"Must have" tools and equipment?

O

oilburner

Joined
Dec 6, 2009
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I'm new to the whole "knife making" thing, but find myself jumping in head first. I have two knives in the works, both big time learning curves. The first one I've done from an old Nicholson file. The second one I have actually forged out of a jack hammer bit. Don't know if I'm doing things the way real makers would, but I'm doing something anyhow. My situation is this. I have a well equiped sheet metal shop at home, and I work at a forge during the day. I can forge at work, and bring them home to finish them, but I'm looking for missing ingredients... tools and equipment. It would seem that a belt sander is something just about everyone here has, what other "must have" tools to you guys have that you just couldn't do with out. I'm looking for a cheap belt sander (you know, like 2nd hand) but wonder what else I should keep my eyes open for. Thanks for all the advice! Mark.
 
I would not load up on tools until you know more about what type of knives you want to make, the sander will help alot. After profiling and sanding the bevel you can really do everything with files and sand paper. Down the road if you continue you will want tools to help with some tasks and that will be the time to buy.
 
I'm just now starting to get some "real" equipment. Before, though, I cut out blanks with an angle grinder, profiled and beveled with a Harbor Freight 1x30" belt sander with a few different belts form supergrit.com, and sanding drums in a Harbor Freight drill press.

So, I think a bare minimum of tools would be:

Machinist granite plate, $18 from penntool

Various hand tools like drill, hack saw, files, drill bits

Harbor Freight 1x30" belt sander, $39

Harbor Freight angle grinder, $9

What kind of budget do you have?
 
If you don't have a good drill press, I recommend getting one. You can do a lot of work by hand, but your work will be greatly enhanced by the ability to drill straight holes consistently.
 
I have quite the collection of tools and equipment, but for the most part it's geared toward sheetmetal. Englishwheel and planishing hammer, slip roll, box and pan brake, jump shear, I have a Smithy Granite 1324 lathe and mill. A tubing bender, a TIG welder, a couple drill presses, band saw, all the hand tools (grinders/files) you could want, lots of "stuff". It's a complete shop, but most wouldn't be used in the knife making world. I can see a decent belt sander really being needed, but I was looking for more stuff you might use that wouldn't be in just general fab shops, more geared towards just cutlery. I like the idea of the machinist granite plate. A freind at work says he has a small kiln I could bring home and keep for a while, not sure what for really? Anyways, here is a pic of the first one that got the ball rolling and has me wanting more more more.

IMG_3326.jpg
 
granite plate, some form of belt sander or grinder, a bench vise and a smaller drill press vise. I use a large C clamp to hold the drill press vise down wherever I want it on the edge of my workbench, being able to put it in any position on the edge of the bench is awesome. And of course using teh bench vise is for the tougher jobs. Get some leather so you can put blades in the vise while handle shaping and not jack up yer finish.


You can get a 9x12x3 import granite plate for around $25. I use that practically every time I sand something.

And sander that depends on what you are looking at. as far as price.

you have a mill and lathe? you will use those a lot more than you think. I use my lathe a lot also.
 
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oilburner said:
A freind at work says he has a small kiln I could bring home and keep for a while, not sure what for really?
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You can probably use the kiln to do the HT on your knives. Take it FWIW I'm fairly new to this myself and have a few knives in the works, but haven't finished one as of yet. But if you have drill presses and a metal cutting bandsaw you're way ahead of the game. You can basically do everything you need with those 2 things plus some files and sandpaper.

If you don't want to put as much elbow grease into putting the bevels on a kife then get a belt grinder. The good ones are going to be the 2x72 ones. KMG and Bader top the list, but they're not cheap. However you seem fairly handy with metalworking you can build a NWG if you wanted to. Also if you check in the sale section of this site there is a huge thread about a 2x72 grinder. The vast majority of it is about a guy who ripped a buch of people off. However towards the end of the thread a few people pulled together and decided to make plans for one that a member here can cut out for you for less than $300 (no motor though), so you can consider that route. If you wanted to just get a decent little grinder to work with I'd suggest the Craftsman 2x42. I have one and have ground a few blades on it and I don't mind the results I've gotten It's fast,you'll use up belts quicker, and you need to get a feel for it but it's faster than files.
 
some form of carbide centerline scribe to mark your blades for reference when grinding yer bevels.
 
gixxer said:
some form of carbide centerline scribe to mark your blades for reference when grinding yer bevels.
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You don't "need" that. You can use a drill bit.

OP,

Tools that you don't have that are more knife making specific could be:

File Guide
Belt Grinder
Disc Sander that operates at lower rpm's
Fred Rowe's bubble jig

Someone was talking about using a kiln for heat treating a week or two ago. It was said that the kiln need to be modded to heat treat properly. So, if you're borrowing the kiln, it may not work for you. That's OK, because you can outsource heat treating until you can do it on your own. Pete's Heat Treat, Texas Knife Supply, and probably any number of the makers here.

