# Time to Sharpen Grinder plates and knives...



## indaswamp (Jan 23, 2021)

So, with our big wild game processing day coming up in about a month, it's time to sharpen grinder plates and knives. Since we will be doing 24 deer and 3 wild hogs this year, we will have two grinders going. So I picked up Dad's grinder today and looking at the plates and knives, yep-time for a sharpening and honing to get back into shape. I do not know the last time these were done...they were in pretty bad shape.






I had started with 150grit, but had to go to 80 grit to take a lot of metal off the face of the plate because of the deep grooves. Then worked it over with 150, then 400, and finally 1000grit.

That is more like it!





Also-I ran across an old post by 

 daveomak
 suggesting to use a ceramic tile for the lapping surface for the sandpaper...that worked beautifully!


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## old sarge (Jan 23, 2021)

Looks nicely done.


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## pushok2018 (Jan 24, 2021)

Great job done on sharpening the plates.... I don't do a lot of grindings so hope it's going to take some time till I have to run the same procedure....


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## indaswamp (Jan 24, 2021)

Took me a good hour or so with the 80 grit to get the surface down enough to eliminate the lines. Not long at all with the 150, 400, and 100 grit. Pro tip-don't let your plates and knives get this bad.


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## old sarge (Jan 24, 2021)

I have a dedicated blade for each plate hoping that being matched the wear is even.


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## indaswamp (Jan 26, 2021)

old sarge said:


> I have a dedicated blade for each plate hoping that being matched the wear is even.


Yep. Me too.


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## indaswamp (Jan 26, 2021)

The ceramic tile I used as a lapping surface was not flat enough; took too much metal out of the middle so the plate was high on the edges So instead, I used a piece of glass I had on hand from an old computer desk. That worked great.


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