A new method of calculating grinding-wheel profiles for finishing pinion cutters to shape spur and helical gears with an arbitrary profile is developed using the theory of the element removal method (ERM) previously proposed by the authors. In order to show the usefulness of this method, the profiles of the grinding wheel for finishing the pinion cutter (m_n = 3) for Novikov gears with concave teeth are calculated numerically, and then the profiles of the pinion cutter finished by the grinding wheel are calculated. The difference (calculation error) between the given and the calculated profile of the pinion cutter was less than O.1 μm before regrinding. Profile errors of the cutting edges after regrinding are shown in terms of the number of teeth, the helix and rake angles and the regrinding stock. The effective clearance angles of cutting edges, which produce some broblems in gear finishing, are calculated from changes in the profiles of the cutting edges before and after regrinding.