Belt sander/grinder recomendations for knife making

MarcAtPIG · Oct 30, 2015

My first post on this forum. I'm really impressed by the knowledge and how helpful the people are on this forum. Honestly most of the topics are over my head here. But a friend recommended joining the forum. So please excuse me for sounding inexperienced, because I am.

Anyway

I am interested in buying or building a belt sander/grinder for stock removal knife making. Any advice would be appreciated. What are features that are important? Motor RPM? Belt length? Brands? Pre-made kits?

Most of the knife making forums that I am a part of really don't have the equipment knowledge that this forum seems to have.

Thank you for your help!

rustytool · Oct 30, 2015

I've heard these are pretty good.Wuertz Machine Works | TW-90 Knife Grinder

david5411 · Oct 30, 2015

Building one is not too involved. You can buy the wheels on ebay or from suppliers. I use 2" x 72" belts as these seem to be the most common. If you are interested in building your own, I would recommend doing a google images search for knife grinders and you will find a lot of examples. There are a lot of different configurations, but mostly they all work the same way.

For the motor, would recommend at least a 1HP. You can find Baldor 56C frame motors on ebay in the neighborhood of $100 usually.

I would also recommend some type of vacuum arrangement as the dust builds up fast. I got a small Shark brand vacuum on Amazon and rigged up a dust shroud out of sheet metal that sits below the wheel and it works great.

JustAbout · Nov 2, 2015

I'm interested in seeing the recommendations as well. I have developed an interest in doing this over the past month or so as well. I know on some dedicated blade smith forums they have recommended a brand that I'm not sure can be mentioned here.

JustAbout

Ken hosford · Nov 2, 2015

The slickest knife grinder I have seen was 2 belt grinders set so you ran the knife between to ~6" dia. wheels to get a hollow grind I think the guy was making straight razors

Jeff_M_PA · Nov 2, 2015

We have one of the Beaumont Metal Works machines, works great. If you want to build one like it, their design is very simple fabrication. It's 72" belt, 3hp. Ours has a VFD, which we've programmed to read out in SFPM, and that's pretty useful. I agree on the dust extraction system if you're going to use it a lot, makes a heck of a pile of swarf in a hurry. I don't use a bench grinder much any more because these do most of those jobs better.

One of our guys has been making knife blades with it. Seems to work well for that. I've used it to shape wooden knife handles for those ceramic blade kits, works well for that too.

Jeff

Spyderedge · Nov 2, 2015

Ken hosford said:
The slickest knife grinder I have seen was 2 belt grinders set so you ran the knife between to ~6" dia. wheels to get a hollow grind I think the guy was making straight razors

Lewis Razors is his name.

MarcAtPIG · Nov 4, 2015

Thank you everyone for your help!

AlexSmith · Oct 16, 2021

For knife making, a 2x72 would be great if you can stretch to that.

There's designs here no doubt, and also for sale on Etsy, or free guides on sites like this Making a 2x72 belt grinder (knife grinder) at Home - Knife Grinders UK and a few others.

A VFD for variable speeds would be good, to enable you to change the speed for different materials, too.

jerholz · Oct 16, 2021

I cobbled one (2x72 belt grinder) together out of a motor and some drum sander parts I got cheap on Craigslist and it works great. When I get done with my current project, I'm going to build one of these.

https://youtu.be/2dxCAHU_xpY

Sent from my Nokia 7.1 using Tapatalk

metalmagpie · Oct 17, 2021

If you want to make your own 2x72" belt grinder, I suggest you look on Youtube at Jeremy Schmidt's gen 2 design. He sells the plans for a nominal price and they are very high quality.

Gen 2 Belt Grinder (Metric plans!) - YouTube

metalmagpie

dian · Nov 2, 2021

as to power: i have no problems stopping my 3 hp grinder.

Cyclotronguy · Nov 4, 2021

The knife grinding crowd tend to run pretty low SFM on their belt machines.

I have a quasi 2" x 72"clone,that sees a lot of use; best of the Wurtz and the Beaumont.

I am not a knife maker and never will be.... there are too many who are really good at that sort of thing; and I ain't one of them! ( Go watch Zac Buchanon, or Walter Sorrels on youtube)

The most useful change I made to my grinder (as a non knife maker) is to start off with a large enough drive pulley. At max rpm on the motor I have a best speed of 6500 sfm, and frankly a bit more RPM and HP would be even better. 2HP on a 2" belt is pretty marginal, 3HP is adequate, probally no such thing as too much HP.

A cooarse ceramic belt at high SFM makes maerial vanish in front of your eyes, cuts cooler and leaves a much better finish than the same belt belt running slower.

That said the 6500+ Sfm / 3HP machine with a vector drive will let you polish off a cork belt at snail speed right nice.

PS pay close attenting to dust collection and PPE.

jerholz · Apr 2, 2023

Finally got around to making a Jeremy Schmidt belt grinder. It's 2hp and works great.

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Belt sander/grinder recomendations for knife making

MarcAtPIG

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rustytool

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david5411

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JustAbout

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Ken hosford

Cast Iron

Jeff_M_PA

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Spyderedge

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MarcAtPIG

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AlexSmith

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jerholz

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metalmagpie

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dian

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Cyclotronguy

Stainless

jerholz

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