I saw someone making a 36 inch and 48 inch radius platen on another forum. I like the design and it would appear to work quite well. I would like to get opinions from members as to how their radius platen performs. Any member ever used a radius platen before? It appears to give "not quite a flat grind, and not a hollow grind." It's interesting. I would like to see a photo of the grind.
I used a radius platen back when I was doing cutting competitions. The slight hollow grind seemed to allow for better chip removal on the 2x4 cuts and reduced cutting drag on other large cuts like pater tubes and large or bundled ropes. I made mine from a piece of a large truck leaf spring. I flattened the back and welded it to a flat platen that was drilled and tapped to fit my grinder.
Daniel
Thanks for the reply Dan. So I take it that this type of grind would work well on a large camp knife, or even a JS test knife? Don't get me wrong, I was taught how to flat grind and I think it makes an exceptional blade. Do you know if this type of grind has a specific name? I thought it was interesting and just wanted to try it out. I would like to test this type of grind against the cutting ability of the flat grind.
I have never done a bend test with the slight hollow grind my platen produces. However it cuts very well. I don't know if there is a specific name rather than hollow grind.
Daniel
I have the 36 and 72 inch models. Aside from being pretty cool for grinding old school SHALLOW hollow grinds like you would get from a big wheel(handy for complex grinds on kitchen knives too), they are also very nice for doing curved clips/swedges. As a matter of fact, I think that I may end up using them for that more than for bevel grinding.
