- Joined
- Dec 20, 2005
- Messages
- 2,045
This is my first post in years.... moved to Spain from California about 5 years ago. Almost gave up being a knifemaker due to the difficulties and financial costs involved in procuring equipment here.
Well, skip forward 4 years, got out of my funk, slowly accumulated the right tools again, and I have somewhat of a "shop" now. Basically: a homemade grinder, buffer, portable air compressor, electric kiln, a Sherline micro-mill, and a bandsaw.
Back in March of this year, the entire country of Spain was put into lockdown for 3 months. We were only allowed to leave our homes to basically purchase groceries and it was strictly enforced by the police and military.
Well, I figured it would be a good time to make an Integral, I had the materials and plenty of time during these 3 months. The knife was an order from back in 2015 or so....
This knife was made using a minimal amount of equipment and grinding belts, using only 2 cutters: a crappy 2 3/8" flute ball nose end mill and a 3/8" end mill. The bulk of the material was removed with the grinder, and refined with the mill, making .007" to .015" cuts at a time -the mill had severely worn bushings too so only conventional milling (cutting in one direction -against the direction of the feed) was used. Scrap micarta was used to build the fixture. Shows that a lot can be done through perseverance:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/L71ZkLwLmc3CCrP66
(If anyone knows how to post a photo in the forum, please let me know ... I'm too old to figure this out these days).
Thank you for your patience Jack, and Thanks to Caleb Royer for the photo.
Well, skip forward 4 years, got out of my funk, slowly accumulated the right tools again, and I have somewhat of a "shop" now. Basically: a homemade grinder, buffer, portable air compressor, electric kiln, a Sherline micro-mill, and a bandsaw.
Back in March of this year, the entire country of Spain was put into lockdown for 3 months. We were only allowed to leave our homes to basically purchase groceries and it was strictly enforced by the police and military.
Well, I figured it would be a good time to make an Integral, I had the materials and plenty of time during these 3 months. The knife was an order from back in 2015 or so....
This knife was made using a minimal amount of equipment and grinding belts, using only 2 cutters: a crappy 2 3/8" flute ball nose end mill and a 3/8" end mill. The bulk of the material was removed with the grinder, and refined with the mill, making .007" to .015" cuts at a time -the mill had severely worn bushings too so only conventional milling (cutting in one direction -against the direction of the feed) was used. Scrap micarta was used to build the fixture. Shows that a lot can be done through perseverance:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/L71ZkLwLmc3CCrP66
(If anyone knows how to post a photo in the forum, please let me know ... I'm too old to figure this out these days).
Thank you for your patience Jack, and Thanks to Caleb Royer for the photo.
Last edited:
