Couple of things I learned after doing a few more knives for a friend.
1. STAY AWAY from the bolster area, once you knick it it is almost impossible to fix. As recommended by CS you only need to go halfway or 3/4 down the knife.
2. Make a template for for your blade shape.. (I used a subscription card from inside a magazine). Use a fine point share and trace it onto the blades
3. Use the grinding stone to shape the blade and put a SLIGHT bevel on it. , be careful here.
After shaping 14 knives I see little or no wear on the wheel.
4. Next is t
he #180grit paper wheel, this is where you do the final shaping of the bevel all the way to an edge with a curled burr.
5. The last step for the edge is the polishing wheel it will POLISH OUT ALL THE WHEEL MARKS but removes very little metal which is why I caution you to maintain the same angle (as much as possible) when putting the bevel on the blade or you will wind up with a wavy, highly polished edge. . This happens go BACK to
the #180 wheel and rework the bevel being careful not to change the shape of the blade, JUST the bevel.
buy a 6"grinder and 8" wheels, this allows you a lot more flexibility as the 6 and 6 jams you up against the motor, even the 6 with 8 wheels can be tight with a long slicing blade
Now the good news....
The template and transfer to the knives will take about 15 minutes.
The grinding and shaping will take less than 5 minutes a knife
The polishing about 45 seconds per knife.
I used the polishing wheel to sharpen my kitchen knives (Shun , Tojiro, etc).
I have all the stones and hones and am diligent about the edge on my knives, The are now MUCH sharper than I can believe. They will drop thru a piece of paper with NO resistance, the same feel as passing a knife thru warm butter.
excuse the typos, i drink wine.
(a lot)
Rob (the other one)
