “I need a little more pressure THERE” and not even really have to do it and it will happen lol. You will have to post some pics up of your first knives after you get to that point!
I will Thanks Josh! He was nice enough to leave a big Bowie he cut out for us to practice on. I will take a picture of what it is now, and then Do some grinding on it so you can see what was done. All kinds of interesting tips. My mind was saturated within the 3 hours of watching and listening. Now I need to practice!
Fair enough. This is where it stands now. I have not done anything to it since me and my friend got a lesson. So from here on it will be all my work. I have not had the time to touch it since! Stupid 2jobs.
LOL I hear ya on the job thing… I just recently quit and went full time into my business! pretty exciting… or scary depending on how you look at it hehe.
Thanks for the pics! So is the first one hollow ground?
No. It will be full flat distal taper. What has been done on it so far was all kinds of practice. Some on the flat platen some on the 12" wheel some freehand some with the table on some with it off. So a whole bunch of different techniques were practiced. Now I just need to figure out what I want the blade design to be. Heavy distal or shallow or to put on chamfers on the top or not. I just need to hit the grinder. Then when done we will heat treat it.
I too must offer congrats, Josh. It’s takes a lot of chutzba (balls) to give up a job in the public sector to tackle something you love. If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.
