vladimir spehar wrote:

>
> Vlad
>
> --- paul womack <pwomack@e...> wrote:
> > vladimir spehar wrote:
> > >
> > > Thanks John,
> > >
> > > Now the list is complete!
> > >
> > > Vlad @ STW
> > >
> > > we grind our irons FLAT! Who else takes the time
> > to
> > > do that!
> >
> > Er. Hock and Clifton, that I know of. If you search the archive you
> > can find the blood, sweat, tears and complaints of the people
> > flattening the back of Hock blades when he ground the blades before
> > tempering (and warping) and then shipped 'em, warps and all.
> >
> > I would be amazed if Karl "I'm slightly obsessed" Holtey wasn't
> > shipping dead flat blades.
> >
> > Don't know about the others.
>
> I think your mistaken Paul.
>
> Forgive me if I'm wrong but don't many of the manufacturers buy 3/32
> or 0.095 (Veritas, HOck except Clifton) ground stock, HT and sell? We
> use 1/8" ground stock, HT and THEN grind dead flat to 0.092". It takes
> a long time but you wont spend half a day flattening the back of an
> iron when you should be WW. Plus how many times have you heard a 0.095
> + thick iron won't fit into an old plane? With the amount of time we
> spend on our irons I don't doubt if we actually lose money when one
> could be making dies at $70/hr.
>
> Our process should NOT be mistaken with other mfgs processes Paul.
> Totally different.

I can't let that pass. I explicitly said that Hock and Clifton are
nicely ground. I made a guess at Holtey. I explicitly made no claim on
other brands, one way or the other.

I know that early Hock blades were not ground after heat treatment, and
loud and long were the comments on back flattening. I don't know when
Ron changed, but it was a way back

http://nika.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswingle/archive/get.phtml?message_i-
d=48225&submit_thread=1#message http://nika.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswi-
ngle/archive/get.phtml?message_id=74204#message

And (having bought, and used) a Clifton blade, it was very flat indeed.
I started out my back polishing process, and after 40 strokes on the
first grit, was ready to move to the next grit. I then realised I'd
picked up the wrong grit. I'd started at 320 grit. No, it's not soft, it
was just flat.

So I stand by what (little) I said.

        BugBear