My mentor told me to never use a 4 inch grinder on a hoof knife, but I tried it anyway

He said it would ruin the temper and the edge would go soft. I figured he was just being old school, so last month I used my DeWalt on a knife that had a bad chip. I got it sharp fast, but the next day on a big draft in Lancaster, the edge folded over on the first hoof. I had to stop and re-sharpen with a file three times that morning. He was totally right, the heat wrecked it. What's your go-to method for fixing a badly chipped blade without wrecking the steel?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_piper1d agoTop Commenter

Funny how that works, the old guys are usually right about the simple stuff. For a bad chip, I'll take it right back to a coarse diamond stone by hand, keep a cup of water right there to dip it in constantly. Lets you control the heat and you can feel when you've got the chip out before you move to a finer stone.

alice_barnes351d ago

My grandpa taught me that trick with the water cup. He'd sharpen his pocket knife on a big old oilstone in the garage, always dipping the tip to keep it cool. Said you could hear the steel change its tune when the edge was right.