Sheath making tools (leather) are pretty simple and cheap:

knife
awl
large, blunt needles
waxed thread
bone folder
stitch groover
stitch prongs or the wheel type
contact cement
leather
leather dye
gum trag
wax

You'll want to think about sheaths, too. At first, I didn't want anything to do with sheaths, but once I made one, I like doing it.

All the info that you need to get started making knives and sheathes is right here in the Shop Talk forum and the Sheath forum, all stickied at the top.
 
I now recommend that all beginner knifemakers buy a benchtop drill press and a 4 x 6 metal cutting bandsaw, a few bimetal blades for the saw and a set of cobalt bit from 1/16-1/4". A competant shopper can get these items total for $350 or less. Then with that equipment you can build your own belt sander with plans from Tracy Mickley at www.usaknifemaker.com I don't know exactly what the minimum on the no-weld-grinder is, not having built one, but it will teach you the use of the first two tools and then you can get on with grinding. I made many knives with just those tools and a lot of 400 grit sandpaper, for many years.
Thanks,
Del
 
Fletch Helical said:
You can probably use the kiln to do the HT on your knives. Take it FWIW I'm fairly new to this myself and have a few knives in the works, but haven't finished one as of yet. But if you have drill presses and a metal cutting bandsaw you're way ahead of the game. You can basically do everything you need with those 2 things plus some files and sandpaper.

If you don't want to put as much elbow grease into putting the bevels on a kife then get a belt grinder. The good ones are going to be the 2x72 ones. KMG and Bader top the list, but they're not cheap. However you seem fairly handy with metalworking you can build a NWG if you wanted to. Also if you check in the sale section of this site there is a huge thread about a 2x72 grinder. The vast majority of it is about a guy who ripped a buch of people off. However towards the end of the thread a few people pulled together and decided to make plans for one that a member here can cut out for you for less than $300 (no motor though), so you can consider that route. If you wanted to just get a decent little grinder to work with I'd suggest the Craftsman 2x42. I have one and have ground a few blades on it and I don't mind the results I've gotten It's fast,you'll use up belts quicker, and you need to get a feel for it but it's faster than files.
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A front loading kiln is preferable. You don't wanna put any part of your body over the interior of a hot kiln.
 
I'm just wondering how you guys use those big pieces of granite for sanding...

I've seen smaller granite sanding blocks. But now I'm wondering if I need a big granite block.
 
A belt grinder would be my first priority if I were in your shoes. Even aside from knifemaking you might find it useful for the other stuff you do, they are really handy for sharpening any number of things and for general small part fabrication.
 
Mossanimal said:
I'm just wondering how you guys use those big pieces of granite for sanding...

I've seen smaller granite sanding blocks. But now I'm wondering if I need a big granite block.
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Although some peeps use tape, I use 3M spray glue and glue down a whole sheet onto it and actually move the whole piece of steel on it. If I am working on the bevels I lay the whole bevel on the granite with the handle end hanging off and pull. If you do not leave the piece of paper on the granite for 5 days the paper comes right up. More often than not I burn through a whole sheet in under a minute anyhow. When the glue buildup gets to be too much I wipe it down with gasoline to get a clean surface again.
 
Since you already can work metal, you may want to build a welded version of the no weld grinder. It sounds like you would have enough pieces around to accomplish this.

Eric
 
Justin King said:
A belt grinder would be my first priority if I were in your shoes. Even aside from knifemaking you might find it useful for the other stuff you do, they are really handy for sharpening any number of things and for general small part fabrication.
Click to expand...


Absolutely! I built the NWG(with a couple design mods along the way) for making knives but find myself using it on all kinds of general grinding for other stuff. Best investment of time/money i have made in my modest little shop.
Here it is right after i got it built before i got my motor and before my basement became covered in black metal dust!


picture.php
 
Thanks for all the ideas everyone. I'll be making a couple small purchases this week. As far as the grinder goes, last year at a blacksmith's meet a good friend of mine bought a whole box of diff. sized wheels (had to be 20 to 30 of them) to build one for himself and he says come over and take it, take what I need and bring the rest back. I'm getting excited now. That, and my father just brought me back the knife pictured above all polished up so I can start on the handle. I'm going to say that we all probably get a taste of what a crack addict feels like when we get into this stuff. Am I wrong? Mark.
 
Fletch Helical said:
Nope not wrong at all... Wait till you start buying blocks of wood for handle material.
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Yeah, that can become a hobby in itself! I "accidentally" became an exotic wood collector for a few years and built up a modest personal stockpile that I will probably never use all of. I would probably get a bit of stinkeye from my wife if she knew what that pile of wood was worth... Some of it even smells expensive!:eek:
Some of the pieces I have are almost too pretty to cut into. I bought them for knife handles but I can't bring myself to use them. It's a disease...
 
You could fabricate most anything you need with that equiptment.
But here is a bare bones list that I wouldn't be without
-forge-for shaping/welding and heat treating
-files
-drill press
-sanding plates/blocks
-some form of a grinder, even a 1x30, or a 1x42 is useful for at least shaping the handles and doing the final sharpening.
 
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