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Beautiful knife, Mr. Grimsmo!
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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
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Anodized aluminum scales on my Manix
- Thread starter John Grimsmo
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- Jun 10, 2011
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No problem. I had huge problems with shattering endmills too until I bought the Gwizard calculator, it's AMAZING! Google it, well worth the $65/yr subscription, I don't break endmills anymore, at least not through normal use. The hardest operation when making these handles is profiling around the outside, it's 1/8" thick aluminum, and I used to step down 0.025" and feed at 20ipm at 4500rpm using a 4 flute regular length endmill. Even with flood coolant this would often cause chips to clog and the endmill would snap. My new method, thanks to Gwizard and my own tinkering for endmill choice, is to use an 1/8" carbide stub mill (only 1/4" LOC!) 2 flute (although I'm tempted to try 4fl and double my feedrate), full depth of cut at 0.135", 4.5 IPM 4500rpm. This works incredibly well. The chips don't clog because it's doing a full DOC so it's not re-cutting any chips. Cycle time is faster too, surprisingly. I usually leave 0.005" wall clearance and buzz that off with 15ipm, though I think I need to step it up to 0.010 or 0.015 cause I'm getting some chatter still. Hope that geek talk made sense and helped!thanks for the video
mind if i ask your feed rate and milling cutter material type?? i always have such bad luck with shattering the cutters i use lol
Aluminum wouldn't be good for a pocket clip, it's too soft and bendy and has very very little spring retention. Steel, titanium or even carbon fiber work much better.
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My woman is demanding moonglow scales for her next Para 2. Is that on the agenda?
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- Nov 18, 2005
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G11 is very cool stuff, though. I have a Graham Bros. fixed blade with the same natural G11 scales.
Carbon fiber scales for the Military would be wonderful. G10 is a bit heavy.
My M4 Military could loose some weight (G11 is pretty heavy)
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pricing and info are on his website
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- Jun 10, 2011
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Is CF noticeably lighter than G10? I really don't know. But yes, it would look awesome for sure. I might do Military scales by the summer, we'll see.
Unfortunately, not possible. The nested liners prevent me from using that material for the Para2. An inlay of glow into aluminum scales *might* be possible but it would be a lot of extra work.
I forget the rules on BF, not sure if I'm allowed to post prices in threads like this. But I might have updated a certain website where those prices might or might not be available....
I'm making some more CF Manix's in the next week, I'll post pics once they're done. Also working on a few Ti scales! Has that even been done yet on a manix 2? Just wait till my Ti Paramilitary 2 scales.....
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- Jun 30, 2006
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In a large knife like the military it is noticeable. G11 has more glass than G10 AFAIK and is a bit heavier than that as well. CF is also not as hard on tools as G10 (dulls cutting tools very fast). My G11 scales are also a bit thicker and sculpted. Mine are without liners, but the nested skeletonized liners of the Military are pretty light.
Summer sounds great on the CF:thumbup:
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I am going to courteously and respectfully disagree with NoFair. I have CF and G10 Military variants and I can only tell the difference using a good scale - not in the hand. As a disadvantage of CF (having recently bought new supplies of both CF and G10 for my personal projects), CF is very noticeably more expensive. I think you will reach a broader market at more attractive prices with G10.
Would G10 be cheaper than alluminum? Personally, I'd rather have a pair of your scales in g10 than metal, but that's just me. I'd bet you could do really well offering g10 color options for the knives you've got going so far. Think of all the comments we see saying "I love my [manix version x, or whatever] but I wish it came in an [orange, blue, pocadot,...] version." "Just contact John Grimsmo" I'd say.
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On a Millie it is a 11g weight difference between the CF and G10 (about 10%).
CF is more expensive to buy, but I think G10/G11 is harder on cutting tools. So for a smaller maker the difference in price might not be as large.
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I didn't dig out a scale, but the Spyderco catalog shows the CF at 4 oz/115 g compared to the G10 version at 4.2 oz/120 g. Honestly, I cannot tell the difference between the two in my hands.
As far as tool wear, my experience has been that the carbon fiber is significantly tougher on cutting tools than the glass fibers in G10, and I think this is the universal view of people in the knifemakers' subforum here.
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Didn't know CF was harder on tools, thanks for the info. Might have to try to make a CF scale or 2 in the future
On my scale
My CF Millie is 112g and the G10 is 123g. The M4/G11 is 150g, but the G11 scales (no liners) are thicker than the stock G10 ones.
On my scale
My CF Millie is 112g and the G10 is 123g. The M4/G11 is 150g, but the G11 scales (no liners) are thicker than the stock G10 ones.
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- Jun 10, 2011
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Thanks for the info guys! To answer some of the lingering questions, aluminum is one of the cheaper materials, then G10, then CF, then Ti. I've only machined one set of CF handles but I thought it machined wonderfully. After making a few it might wear out tools faster than aluminum, but that's the price we pay as makers. Several people are asking about G10 but I haven't been that interested in working with it for several reasons. Most of the other pimpers use it which is cool for them, guys doing handmade scales can do patterns and contours that I can't do on my machinery (and vice versa), so I think I'll let them be the G10 guys and I'd like to stick to AL, CF and Ti. Also all the good factory knives already come with G10 scales, so I'm less interested in making more of them to flood the market, I like doing things differently. And Spyderco seems to come out with a new sprint run color every week haha. As far as making G10 scales at more attractive prices, the material is actually a bit more expensive than aluminum and the amount of work required is the same, well I don't have to anodize them I guess, but they'd have to be sanded or buffed a bit. I might be able to make 'em for $80 but again, I'm just not that interested haha. I've got so much work lined up as it is .
Since we're talking about weight, my aluminum manix handles weigh nearly exactly the same as the G10 ones because I hollow them out on the back. When I make Para2 scales there isn't any room to make them lighter, so they will be a bit heavier than G10, Ti will be a lot heavier but way awesomer.
.Since we're talking about weight, my aluminum manix handles weigh nearly exactly the same as the G10 ones because I hollow them out on the back. When I make Para2 scales there isn't any room to make them lighter, so they will be a bit heavier than G10, Ti will be a lot heavier but way awesomer.
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- Jun 10, 2011
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Thanks! Got tons of cool new ideas in the pipeline, some neat Manix stuff that I haven't mentioned yet. Expect some really cool pics coming to this thread in the next month.
