I am relatively new to the forum and during the past week have spent many hours devouring the incredible information in the various forums. Of special interest were the discussions on grinding and cross graining in earlier posts in this forum.
I have been collecting TR daggers for many years, since they tie into my passion for knives as a custom knife maker. One of the custom knife shows I participate in every year is held at the Klingenmuseum in Solingen. When the show was first started by the museum, many of the locals attended. Since I do all my work completely by hand, I attracted the attention of an older gentleman who was a apprentice knife grinder / polisher near the end of the war. Since I collect TR daggers, I was very interested. He explained the use of the very large & wide grinding wheels to achieve the flat grind on the blades.
Of speial was interest polshing process. He explained that the face of the relatively large polishing wheel was not flat, but tapered back at a 45 degree angle to provide a almost flat and wide surface. The face of the wheel was covered with thick walrus leater. This explains the parallel polishing lines along the entire length of the blade. He also explained that the crossgraining was not something that the polishers aimed for, but was a result of contamination from the grinding process reaching the polishing wheels, unavoidable under the factory conditions. It is interesting that the feature we admire in TR blades was an annoyance to the polishers. When we finished our conversation he invided me to his home to show me some of the polishing wheel he had rescued after the war as well as some of the blades he had ground and polished during his apprenticeship. Unfortunatly I was not able to take him up on the offer. Sadly I have not seen him at any of the later shows, I would love to get some photographs of his treasures. This is one of my first posts, hope the subject is not inappropriate.
Wolfgang
