Sheffield Grinders

[Dan P.]

A wonderful video of grinding legend and all round good egg Brian Alcock and his brother Tom (who I have not met and as far as I know no longer works as a grinder) doing their thing;

 

[Dan P.]

The channel the above video is from has a number of wonderful Sheffield related items. One of the more astonishing is this, in which a die sinker is shown working, as far as I can tell, pretty much purely by eye;

 

 

 

 

[Dan P.]

Also interesting is how many of the grinding  and glazing processes we enjoy watching in youtube videos of the Japanese knife industry are Sheffield (okay, maybe Thiers and Solingen too) technologies that survived as cottage industries in Japan while all but dieing (sp??) out in their country/s of origin. 

Edited January 13, 2020 by Dan P.

[Stuart Samuel]

Thanks Dan. Like gold.

[Alan Longmire]

I am apparently not meant to finish the grinding video, been trying to watch it all day and people/things refuse to leave me in peace for more than two minutes...    Maybe tomorrow!  What I've seen so far is brilliant.

[Alan Longmire]

Finally got to finish watching the grinding video.  Not quite 24 hours to watch a 19-minute video...

 

I loved it.  It looked like Tom's wheel, the smaller one, might be artificial?  And the glazing wheels are something I'd been wondering about for years.  I have a couple of old books that describe how to prepare them, including what kind of leather works best as a facing on which materials (walrus neck hide, anyone?), how to apply the glue, and the choice of natural abrasives from emery to tripoli to rottenstone.  For some reason I was picturing them as more of a buffer-type thing.  The showers of sparks surprised me.  

 

The ability to really lean hard on the blades, using those boards, and the water-cooling that allows such fast grinding...  I am jealous indeed.  

[Alan Longmire]

Watch these guys too, especially the second one:

 

 

 

Back to work, sigh...

[Dan P.]

 

[Dan P.]

The above is a hard stitched mop, but a home made (at users own risk and all precautions taken) leather faced MDF/HDF wheel, or store bought hard felt wheel would likely be better. Whatever the case, these things are bloody dangerous if used incorrectly, so if in doubt, leave it out.

 

Alan, tripoli and rottenstone are definitely in the realm of buffing rather than glazing. For glazing Emery is what you want, or what us moderns might call aluminium oxide.

1 hour ago, Alan Longmire said:

 

 

I loved it.  It looked like Tom's wheel, the smaller one, might be artificial? 

they would both be artificial, just possibly different grades of abrasive.

[Alan Longmire]

You, sir, are even more old school than I thought.  Well played!  One of these days I shall have to try that.  

 

And yes, after I posted that about the artificial wheel I watched the one with Roland Swinden.  He explained how they've been artificial (and made in Sheffield!) for a very long time now, as the naturals both wore faster and tended to break unexpectedly.  

[Dan P.]

I'm not old school, Alan, I'm just a cheapskate.

[Dan P.]

 

 

That's Brian 20+ years later