Julie and Julia

You might wonder why after all this time, I am starting with a reference to the Amy Adams movie. Well, it just shamed me in that I haven't posted her in quite a while.

Here is an update in my knife making. The Hitachi grinder had been working well with the different woods that I was using. But, I had picked up some steel from Ken Largin at the Knife Makers Coop on the grounds of Smokey Mt Knife Works. This steel is a nice high carbon steel of a make-up that I am still not sure what it is. I had cut off several sections to start making some knives and after grinding for a while, switched to a Maple handle that I was putting on a Damascus USA knife blank. The next thing that I know is that I can see a glow from along the disk and a lot of smoke! With the Ohio Players song "Fire" going through my mind, I grabbed the smoking grinder off of the bench and (almost literally) threw the thing out the back door!

Ten minutes of hosing the thing down got the smoke stopped. After taking the Hitachi back to the local hardware store (the great people at Lowes), I started looking for another machine. A stop at the local Sears brought a shock. Their grinders were both made by Hitachi with the same amount of plastic as the unit that I had just lost.

Lesson learned, check for the amount of plastic in a machine. It is possible for the steel that you are grinding to have cooled, but plastic can soften and start catching things on fire that might be out of touch from the outside of the grinder.

Bon Appetit! (oops)

I ment, Stay Sharp!

Scott