Increasing volume

C

CourageWolf

Joined
Sep 2, 2020
Messages
1
I've read countless posts on here for years and hope I can get as much help for what I think is my first post as I've received from others posts.

I've been a part-time/hobby knifemaker for about 5-6 years. I sold a couple hundred knives locally for a few years but as kids got older and long late hours in the shop became harder to come by, that volume wasn't sustainable and I decided I'd just make knives as gifts and enjoy the hobby. That said, I've been presented with an opportunity I feel I'll regret later if I don't at least give it a shot and see where it goes.
In order to make this work, I'll have to find a way to go from stock removal and grinding each knife/set of scales entirely by hand to a more efficient process--something I know absolutely nothing about. To start, it would be ten of each of the following: two chef knives, a 6" and an 8"; and two fixed-blade EDC style, 7.5" and 8.5" OAL, so 40 total blades.
I'm clueless as to the best course of action--buy a surface grinder attachment for my grinder and see how it goes, outsource it to a manufacturer who does small scale orders, find someone who does primary grinding after water jet so I can send straight to heat treat and take it from that point?
I'm not trying to be the next big thing and I don't envision this getting more than a couple hundred knives per year, just needing to find a way to increase output so I can take advantage of a good opportunity.

Thanks in advance!
 
Hey C CourageWolf make sure you fill out your full profile so we can see your location and maybe offer some more help.
I personally, do all my cutting out with a portaband but I haven't done more than 15 or so at a time. If I ever had to do big batches as you're talking about, I would go to New Jersey Steel Baron. They do water jet cutting for a reasonable price and I think they can supply many of the steels you might want. I've haven't done it myself yet, but this is where I think most people would recommend.
Linus
 
I’d probably outsource the water jetting and heat treating. With a bevel jig or similar fixture you could probably do the primary grinds on 40 blades in a weekend. As far as handles are concerned, some type of CNC router setup might be the way to go depending on what material you use. Surface grinder attachments are good but go through belts pretty quickly and they’re not as accurate as a regular surface grinder. I still think it would be sufficient for the knives you described. Get Cubitron 2 belts and let them eat.
 
Any outsourcing of grinding will probably cost more than you doing it, unless you can work out some jigs. Waterjet might be an option depending on your designs. Seems like the option to explore

IMO, significantly increasing volume as single person producer is a futile thing. You have to change output by orders of magnitude for it to matter. That means either working out an automated process, which will require investment in machinery and work space, and you become a machine operator. Or get more staff involved
Or maybe I'm an anti-social luddite who likes hitting stuff with hammers
 
Jersey Steel Baron does surface grinding. You might want to speak with them about possibly doing a package deal with steel, waterjet, and surface grinding. The only problem I see for you going forward is the number of different patterns you have going at the same time. That's going to be a LOT of work and re-jigggering of setups and work flow for you. You're a one man operation coming out with an entire product line all at once. You might consider having the grinding done post heat treat if you go that route. You avoid warping and most grinders work hardened steel. If you go with something in sheet form like micarta you can definitely have handles cut and drilled to fit but again with so many different patterns and not a whole lot of each the cost may ramp up faster than if you had a larger quantity of one or two patterns. It might be more economical to look into a router based CNC setup for handles and do that yourself. I know a gent who has a setup like that for handles that go on a rescue knife he developed and it works quite well. Definitely worth looking into. That of course only applies if you're looking to continue production beyond that first batch.

Eric
 
CourageWolf said:
I've read countless posts on here for years and hope I can get as much help for what I think is my first post as I've received from others posts.

I've been a part-time/hobby knifemaker for about 5-6 years. I sold a couple hundred knives locally for a few years but as kids got older and long late hours in the shop became harder to come by, that volume wasn't sustainable and I decided I'd just make knives as gifts and enjoy the hobby. That said, I've been presented with an opportunity I feel I'll regret later if I don't at least give it a shot and see where it goes.
In order to make this work, I'll have to find a way to go from stock removal and grinding each knife/set of scales entirely by hand to a more efficient process--something I know absolutely nothing about. To start, it would be ten of each of the following: two chef knives, a 6" and an 8"; and two fixed-blade EDC style, 7.5" and 8.5" OAL, so 40 total blades.
I'm clueless as to the best course of action--buy a surface grinder attachment for my grinder and see how it goes, outsource it to a manufacturer who does small scale orders, find someone who does primary grinding after water jet so I can send straight to heat treat and take it from that point?
I'm not trying to be the next big thing and I don't envision this getting more than a couple hundred knives per year, just needing to find a way to increase output so I can take advantage of a good opportunity.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
If you're looking to save time I do offer cnc machining services. I can mill the profile and put precision pin holes into your blanks using my CNC milling machine. A CNC milling machine will give you much greater accuracy than a laser, Plasma, or water jet. If you don't have CAD files (required for cnc cutting of any kind) I can also help by creating 2d and 3d models of your blades. just and option. :) If you're interested hit me up.
 
If I read the post correctly it seems you are wanting to potentially outsource the primary bevel grinding and handle shaping. What you are describing (having patterns profile cut, sent to a HT facility, then off to bevel grinding before arriving to your shop then attaching pre shaped handles) is often referred to as a mid-tech and in the quantities you are currently thinking wouldn’t be fully feasible to outsource each of those steps. Larkin Precision is a blade grinding facility in Washington state that does a great job from what I’ve seen, they require a minimum quantity of 200 blades of identical profile for bevel grinding. Some of the other steps are definitely feasible in a smaller quantity to outsource, having my profiles cut saves me a good bit of time personally, I prefer doing my heat treating myself but that’s also fairly feasible to send out. You may be able to find someone that can cnc rough handles so your main focus is bevel grinding and finish work but it may also be feasible to just get a wood cnc just for handles and machine them yourself. Biggest thing I’d say for increasing quantity in a one person shop is just getting more efficient in your processing, figure out unnecessary steps or areas that you are repeating yourself on the same part.
 
I'd suggest having the blades waterjet cut and outsourcing the heat treat.

Outsourcing grinding is going to be cost prohibitive for the number of knives you plan to make.

Have you ever tried making this many knives at once? It's a huge commitment and not everyone is OK with that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top