A bench grinder is a tool or a grinding machine. It is used to grind various types of tools, mostly cutting tools and other rough grindings. A bench grinder can be an excellent choice for sharpening knives.
It is be used to sharping any cutting tools, or any metal substances. Most knives are made of steel such as carbon steel, stainless steel, tool steel, and alloy steel. That’s why using a bench grinder to sharpen a knife is a great choice.
Bench grinders are useful for grinding and depending on which wheel is added; a bench grinder can sharpen, shape, buff, polish, or clean any metal object.
Let’s explore more about how to sharpen knives using a bench grinder.
How to Use a Bench Grinder to Sharpen Knives?
A bench grinder is a potential tool to sharpen knives.
But, the selection of a grinder can be critical. Depending on the material, a grinder can be selected. For example, grinding wheels designed to sharpen or slice steel can not be used for softer materials.
Now, time to solve the puzzle! We need to use a low speeding grinder to home kitchen knives, steak knives, or other types of knives.
To hone a knife with a bench grinder, you need to follow these four steps:
Step One: What is the Best grinding Wheel for Sharpening Knives?
Up there, I said grinder speed is critical for efficient sharpening. If you were planning to use a usual grinder, the from the gut feeling, you might want to use a vice.
The functionality of the vice is pretty straightforward. It helps the object to be sharpened in one place. But it’s not a straightforward or linear process. The punch line is the blade needs to move fluently and naturally along with the grinding wheel.
Step Two: What Angle Should I grind My Knife?
The first thing is, never use a flat blade in a bench grinder to hone knives. Never hone a knife with its flush portion against the mincer. If you mistakenly do this, you will get a shiny knife, not the sharpest one.
The perfect sharpening of a blade needs a great sense of honing angle. The face of the angle must be towards the blade of the grinder.
Now, what is the best range of angles to sharpen knives? Some statistics say it’s 25-40 degrees. But, to my best knowledge and experience, it’s 45 degrees, the best angle to hone knives.
Step Three: Free Flow Movement:
While sharpening the knives with any bench grinder, you need to ensure the blade’s natural movement. When honing a knife, the grinder’s wheel will pull the blade towards it. If you resist, it will cause friction.
You must not try to resist the natural friction, and it might cause damage to the blade. You should let the edge move while holding the knife softly. Just simple controlling the flow of the force. It will sharp the blade thoroughly.
Step Four: When a Knife is Sharpened with the Help of a Rotating Grinding Stone
The most frequent and common mistake first-timers make is to put enormous pressure onto the blade. Extra pressure will resist the natural flow of the grinder’s blade and damage the knife. Bench grinder itself enough a spinning speed that it requires no extra force from you. All you need to do is hold the knife with the grinder’s flow. To be more precise, have the knife with an accurate angle following the grinder’s flow.
Should I get a 6-inch or 8-inch bench grinder?
The straightforward answer is an 8 inches bench grinder is the best option. When you are sharpening a knife, the bigger the grinder, the better the result will be.
Depending on the use and considering all other relevant features being identical, a big grinder is less vulnerable to wear-and-tear than a smaller grinder. Another positivity is an enormous space to handle the grinder’s spin.
It’s easy to operate a more giant grinder compared to a smaller grinder.
Profession sharpening jobs entirely relies on 8 inches bench grinder. Interestingly, a 6 inches grinder is far better compact than 8 inches bench grinder. On the contrary, the virtue of 8 inches grinding tool perfectly sheer power.
Now, let’s compare these two size grinders.
| 6 inches bench grinder | 8 inches bench grinder |
| Compact construction | Not so compact |
| Light weighted | Heavy |
| Easy to set up | Need prior knowledge to set the grinder up |
| Operates quietly, easier to manage | Simple operation, maneuver is easy |
| Good for grinding and cutting | Excellent choice for heavy-duty operation, sharpening, and precision touch ups. |
How Do You Sharpen A Wet Grinder Stone at Home?
Wet stone is a popular choice for home kitchens to sharpen knives. In General, wet grinder stone is used for woodworking. But smartly, you can apply this to sharpen knives. Let’s know how to sharpen wet grinder stone with simple home techniques.
Firstly, you need to take 1000 grit wet grinder stone.
Now, start sharpening the knife with the grinder’s blade. While spinning the blade red hot sparks will flush.
Hold the knife to be sharpened with the flow of the grinder.
After a few cycles, your job is done!
Perfect! Right?
What is a Bench Grinder good for?
Great Query! A bench grinder is widely used in different industries. It’s good for a lot of things.
A bench grinder is the ultimate choice for many tasks. Mainly this tool is used to the size, sharpness, shape, clean and polish metals, woods, even plastics. Craftsmanship entirely depends on the performance of the bench grinder.
Many professionals use bench grinders as their primary tools of operation. Skilled knife sharpeners always use a good bench grinder.
Conclusion
Now you know how to use a bench grinder to sharpen Knives, right?
A bench grinder is easier to use and much less expensive when it comes to sharpening knives. Instead of buying a sharp knife, the use of a bench grinder provides an easier and cheaper solution.
Bench grinders can also be used to clean and polish the knife too. And depending on the blade and methods, one can even increase or decrease the blade’s sharpness as they please. So, it is relatively easy and convenient to use a bench grinder