Rich,
While they may not specificaly support surface grinding, I can't see how if you can control X,Y and Z from any software you would not be able to adapt that to grinding if you had a machine set up for CNC. It's been a lot of years since I have been around grinders but I recall we used to set them up and they would jog back and forth on their own in the X direction and increment in the Y direction mechanicaly. I can't see other than some of the points made as to wheel wear, spindle cooling and temprature control why one could not take a reasonably accurate grinder, add control motors, limit switches in place of the mechanical stops and control it's motion by software, it's a horizontal milling machine with a grinding wheel instead of a milling cutter! The real problem may be the diameter and width of the wheel in relation to the contour your looking for.
Hope I don't come off snipy, it's not my intention. I have been following this thread since it's got a lot of attention, took a while to find you were making reeds for a concertina, how do you produce the reeds now? I noticed you mentioned hand finishing a while ago in one of your posts, you may allways have to do that operation anyway since each batch may have a slightly different property. To be honest I had never thought about this sort of thing before, now you have me wondering how Honner has made harmonoca's all these years or are they all flat reeds?
Kristin