Thread: Master grinding tips on a KMG

It seems best to begin with some sort of steady rest. The wheels are going to grab the steel no matter how experienced you get and holding things still until the "line" is established is key. Once you have the line going the blade will ride that line pretty well and then it's a matter of feeling your way. There are any number of attachments that propose to improve grinding using this principle. They also tend to make grinding more like machine work, it all looks the same and there are no little variations to indicate they are handmade. But that may be what you want.

I'd also recommend learning to use a push stick. This keeps you in the work despite a little warmth (providing you're not working on a heat treated blade... ).

Keep your elbows in tight and use your hips to move around and add the pressure to the work, not your hands.

After some largish number of blades you may be able to abandon your early steady rest and move along.

I have to reinforce Max's recommendation: practice, practice and more practice. There is no other way.

I've yet to talk to Bob Allman about this as I have virtually no experience at it, but I'm fascinated at his set up. I've studied the pictures and he appears to use a plate on the tool rest that he keeps the spine tight against whilst grinding. I think from my limited experience that the relationship of the spine (parallel and straight) to the edge is crucial and the simplicity of this system takes out a lot of the guess work. I know others do it free hand and I am in awe of their ability and skill.
I own one of Bob's razors and the grinding is very impressive indeed. Perhaps Bob can chime in and share some of the finer points of his techniques or perhaps this could be the subject of another tutorial.
I realise I come to this thread a little late, but I'm a little preoccupied with this at the moment and got me lots of questions that need answering.

Bob uses a jig while others grind freehand as stated. I'm sure Bob will come and explain in more details what his jig is about. I personally started the first few trials with the same jig setup to get used to grinding but slowly moved to freehand and now I can't go back ever to using any kind of jig or workrest. It feels awkward to me. IMO freehand also gives you much more freedom to play with the razor when grinding.
So basically it's what you feel more comfortable with and what your natural instinct and ability ends up doing.

I'm with Max. I really enjoy the grinding freehand. I have a lot more freedom to play around with different shapes and grinds. I like to experiment, so this is a good thing.

I have been grinding blades for almost a year now, so I'm still relatively new. I don't think that my grinds are suffering because I grind freehand. I just finished my tenth razor, and couldn't be happier with the quality of the grind. Aspects of this grind like the sweeping plunge would have been very difficult to design a jig for.

I can only recommend that you find what works for you, in efficiency, quality, and enjoyment.



Phillip