grinding-- clamp or freehand??

[agsolder]

Brethren, brethren, brethren, harken unto me. Puleeeeze! Leave us eliminate the acrimony, please! Leave us credit each unto the other the good sense to have read, to have pondered deep within ourselves, to have studied, to have practiced. Okay? This ain't no lecture hall, in other words, it's a colloquy. There is no gospel, no one received wisdom. There are many voices. I just simply wanted to know how people do what they do, is all, freehand or clamp. I am not holding Bob Terzuola out as the pre-eminent exemplar, merely as an example of somebody who makes splendid blades, with the aid of a clamp. Ed makes his splendid blades freehand. How do you do yours, is my question, plain and simple, period.

[Finnr]

Weeeeeeeeeeel! Now that ya put it that way. Freehand!
Finnr

[brucegodlesky]

yep! freehand

[agsolder]

Yes, but... how? Edge up? Down? How can you tell where the grind line is vis a vis the other side when you can't see it if you are hollow grinding freehand? Or is all that what the friend who gave me his daddy's old Paragon anvil called "stereognosis," the hand knowing?

[Ed Caffrey]

OK.... Edge up, weak side is ground first, then the strong side, in an attempt to match the grinds. No visual references, other than watching the blade's edge (or what will be the edge). For me its more "feel" and "sound". As far as matching grind lines, the only ones I have to be concerned with are the plunge cuts, all of my grinds are rolled out the spine, usually during hand finishing. I try to match the angle of the plunge cuts to the angle of the guard.
For me, each blade is different, and doing it freehand allows me to adjust to each blade being ground.......can't do that with a jig or fixture.

[brucegodlesky]

I use a scribed centerline on both edges to guage the depth/evenness of the cut.
Normally grind edge up but will change to edge down to even things up.I also will grind a blade holding it vertically on the platen, using the long surface to even up a grind. And it's not uncommon to take the blade to the vise and draw file to clean things up.
Mostly its just practice, practice practice to get things square.

[triw]

Originally Posted by Ed Caffrey

OK.... Edge up, weak side is ground first, then the strong side, in an attempt to match the grinds. No visual references, other than watching the blade's edge (or what will be the edge). For me its more "feel" and "sound". As far as matching grind lines, the only ones I have to be concerned with are the plunge cuts, all of my grinds are rolled out the spine, usually during hand finishing. I try to match the angle of the plunge cuts to the angle of the guard.
For me, each blade is different, and doing it freehand allows me to adjust to each blade being ground.......can't do that with a jig or fixture.

Ed What do you mean by "weak side and strong side"?

[agsolder]

Thanks, all for the great info!!

[Ed Caffrey]

Weak side/Strong side....

Generally, a right handed person will have the most difficulty grinding when they are holding the tang of the blade in their left hand, just the opposite for those who are left handed.

Being right handed, I tend to always start grinding on the "weak" side, and that way, since I am better and more controlled with the "strong" side, I can more easily match the grinds. More often than not, folks who are new to knifemaing and grinding have the tendency to always start on their strong side...most do fairly well until the have to change hands and grind on their weak side. When I teach people to grind, I insist that they start on their weak side, and if they can master that, the strong side is generally easy for them.

[brucegodlesky]

I never looked at it that way,Ed.
9 yrs ago I suffered a TBI in an accident and left and right became irrelevant for a few yrs. Unless I'm grinding daily, it takes me a few blades to get in the swing of things.
I can grind a near perfect grind both left and right but one grind won't match the other:-) Takes a bit to get coordinated .
Thanks for that Ed.