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Micron Updates

jbmonkey said:
whatre we looking at? for those of us who dont know or play with machinery......that a kydex sheet gone wrong?
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This is our thermo former that I picked up earlier this week. It's failed attempt at a kydex sheet mold! First fail was getting it wayyy too hot, second was trying to remove it too early, third was using PLA in the 3d printer for the mold. I thought I could get away with pla for one press, but it immediately melted. I'll be trying again this morning! (With petg)
Taz said:
Thats a very melted sheet of kydex! Been there, done that!
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Yessir!! I'll end up with a truckload of scrap I'm sure
 
Kydex can be tricky. I found it worked better if my toaster oven was fully preheated for a while. If I put a piece in and turn the oven on, the piece was completely burned/melted in minutes. I put a mark on my oven where the kydex and holstex seem to be warm enough to work well, but not cooked, which is at like 310 degrees on my ovens dial. I prefer Holstex to Kydex, too. It has a different feel to it and I prefer the way it molds over kydex.

I am not sure if you can pre heat the thermo former or not, but that would be the first step and start off at a lower temp for the material you have and work your way up slowly. Kydex can get pretty hot when it's on the blade, so the molds need to be able to withstand that heat without slumping or melting as you found!
 
Taz said:
Kydex can be tricky. I found it worked better if my toaster oven was fully preheated for a while. If I put a piece in and turn the oven on, the piece was completely burned/melted in minutes. I put a mark on my oven where the kydex and holstex seem to be warm enough to work well, but not cooked, which is at like 310 degrees on my ovens dial. I prefer Holstex to Kydex, too. It has a different feel to it and I prefer the way it molds over kydex.

I am not sure if you can pre heat the thermo former or not, but that would be the first step and start off at a lower temp for the material you have and work your way up slowly. Kydex can get pretty hot when it's on the blade, so the molds need to be able to withstand that heat without slumping or melting as you found!
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Ours is a radiant infrared heater, so if anything it would benefit more from preheating. We will give it a shot!

And I'll look into holstex! USA made I hope!
 
RokJok said:
Possible source for thermo molding sheath materials:
holstersmith dot com
Many different materials and patterns. I had VJT VJT here on BF make me a custom sheath with a Mossy Oak brush camo pattern from holstersmith.
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I'm small time brother.... I've been using a pancake griddle from the beginning and it works great. Turn on low and bump the heat up each time the light goes off. Certainly would be a poor plan for mass production, but it's worked great for me for years and thousands of sheaths.
 
Just to add on to what Mecha said, you’d have to admit some irony if you choose a name like Micron, and then you were to build chonky knives.
 
Tools_and_Tights said:
Good afternoon! I was wondering if there’s any other way to contact you besides on BladeForums?
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Yes! We have an Instagram and Facebook, although I haven't posted anything yet. Feel free to dm me with any questions
David Mary said:
Just to add on to what Mecha said, you’d have to admit some irony if you choose a name like Micron, and then you were to build chonky knives.
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We've been working pretty hard to get hands on as many knives as we can from similar production knife companies and I can say that we certainly wont be considered chonky.
 
Starting the drive down to blade show. Taking my parents and my brother who took leave to come down. We are stopping in Asheville at a relatives house for the night. If anyone knows of cool knife places (or machining places) to go around Rt 81, let us know!
 
Maybe I missed it somewhere, but have you actually made a knife yet? An actual, physical prototype?

I would think that should be a priority....maybe before ome of this other stuff?

A real knife will go a long way towards helping you figure out what you want and letting others give you feedback.
 
J. Doyle said:
Maybe I missed it somewhere, but have you actually made a knife yet? An actual, physical prototype?

I would think that should be a priority....maybe before ome of this other stuff?

A real knife will go a long way towards helping you figure out what you want and letting others give you feedback.
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We recently moved from initial prototype to making the working prototypes! That basically means we are making smaller runs of 5 knives in real steels to help us move from working on design to working on manufacturing processes, fixturing, and surface finishes. At this moment we have our first working batch in heat treat, and two more batches being profile milled. Earlier this week we make huge progress with the sheaths. We are doing this in a way that the geometries can change quickly, as our new goal is to move from working prototype to our first production run.

On that note, although the knives are very much a priority, I am still running a machine shop full time. My brother is also on leave, so I am taking the weekend off and going to blade show
 
MicronKnives said:
We recently moved from initial prototype to making the working prototypes! That basically means we are making smaller runs of 5 knives in real steels to help us move from working on design to working on manufacturing processes, fixturing, and surface finishes. At this moment we have our first working batch in heat treat, and two more batches being profile milled. Earlier this week we make huge progress with the sheaths. We are doing this in a way that the geometries can change quickly, as our new goal is to move from working prototype to our first production run.

On that note, although the knives are very much a priority, I am still running a machine shop full time. My brother is also on leave, so I am taking the weekend off and going to blade show
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when you're ready put some pics up here for us to see them....thanks.
 
Made it back from blade show! We had an incredible time meeting so many people. I have got to get better at taking pictures for sure. I'm in the back thinking really hard about something while talking with Stu from Reiff.

I should apologize to grimsmo too, I stopped in traffic when I saw him and fangirled out. I should have been pepper sprayed.

The knife community is seriously awesome and we got great feedback on our prototype. Next year we will definitely be a vendor.

Time to get to work!

1000005432.jpg
 
MicronKnives said:
Made it back from blade show! We had an incredible time meeting so many people. I have got to get better at taking pictures for sure. I'm in the back thinking really hard about something while talking with Stu from Reiff.

I should apologize to grimsmo too, I stopped in traffic when I saw him and fangirled out. I should have been pepper sprayed.

The knife community is seriously awesome and we got great feedback on our prototype. Next year we will definitely be a vendor.

Time to get to work!

View attachment 2896136
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ya got the whole crew with ya......
 
MicronKnives said:
If anything, I'm glad you all are chomping at the bit 🤣
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To be fair, it has been six months of talking about it with nothing shown yet...no teasers, no renderings or napkin drawings...of course the people still following along are ready to finally see a knife. I think we're all just curious to see whether you've come up with something compelling, a Survive knife with a new logo, or something that makes us go

BrfzsmDIUAAu_3d.jpg:large
 
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