For the knife makers on the forum, a hard lesson learned.
Aaahhh! Run in circles and poke my eyes out with a pencil. Aaahhh! I hate when I find out that spending money will make me better at something. Hate it.
I have been to two knife making workshops trying to learn how to hollow grind blades. I went up to Auburn, Maine on Wednesday to spend a day with Nick Rossi at the New England School of Metalworking. I had one purpose. To leave knowing how to hollow grind. I used a grinder made by Travis Weurtz. What a nice machine. I ground my first acceptable hollow ground blade at about the 4 hour mark. Nick was so good to show me where to apply pressure. What hand to lift... I got it. A couple months of practice and I'm planning on going back for another day. The grinder had an 8" wheel just like my Burr King. It had a variable speed motor, which I do not
It seems to make life a lot easier to slow down the motor to half speed and to use your fingers to hold the blade and not a push stick. This, I am unable to do. It does appear necessary to give yourself a little tie to think about what you are doing before the material goes bye bye, especially the tip!
My machine cost me $1800. To add a Burr King kit of engine and controller to make it variable speed is another $1,000
My first thought was "are they kidding?" I called some nice people and found that I could use the setup on the Weurtz grinder, for a few hundred less. The motor would be a 1 1/2hp Leeson C face with a mounting foot to replace my 1 hp Baldor with it's 5/8" shaft. $247. The KBAC 27 controller is $365. So, I'm getting it done for $612 and about $50 shipping. It's still a lot of money. More money, and I have to take a perfectly good 1hp Baldor motor and put it in a box. It's not $1,000 though.
Just an observation, but to prevent future headache, frustration, and burnt off knife tips, all dedicated knife making grinders should have variable speeds! If I had to do it all over again, I'd buy a kit like the one at Polar Bear Forge for $200 & change, the $600 for my motor/controller and another $200 for shipping, parts, paint... whatever and have my variable speed grinder for $1,000. What a kick in the pants.
