Initial edge - HELP

I am working on my third knife. I managed to ruin the first two while attempting to put the initial edge on them. After heat treating and final grinding, sanding to 600 grit to remove scratches, there is still about 1/32 of material left on the edge. How do you grind this to the initial edge? I tried it on my 8" wheel and needless to say this did not work for me. HELP

I use a 220 grit slack belt, followed by Trizact 65, 45, and 30 belts, then stropping on leather charged with white buffing compound. I'd ruin mine, too, if I tried to grind them against a contact wheel or a platen.

I flex belt with 220 grit, then 400 & 600 grits, finish the whole knife, then strop. A fine stone can be used to touch up, then re strop with leather.

I start with a 220 grit belt about 2" above the platen. I then go to a 30 micron belt, starting about 2" above the platen again and moving up to about 4". I finish by stropping on a piece of leather loaded with green buffing compound. I've tried other methods and slack-belting seems to give the easiest and best results (in short order, at least).

I have a little 1X30 belt sander that I use for a lot of my wood working. I use that for the initial edge. First starting with a 220 grit then a 320 then a 400 grit. The 1X30 is nice because they are not that expensive if you are starting out and the belts are only about 1$ a belt (Cdn.) and you can use the sander for the slabs with the courser grit belts.

Hope this helps
Steve

Bill, do you have a variable speed motor by any chance driving that 8" wheel?

Don't get too frustrated, proper edge geometry is something many new makers tend to have some problems with.

I'd suggest practicing on some junk steel or something you wouldn't mind throwing away if you don't get right.

What I did when I was grinding more than I am now, I would get the knife to about where you have it now. Then I'd sharpen the edge on my 8" wheel. Then I'd go back to grinding from the center of the blade down to that edge (on a hollow ground knife). As the sharpened edge got narrower and narrower, the metal above the edge would thin down to the edge, leaving a nice taper ending with a relatively thin edge (but not too thin.) Then as several of the guys have mentioned above, I'd finish it on a slack belt to the final cutting edge, and finally strop it on leather. The above is much easier when you're new to this, when you can slow down your grinder motor so as not to risk taking off too much metal and thinning your edge too much--hence my question about a variable speed motor.

But until you get "that feel" which only comes with mucho practice (years in my case) I'd suggest trying grinding out some wooden knives and mild steel knives for practice. A lot of people laugh at that suggestion, but it sure beats the heck out of feeling miserable over a ruined blade that you've put many hours of blood sweat and tears into. Remember, you can always take it off, but you can't put it back. Best wishes.

Also, wooden and junk steel knives make great letter openers, so it's not wasted time or materials.