Cutting blade blanks

Justin Schmidt

Justin Schmidt

Joined
Feb 18, 2016
Messages
2,209
How do you prefer to cut out your blade blanks? Bandsaw or grinder? I've seen a few videos with guys cutting their blanks out using a contact wheel and seems to burn through metal pretty quick. But wouldn't that ruin belts faster? I know alot of guys forge in here so I guess it doesn't apply to yall. I'm using a 4.5 in angle grinder and I hate it. Thanks
 
I use a cheap hf potaband, it seems to work pretty good. You have to do a bit of match sticking and no tight turns.
 
That's the way I was gonna go but didn't know if I should use the portaband funds for grinder stuff.
Trump what do you mean by match sticking?
 
I just very roughly cut out the shape with a cut off wheel and then let the 36 grit cubitron II 984 F eat the rest up!


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I knock off the big corners with a hacksaw and 36 grit grind the rest. I'll use a angle grinder if I'm in a hurry but usally avoid them.
A port o band and swag off road table are on my Christmas list though.
 
If you're going to be doing very many blades, a portaband held vertically is the ONLY way to go. Just so much faster and nicer than any angle grinder.
 
The wife is planning in getting me the millwalkue portaband for Christmas but I can but quote a few grinder parts with that so I just wanted to make sure it was worth it first. And the swag table is definitely gonna get bought with it. Thanks guys.
 
Portaband upright. Great for many many things in knife making. Won't be a waste of money. I don't use and angle grinder for anything knife making except in the making of tools for knife making.
 
The industry standard is the Harbor Freight/Grizzly 4 X 6 bandsaw. Quite a few are using portabands.
 
Small upright floor-standing bandsaw. Nice and controlled. Then to the grinder. Though with 1/16" thick or 1" wide stock it's a bit overkill, and usually 60grit ceramic and the 10" contact wheel does the heavy lifting.
 
I have a Portaband and a SWAG table but I still use an angle grinder to make a few straight cuts around my pattern before heading to the grinder. The angle grinder is fast...faster than making the cuts with my Portaband and I am using stainless steel which is hard on tools even before heat treat. I wear a full face shield, glasses, earplugs, and a leather apron while making he cuts. Just my opini0n again. Larry
 
LARRYZ10 said:
I have a Portaband and a SWAG table but I still use an angle grinder to make a few straight cuts around my pattern before heading to the grinder. The angle grinder is fast...faster than making the cuts with my Portaband and I am using stainless steel which is hard on tools even before heat treat. I wear a full face shield, glasses, earplugs, and a leather apron while making he cuts. Just my opini0n again. Larry
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Im just really leery of the angle grinder I really don't trust them honestly. It took me over an hour to cut out my latest blank. Granted I switched between between the cut off wheel and craftsman and flat disk. Honestly the flap disk is alot faster than the craftsman
 
Sometimes it is about money, sometimes about skills or preference and sometimes not. 4,5" grinder is imho really small. I use 5" angle grinder at high speed and cutting rough shape of knife is really fast, I guess about 5 min. or so. But I feel that 9" angle grinder will be better. Rest work will do My belt grinder with 36 Cubitron belt. I don't have portaband so I can't compare.
 
Jesenius said:
Sometimes it is about money, sometimes about skills or preference and sometimes not. 4,5" grinder is imho really small. I use 5" angle grinder at high speed and cutting rough shape of knife is really fast, I guess about 5 min. or so. But I feel that 9" angle grinder will be better. Rest work will do My belt grinder with 36 Cubitron belt. I don't have portaband so I can't compare.
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How do you cut the angles out? Just make alot of match cuts then kinda stair step the angles. It's a complete PIA lol
 
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