The Work Starts Here

Metal work. That’s where it starts. Nothing happens to the wood until the metal work is done. Whether it’s full on tool making or simply sharpening. But wood is soft and forgiving and warm. Metal is hard, cold and mysterious. To many makers, the metal work is the barrier to advancing their craft. I get it, there is so much mystery built up around it. All the different steels and processess only make this material seem more impervious, not to mention expensive. Stepping up to the grinder with confidence to reshape a blade is scary. The exposed wheel, shooting sparks at you as you risk your investment, expectations, pride. It’s no shock that folks avoid it, but your only other option is to use your teeth, so I guess getting better at metal work is the answer.

my grinding station is definitely the grossest part of my shop

If my shop burned down, the first tool I’d buy is a grinder. I started with an old hand cranked grinder, which might have helped me overcome my fear. Heating up the blade or mishaping it wasn’t all that risky because too much pressure and the wheel would slow down. That said, I don’t necessarily think that slow speed machines are essential. I have both, slow and fast, and switch from one to the other without noticing.

Grinders are so important because they shape the metal decisively and quickly. (see my post on making my world more malleable) Yes, you can just hone a tool with stones, but the nature of dulling is the rounding of the edge and removing that rounding can be slow, especially when honing isn’t yet a natural skill. But more on the stone part later. I want to stick the shaping. The grinder is the only way too rapidly reshape a blade, to a different angle, a better shape or to fix a chip. Plus, the hollow grind left by the wheel makes honing much faster and more consistent. Sharpening needs to become fast, spending lots of time on sharpening is not a sustainable practice.

A fresh batch of blades from Paul Clark, who I assure you, knows his way around a grinder.

To tame your grinder, I suggest going to a garage sale and buying an old chisel, or even a screw driver, and grind it to a nub. Get beyond the preciousness of the tool or expectation of the results. The grinder is simple, if you can touch a tool to it lightly when it’s off and move a bit side to side, then you can do it when it’s on, only compensating a bit for the slight change in resistance due to the spinning wheel. This is where the junk tool comes into play. Get used to that resistance and make the goal a light touch and comfort moving. I learned to grind drawknives from Dave Sawyer, freehand, no toolrest. It’s not a technique that I teach, but it sure taught me to feel that wheel. And getting a feeling for how the grinder removes metal is the whole game. Go ahead, let it get too hot, see how much pressure change and movement can help change the build up of heat. Only move in one direction across the wheel, pull the tool back and then go back to the beginning. Reversing direction while still in contact with the wheel is a great way to concentrate heat build up. Like so many skills, watching an expert can be very misleading. I remember watching a skilled sharpener hone when I knew nothing. He slid the blade around on the stones in figure 8’s so fast that I very much got the wrong impression. Now I know how practiced he was at keeping the bevel firmly fixed in one position on the stone as he moved, but to my eye, I thought the movement was the lesson.

Grinding takes patience, and when using a slow speed grinder, it’s easy to rush and push too hard for results. The goal is for the wheel to just “tickle” the blade. Once you have a feel for the “tickling”, a slow speed grinder it’s just slower (I still have and use one, but it’s no panacea for using too much pressure). Greg Pennington said that you should use the same pressure as you would sharpening a feather, which is a quote I’ve nearly worn out.

Wheels are important too. When I started, most grinders came with carborundum wheels, which are straight out of machinist shops. They glaze over and heat up quickly, so for hardened blades, where getting too hot (losing your temper) is a risk, they are tough to use. Other wheels (aluminum oxide etc) are made up of grits that are more friable, which means they break down in use, taking the heat with the grit as it breaks away. This is why a mask is the second thing I’d buy after the grinder if I plan on using these wheels while breathing. Luckily, nowadays most woodworking grinders come with friable wheels. I also use CBN wheels, but more about that later.

I do have a Tormek, but I only use it with the waterstone wheel for incredibly fast cheater edges. By that I mean, when I need a blade sharp NOW, without concern for the long term shaping of the bevel, I put a microbevel on the blade in seconds. It’s a lifesaver during classes with so many unsharp tools coming into the shop, but as a grinder it’s slow and I don’t have time for it.

Thanks for bearing with me, I know that this isn’t the mostfun topic, too much about tools, wheels, steels, blah blah blah, stuff that’s too far from pretty shavings and glassy surfaces. But, I am convinced that improved comfort and skill at the grinder will positively impact your shop time, just don’t start by practicing with the blade from your new Lie-Neilsen #7.