I’ve never used a manually operated grinder, and I do like to achieve 
an even grind on cutters, and a nice shiny honed back

hey Mick you'd be surprised.
I started with hand crank grinders. Living off the grid.
First was a miserable cheap stamped sheet metal grinder. But pretty 
quick I found a nice old heavy cast iron number.
  One hand cranking, the other feeding the tool across.
  It doesn't take long at all to get your balance and do beautiful bevels.
  I'm sure you'd be a natural at it.

Want to see something? I got a tiny package in the mail today.
A caliper keychain. Like I really needed one.

I don't know whose idea it was to make it. I am sure somebody said oh 
yeah we'll sell lots of calipers to the tourists. They all use calipers 
right?

When they showed up they wouldn't really work. But a few minutes with a 
needle file and they slide like Tiffany now.
You can't trust the scale for accurate but you could use it as ballpark
Probably wouldn't last a day as a keychain. But as a miniature toy 
caliper they really do work.

  file:///C:/Users/scottg/Documents/aplanepix/auction/caliperkeychain.JPG

Oh yeah, $1.32 free shipping. They are all over ebay.

     yours scott

-- 
*******************************
    Scott Grandstaff
    Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca  96039
    scottg@s...
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html