Overly-aggressive or otherwise inappropriate grinding of metals can produce an undesirable change in metallurgical properties of the material being processed; usually this is referred to as workpiece “burn”. In this experimental paper the acoustic signature of grinding is collected, and compared to the processed workpiece condition, for thirteen data sets including both relatively hard (Inconel) and soft (52100 bearing steel) metals. This work is distinguished by its use of a high sampling rate (2.56 MHz) in data acquisition and in its processing of the raw, rather than RMS/filtered, data samples. Signs of burn are seen in the frequency domain, and in the correlation between wheel rotations.