Cost of custom grinding

M

M_Stone

Joined
Jun 15, 2016
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I'd like to have some knife blanks of various sizes and shapes ground by someone with experience. What would be a reasonable price to ask for this service? I was thinking trying to have them quoted on a "dollars-per-inch of blade" basis.
 
M_Stone said:
I'd like to have some knife blanks of various sizes and shapes ground by someone with experience. What would be a reasonable price to ask for this service? I was thinking trying to have them quoted on a "dollars-per-inch of blade" basis.
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They don't allow sales talk in the Shop talk section. You can post in the exchange section under fixed blades or knife making supply's. Also fill out your profile so folks can know a little more about you like age, occupation and location as it will help answer any further question more accurately.
 
I would add that the cost per inch is not a way that most knife makers would consider in pricing a knife. Some knife patterns are inherently more difficult to grind than others and have little to do with the length of the blade.
 
Actually, most commercial grinders do charge by the inch.

The ones who do it all day long in a big machine shop have the skills to handle most blade styles. IIRC, there was't a difference in price between hollow grind and fat grind. Usually it is around $10 a normal size knife for the basic grinding to a satin "belt finish". They can grind hard or pre-HT, and most can do the HT as well.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Actually, most commercial grinders do charge by the inch.

The ones who do it all day long in a big machine shop have the skills to handle most blade styles. IIRC, there was't a difference in price between hollow grind and fat grind. Usually it is around $10 a normal size knife for the basic grinding to a satin "belt finish". They can grind hard or pre-HT, and most can do the HT as well.
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Unless you know more places that I do? Most have a minimum of 100-200 blades at a time. That's places that know what they are doing.
 
Most have minimum orders, but not all. I think you would need 50 blades to make it affordable, as the price gets better the more done..

I have this company in my file. They are supposed to be good:
Larkin Precision
5810 South 194th
Kent WA 98032
Work: 253-872-3536
 
I could see where a shop set up for mass production could get away with charging by the inch. I had it stuck in my mind that the op was looking for someone here on the forum, most of which are one man operations. Could you imagine having to grind out a hunter complete with fullers and swages for 10 bucks an inch? I hope he doesn't need it until Christmas...2018 if I were to attempt it.:rolleyes:
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Most have minimum orders, but not all. I think you would need 50 blades to make it affordable, as the price gets better the more done..

I have this company in my file. They are supposed to be good:
Larkin Precision
5810 South 194th
Kent WA 98032
Work: 253-872-3536
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Right around the corner from my place of employment. Ask for Brad I'm sure if it's a large enough quantity he can help you out.
 
Not really interested in the service, but in actually knowing/learning how these industrial machines work, I searched and a popular brand is Berger, but found no video or site explaining or showing how they actually work. Anyone saw a video?


Pablo
 
I would be interested in knowing of more companies that would do this service also. 5 to 50 blades at a time... Any in midwest?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G800A using Tapatalk
 
Mr. Larkin told me he uses a blanchard grinder for knives. There are awesome ones in the YouTube vid above.
 
Larkin has a 200 piece minimum order and they prefer to grind hardened stock. From what they told me, the pricing is based as much, if not more on the complexity of the job/grind than the size of the blade. When i asks, their services started at around $10 per blade for a "small" order. A fair chunk of the price is setup/fixturing as is the case for any new CNC job. Anything smaller than 200 pieces, those costs are hard to absorb.
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Most have minimum orders, but not all. I think you would need 50 blades to make it affordable, as the price gets better the more done..

I have this company in my file. They are supposed to be good:
Larkin Precision
5810 South 194th
Kent WA 98032
Work: 253-872-3536
Click to expand...
 
I think they use Berger double disc grinders, not a Blanchard. There are some videos on Youtube of the Berger and Seipner machines built for knife blade grinding and they feed a bit differently than the ones in those videos. One company makes one that does one side at a time. You can run knives blades through those machines pretty quickly, but the blanks are loaded into the picture by hand. There are also some videos of the HUGE robotic systems that big companies like Zwillng and Wusthof use for most of their operations . Very cool.
elementfe said:
Mr. Larkin told me he uses a blanchard grinder for knives. There are awesome ones in the YouTube vid above.
Click to expand...
 
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