www.sausagemaking.org

Hi,
What kind of knives are best?

Hardened/regular steel or stainless are best for staying sharp?

The old flat style or the new fish hook style work best? (not sure if they make them in regular steel)?

thanks Kevin

I have one of these for each plate, they seem to work great:

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Cabelas-Commercial-Grade-Meat-Grinder-Replacement-Blades/752041.uts?Ntk=AllProducts&searchPath=%2Fcatalog%2Fsearch.cmd%3Fform_state%3DsearchForm%26N%3D0%26fsch%3Dtrue%26Ntk%3DAllProducts%26Ntt%3Dgrinder%2Bblade%26x%3D0%26y%3D0%26WTz_l%3DHeader%253BSearch-All%2BProducts&Ntt=grinder+blade&WTz_l=Header%3BSearch-All+Products

I got some cheap ones from the webstaurant store (looks like they dont have them anymore) that looked similar to these below but they might have been Chinese knockoffs. They had a bunch of burs which caused gaps between the plate and the blade. I never even attempted to use them they looked so bad.

http://www.amazon.com/Hobart-Style-Grinder-Knife-Blade/dp/B001NRI4KM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367603965&sr=8-1&keywords=meat+grinder+blade

I would stick with stainless to avoid rust. You'll forget to dry them completely one day which could really mess up regular steel.

I think regular steel are best for staying sharp. Which one did you find better?

I haven't run a huge amount through my grinder, maybe a couple hundred pounds but the stainless blades are doing fine, never tried steel.

I'm not sure how important is is for the blade to by sharp in the traditional sense vs having tight contact against the plate. It seems that the cutting is more of a shearing action. Obviously a rounded leading edge will not work well but I would have to try pretty hard to actually cut myself on any of my blades.

Does anyone know if you match a blade to a plate do they keep themselves in good shape?

Tight contact is the key - it is a shearing action as opposed to cutting. As long as there are no gaps it will shear cleanly.
I have several homemade plates that tend to wear more than the factory plates. I simply take the plates and knife to a sharpening stone when things become questionable, it usually only takes a few strokes to ensure a continuous flat face again.