2" x 12" wet grinder for grinding?

[brian923]

Hey guys, I have been wanting to get into knife making for awhile now, and have just started to acquire some machines/tools/materials. I have been looking for a good 2x72 belt sander, but in the mean time, i have an old grinder that uses 2" x 12" wheels. i can turn it very slow with my vfd and have made a small tub that keeps the wheel wet. I haven't been able to really find anything with using grinders on the interwebs. Is this possible? or am i just wasting my time? Thank guys, and if anyone has any links they wouldn't mind sharing that would be awesome!

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Knives were ground on wet wheels for centuries, so yes-you can do it.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Knives were ground on wet wheels for centuries, so yes-you can do it.

I agree with the above, but those wheels were 3" to 6" wide by 48" to 100" diameter...not 2"X12". Small wheels are fine for profiling and sharpening, but make a mess of bevels.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

I can grind a pretty good bevel on my 8" contact wheels. A 12" wheel should do just fine, if you do your part.

 

[AVigil]

There is a knifemaker on Instagram "Glen Hovin Knives" who grinds beautiful liner locks on a set up like that.

it takes forever but they are gourgeous

 

[Mahoney]

Pay some attention to how hot the motor gets while you use the grinder. If you let it cool off when necessary you should be fine. Based on my experience using a 12" wet wheel grinder, you'll have to run the wheels pretty slowly to keep some water in the tub and running a motor slowly on a VFD can sometimes cause more heating than running the motor full speed. "Inverter-grade" motors are built with more robust wiring, better heat-sinking, and higher temperature rated insulation to help prevent problems from heat when the motors are run slowly. A cooling fan on a motor does not work well at low speed...granted most "stone type" grinders don't have a cooling fan, but they are not intended for a 100% duty cycle either.

A water drip or spray system might let you run the wheels at a little higher rpm, which may make the grinding go faster, but at the cost of flinging more water around the shop

 

[Scott Hanson]

When I first started making knife many years ago I built my first grinder from an old craftsman arbor and a very old 1/2 hp GE motor I got at a rummage sale for $10.00.I set it up with a pulley system so I could have 3 different speed settings from about a 1000 rpm to about 3600 rpm making sure not to exceed the rpm rating on the grinding wheels.I used 6"x1" stone wheels on it in 2 different grits 36 and 180 grit,after the initial grinding I used a fine grey 6" scotch bright wheel for the final finish.Some of the problem I had was my grinding wheels would eventually shrink to about 5" inches in diameter and not always at the same rate as the other grit wheel or the scotch bright wheel,and the edges of the wheels seem to round off quicker on the 36 grit wheels,and they would seem to get egg shaped after awhile.The other thing I noticed was the blades seem to have a speckled look to them like some of the grit from the grinding stones was getting embedded in the hollows of the blade,I've heard this from other knife makers as well.I think I could get about 8 to 10 blades out of a set of stone wheels including all the profiling work I did with them as well,the scotch bright wheels seem to last quite a bit longer.I think I made about 50 or so knives with that system and then had enough of it and I bought a Burr King 960-272 with 1.5 hp variable speed motor.The old Craftsman grinder is now a variable speed buffer.Yes it can be done but it just isn't practical in the sense that I was so limited in a the amount of different variety of abrasives that the grinding stones had verses what you can get with a modern belt grinder that it would never allow me to ever do quality work I want to do.Sorry about the long winded post,but I guess my advice would be use the grinder you have for now but save up and buy a good belt grinder as soon as you can,once you start using a belt grinder you'll know how ever could have lived without it.

 

[brian923]

Thank you guys.. I have a cnc mill that I will be cutting out my knife blanks on. So I shouldn't have to worry about to much profiling. I have a tefc 1 hp 220v motor set up with a vfd and external cooling fans for the motor. I also have access to A LOT of clear plexiglass glass so in not to worried about a little mess. Again, I appreciate the feedback. This excites me!

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Go for it. I suspect you will soon take the motor and vfd and attach them to a basic GIB 2X72.