[Jason Cutter]

Many thanks for the feedback,

I am a pedantic (not necessarily skilled) grinder. I use a el-cheapo 36inch grinder which sits in the wrong position but I've done all my grinding, ever, on this machine. I always get the blades straight and do a lot of jumping, yelling and gnashing of teeth of if the blades then bend for whatever reason. In fact the blades that warp are my carbon steel blades which I heat treat myself. Thats why I only 75% grind prior to heat treat, especially on thin stock, eg.- 1/8inch and under. on my 3/32inch stock for kitchen knives, I don't even start grinding until after heat treat.

I've just done 6 blades from RWL-34 a particulate metallurgy version of ATS-34 from Sweden, in various shapes and tapers. The thickness on all was just over 1/8inch after taking the skin off. I ground to 99% of the final grind and applied a 400grit satin hand rub (identical to a final "selling" finish). In the heat treat, none of the blades warped, all came back with no scale, with a barely light yellow tempering colour with a finalo Rockwell of 59.

I was very happy with the result. The blades will only require an edge applied and a refinishing with 400grit hand rubbing. I'm anticipating the same from D-2 as soon as I get more in. I'd been only going as far as a 75% rough grind previously and was eating up my belts grinding hardened D-2.

Obviously the skill of the heat treater is crucial. This mob - Hills Heat Treatment in Bayswater, Victoria (Australia) is top notch and they cater especially to knifemakers. They do cryogenic treatments as well. All their work on high-alloyed steel appears to be in vacuum chambers, which accounts for their consistent results and the "pretty" steel after all the work.

I know about working with D-2. Because I want to make high-performance working knives (Dozier-worshipper, etc.) the final finish doesn't worry me too much. It just needs to be clean, crisp and consistent. On another thread, I'm researching protective blade coatings which may make an extremely fine final finish a redundancy. The very fine micron finishes will still need a nice hand rub nonetheless.

I'll stop rattling on. Thanks again. Top stuff.

Cheers.