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Not much risk to the HT with post HT grinding (quite a few people do it that way, not just me). I grind bare handed. The blades are tempered above 400F so to do much damage the blade would have to get hotter than that and my bare hands give out long before that happens. I dip the blade in a bucket of water every pass or two so it never really gets more than warm. Extra care is needed as the edge starts to get thin but using sharp belts and having a variable speed grinder takes the worry out of that too.
I've been told that O1 can be straightened at all kinds of times that I would never have thought to try. For myself, if I see warp before the quench I straighten it while there is still color in it using an arbor press I have set up for the purpose. If it warps in the quench then I usually do another temper and try to straighten while the blade is hot from the temper. If that doesn't get the job done, I have a straightening fixture that I clamp the blade into and then the whole fixture goes back into the oven for another temper. If needed, more torque is applied to the fixture and back in again, repeat until the warp is gone or the fixture is maxed out (in which case I'd toss the blade). One thing about grinding post HT is that blade's rarely warp, are easy to straighten if they do warp, and if it turns into a noodle all you lost was a piece of steel and 15 minutes of work profiling it....
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