I have a few of these, 15 is a few, right?   Just some I dug out for pics lately, have them bigger and smaller.   I do have electric grinders, but for small stuff, reshaping steel, cleaning up casting lines, etc. these work very well.   Quiet too.  How many here have and USE one?

I used to buy them to resell, but finally kept one to use.

There was (is?) one similar to the one on the right somewhere in the basement of what was my grandfather's house...used it a few times for sharpening.... Would love to have one, but I haven't seen one that was at all reasonably priced

I had a 6 year run where I used one exclusively. Off the grid, no electricity!
They can certainly be effective. I ground and sharpened everything on one

Bigger is better
   yours Scott

I often see those at the markets, I remember doing the winding for my father as he sharpened drills. He moved to an electric bench ginder but not until the mid sixties.

You have me interested enough to pick one up next time.

Here are 3 more, going to have to move lots of good stuff to get down to my big one with the six inch stone.  It is safe in that wooden box below the lathe, that is behind the tool box, etc.   I also have a sit and pedal model with two stones, plus a Keen Kutter wet stone frame.  Can you say slippery slope.

> Can you say slippery slope

Ahh..next it will be forge blowers..after all , they work the same way.....;P

My grandfather had a hand cranked grinder on his workbench in the garage when I was a kit, I remember cranking it and watching it spin and being amazed you could make something go so fast by just cranking a handle....
(And it made the neatest whirring sound)

Quote from: rusty on May 17, 2012, 07:33:04 PM
.....when I was a kit...

How many pieces?

3500 piece easy to assemble puzzle....

I love hand crank machinery!!!

Currently I have about 4 of the grinders, 4 blowers, 3 post drills, and a hand crank sheep shearing machine.

Next I want a hand crank corn sheller. Also have my eye on a DeLavel cream separator if it is still there when I return to my pickin' hole, hopefully this weekend. The lady already sold all three of the hand crank grain threshers she has in the barn.

I just recently got my first one at the monthly antique/flea market. Havent had a real use for it yet, just a quik test.

Here is an interesting comparison.  4 hand crank grinders, all the same model basically.   These were the type used to sharpen the mower sickle bar, on pull type mowers.  Note the four different style driven gears, and the oldes one has no cover on the small drive gear.  That is the one that is rusted solid, the other 3 crank and spin just fine.   The tapered stone is the one needed to sharpen the sickle plates, 2 at a time if you're good.   Had one of these for years, picked the others up when I find them for the right money. 

I've never used one of these.  I always wondered how you could hold a tool to be sharpened and crank the stone at the same time.   So, especially Scott with your 6 year experience, how does this work?  I might need one...

Quote from: Branson on May 18, 2012, 08:48:18 AM
how does this work?  I might need one...

  Really weirdly at first.
Pretty much the same as grinding anything by any means though. Its always weird at first.
But pretty soon you get into it and it just becomes normal.

It requires two hands and each one is doing something different. But nowhere near as bad as playing a piano. You can use other parts of your body for support. Long tools get the belly, and short ones you can still lean your elbow on the bench its attached to so you aren't really holding it totally freehand against the toolrest. 
  yours Scott

I have about 5 or 6 of these but, like branson I never really knew how to use them, seemed you needed a third hand or some one else's hand. All of mine are fairly small, biggest wheel dia is around 4".