Can I or how do I sharpen this meat grinder blade?
May 12, 2015 10:53 AM Subscribe
I have a venerable Moulinex "Jeanette 243" grinder, with a very old blade, which I'm not sure how to sharpen
I obtained it from my mother and use a it lot, but it's not performing quite as well as it should, which isn't exactly surprising considering it is almost certainly older than I am.
I have multiple whetstones (for knives) and I am confident sharpening things, but I just don't really know where to start with this, as it doesn't conform to any type of blade I really understand.
I've attached pictures at the bottom but they're not great and a bit hard to interpret so here's a brief description:
There are four blades. Each blade has a very slight (0.5mm?) "step" in it, which is towards the leading edge of the blade. The higher point of the step faces outwards (abutting the perforated disk which serves to regulate the size of the grind). It looks like the edge of the step is a plain right angle (albeit slightly rounded, presumably from wear). It doesn't look like there was ever an angle such as you would find on a blade.
My instinct is just to grind the junction between the "step" and the leading edge to a clean right angle, but I'm not sure if I'm missing something, as I'm unfamiliar with this type of grinder blade.
Pictures
I obtained it from my mother and use a it lot, but it's not performing quite as well as it should, which isn't exactly surprising considering it is almost certainly older than I am.
I have multiple whetstones (for knives) and I am confident sharpening things, but I just don't really know where to start with this, as it doesn't conform to any type of blade I really understand.
I've attached pictures at the bottom but they're not great and a bit hard to interpret so here's a brief description:
There are four blades. Each blade has a very slight (0.5mm?) "step" in it, which is towards the leading edge of the blade. The higher point of the step faces outwards (abutting the perforated disk which serves to regulate the size of the grind). It looks like the edge of the step is a plain right angle (albeit slightly rounded, presumably from wear). It doesn't look like there was ever an angle such as you would find on a blade.
My instinct is just to grind the junction between the "step" and the leading edge to a clean right angle, but I'm not sure if I'm missing something, as I'm unfamiliar with this type of grinder blade.
Pictures
Best answer: Agreed with Johnny - the flat back of the blade (the face that is up in the first picture) goes against the screening/mesh where the ground meat comes out, so you don't want to sharpen that side.
posted by k5.user at 11:18 AM on May 12, 2015
posted by k5.user at 11:18 AM on May 12, 2015
Best answer: Agreed with Johnny - the flat back of the blade (the face that is up in the first picture) goes against the screening/mesh where the ground meat comes out, so you don't want to sharpen that side.
Actually if those raised areas are in the same plane (i.e. not tilted back away from the edges) then you cold just hone that side all at once, placing the side that's up in the pics onto the (flat!) stone and moving it around, being careful to apply pressure near or on the hub rather than out towards the ends of the blades. This would be a good place to use a diamond stone, because they tend to cut more aggressively and stay flatter than more traditional oil or water stones.
posted by jon1270 at 11:41 AM on May 12, 2015
Actually if those raised areas are in the same plane (i.e. not tilted back away from the edges) then you cold just hone that side all at once, placing the side that's up in the pics onto the (flat!) stone and moving it around, being careful to apply pressure near or on the hub rather than out towards the ends of the blades. This would be a good place to use a diamond stone, because they tend to cut more aggressively and stay flatter than more traditional oil or water stones.
posted by jon1270 at 11:41 AM on May 12, 2015
Definitely just get those angles back to 90deg. The grinder doesn't really cut so much as sheer the meat.
posted by ssg at 12:44 PM on May 12, 2015
posted by ssg at 12:44 PM on May 12, 2015
« Older MeFi, help me name my new dog? | Macbook Air powerful enough for Adobe CS Photoshop... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:12 AM on May 12, 2015