{"id":854,"date":"2009-11-16T08:06:12","date_gmt":"2009-11-16T12:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/?p=854"},"modified":"2021-09-19T18:52:22","modified_gmt":"2021-09-19T22:52:22","slug":"grinder-gloat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/grinder-gloat\/","title":{"rendered":"Grinder Gloat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Old tool galoots gloat when they get a good tool at a very good price. Lesson of this one: Be patient. Wait for the good one.\"bench<\/a><\/p>\n

My shop has been without a grinder, until very recently. The chisels have been sharpened enough to lose their original concave grind. It was time.<\/p>\n

Did you know that you can set up a “Saved search” on eBay, and have it run once a day for months and months? That’s what I did when looking for a hand cranked grinder. eBay has plenty of these, and most are in pitiful shape. So, I waited and watched the daily search results, and waited and watched, and waited and watched.<\/p>\n

A few weeks of daily searches yielded this “B&C Universal” grinder. It looked to be complete (most aren’y) and in decent shaped. It’s amazing how many grinders are missing their tool rests, and\u00a0 how many sellers don’t know to take pictures of that part of the grinder. Know what you are looking for because many of the sellers don’t know what they’re selling.<\/p>\n

The sweetest part of this deal is that I ended up being the only one to bid and got it at the seller’s minimum bid, $9.99. It arrived a few days later and proved to be in very good shape. This grinder must have set idle on someone’s bench for decades. It shows virtually no wear. I know it sat idle from seeing an oil streak that ran down the side of the flange holding one side of the stone. A well used tool would have had that oil more evenly spread. There is some paint pitting, and there was some rust. The stone was like new, the edge still square, no chips no ruts, and it passed the ring test. The gears are angle (spiral?) cut, not straight, making for very smooth running.<\/p>\n

Cleanup was easy. This is the first time I’ve used vinegar for rust removal, and was very pleased with how well it worked. Mineral spirits did the rest. I decided not to strip and repaint, but to put this tool immediately to use.<\/p>\n

\"picture<\/a>\"picture<\/a>Now, can anyone tell me more about it? The metal dish used as a guide for sharpening knives and scissors had a decal saying “B&C Universal” and “No Skill Required.” On the side of the gear case is part of a logo. It is a diamond shape with a “B” fitted into the left point, and a “C” nested in between the “B” and the right point. Most of the word “Bridgeport” appears under the right side of the diamond. Yes, that probably suggests Bridgeport Connecticut. Bridgeport has long been famous for tool making. So, who in Bridgeport made “B&C” tools? Thanks for any information.<\/p>\n

As always, click any picture to see a larger version.<\/p>\n

Lastly, note a very interesting feature (see first picture). The grinder has a tool rest support arm that allows attaching the rest on either side of the wheel. The rest can be easily moved from one end to the other, making it the only ambidextrous grinder I saw during my time waiting for a good one.<\/p>\n

How does it work? Very well. Better than I expected. Of course, getting used to cranking with one hand and tool holding with the other was a bit like learning to dance the Cha-Cha using only one leg. My chisels are sharp again, but you still don’t want to see me dance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Old tool galoots gloat when they get a good tool at a very good price. Lesson of this one: Be patient. Wait for the good one. My shop has been without a grinder, until very recently. The chisels have been sharpened enough to lose their original concave grind. It was time. Did you know that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-hand-tools","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8225,"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions\/8225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bob-easton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}