Sculpting

As the days have gotten shorter and I find myself retiring to bed earlier and earlier I have been pondering the next bit of information that I wanted to share with you all. I felt the best thing was to discuss grinding and sculpting the blade. While the grunt work is done through forging, and to achieve some of the blade shapes, the knives have to be forged. But once that stage has been completed the sculpting begins. Initially I did not enjoy grinding. I was afraid of the machine as it was loud, made a big mess and seemed to eat up my blades! Granted my first experiences with grinding werr using a bench top disc grinder and a hand held angle grinder, both of which are scary machines. Eventually saved up enough money to afford a tiny belt grinder that allowed me to begin to understand how to remove material in an effective manner. But it was still a struggle. It was very fortunate that I came across the work of a bladesmith by the name of Tim Hancock. He had developed a method of grinding that spoke to me in ways that other methods never did. It was simple, efficient and cost-effective. Not only that, but safer than any other method I have come across since. Learning his methods allowed me to break free and for the first time really find my enjoyment in this process. All he did was use a teflon push stick and the workrest. This allowed him to target areas that needed to have material removed. I now approach grinding as a sculptor might approach working with stone or clay; chiselling away the material to expose the beauty within. This is finesse work now.