Walking into the shop today, the knifemaker's aunt was met by the knifemaker. While he teaches two horseshoe knife classes, the knifemaker's aunt is going grind, twist and heat treat the nails that have been profiled so far.
The knifemaker does a demonstration with a couple nails, and the grinding begins. The idea is to grind the metal along the edge of the blade and spine to be at right angle to the body of the knife. The profiled nail is run at a 90 degree angle to the belt sander along the blade's edge and the spine's edge.
The flat side and edge of the blade is the next grinding action. One side is done, then the opposite side.
Once the blade sides and edge are ground, it is gently rocked against the belt sander to smooth the side from blade edge to spine. Afterward, the knifemaker's aunt asked the knifemaker's dad for critique (the knifemaker was busy with students). About half of the nails needed a re-grind because the rocking action had produced sides that bulged out from the spine to the blade edge. He demonstrated a different way to grind the sides that broke the rocking action into separate steps with much improvement.
As happens, knives drop. Even without polishing and buffing step, the nails are already sharp enough to stick into the floor if dropped. Note the dust accumulated with just one 1 1/2 hour grinding session.
Once done, the knifemaker's aunt grabbed the broom and dustpan to sweep up. In fact, this has become the fall-back activity while waiting for the next duty or space to accomplish the next task. Dust accumulates each time someone forges, profiles, grinds, polishes, buffs, or cuts handle stock.
