My introduction

J-siah

J-siah

Joined
Jan 28, 2008
Messages
1,876
I'm pretty sure this is the right forum, as I have questions to wards the end of my post.



I will start by telling you a little bit about my self. My name is Josiah, Gravelle and I live in GR Michigan. I'm 17 years old and I'm turning 18 in two weeks, I am joining the army this July and am going 11b airborne RANGERS, definitely looking forward to that. I grew up a NAVY brat and lived all over the place, and some how we got settled in Michigan :rolleyes:. I am home schooled and am apart of a home school band, I play the tuba. My father has a woodworking shop and quite a few WOOD working tools.


I have been lurking on these boards for a while and recently made an account. I mostly hung around the spyderco forums up until the last week when I started regularly browsing the makers sub-forums. I have to say that I was astonished at some of the craftsmanship I saw here, I have never seen knives as nice as some of the knives I saw here. So as of the last few days I have been looking at how to make knives myself. The other day I made a knife from a file and it was going awsome until I broke it, I now know that I did the heat treatment wrong. So that I will take as educational, and now I look to the future, so here is where the questions come in.

I am looking for inexpensive practice, I have some old John Deere mower blades that I was thinking about practicing on. Does anyone know what these are make of?

Is it possible to over heat the blades before dipping them in oil?

I have been looking for some cheep tools, are there any opinions on harbor freight? I have a friend with a mill from them and it seemed OK, its no a Jet or Powermatic but I seemed like it was worth the money.

Is there a "Best place" to by steel from?


Those are my questions for now, other than that I look forward to talking with you guys about blade Smithing. If you have any questions about me just ask.

Thats it, and my hats off to you guys, you have made some amazing works of ART.
 
Lots of questions
first, welcome to Bladeforums, welcome to the addiction of making your own knives, NOW
read the stickys that are labeled NEWBIES GOOD INFO HERE
seriously there is really good info there on heat treating, steel selection (why you really do not want to be using mystery metal) and a bunch of other good stuff.
Wayne Goddards $50.00 knife shop book is something a lot of people use to get started

Harbor freight tools are cheap crap, on the other hand there are a lot of people who do good work with them, I own a few HF tools, I am fortunate enough to have one of ther stores 5 miles from my house so every time I bought something from them and it was unusable I was able to just drive it up and return it. Grizzly and Jet tools are better, but cost more. There are much better tools available, but the price tags reflect the quality. Get the best tools you can afford, you will be better off in the long run.

Where to buy steel? for beginners I reccomend that you start out with Aldo's 1084, great stuff, forges like playdough, and easy to heat treat, Kelly Cupples is a good second choice for steel supply, Tracy Mickley is good for abrasives, grinder stuff, I believe he sells steel too, Darren Ellis is great for forge parts etc.

Good luck in the army, thanks in advance for your service.

-Page
 
You got most all the answers you need there from Page, but I'll throw a couple more things out there.

Another good source for inexpensive steel is AdmiralSteel.com.

In GR, you're within a reasonable drive of a handful of respectable makers- Kevin Cashen is in Hubbardston, MI. There's a fellow Tim Carr in Muskegon (I believe). I've never seen his work, but he gets lots of respect from the blacksmiths I run around with. In terms of disrespectable makers, I'm down in Spring Arbor (next to Jackson). You can get a lot of teaching out of most guys I've met for the price of a pizza!

Mike
 
Welcome to the forum.

Congrats on joining the Army, have fun in basic and jump school. I'm sure you will learn to love the great state of GA after pushing it several inches toward the center of the Earth. (Just remember, the boot black is our friend, toe up to the cables, coffee and donuts are available every morning in the little White House, there is a reason the harness shed is known as suspended agony, and hit the hole pole man. I know this probably doesn't make a lot of sense right now, but it will.)

Again welcome, have fun, and best wishes.

All the way and a little more,

Bob
 
Welcome, Josiah.
I second Aldo's 1084. It is good starter steel. Forget the mower blades and files.
A HF 1X30 grinder will work pretty well as an introductory grinder.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=34951
The thing you want to get from a good hardware store or machinist supply ( fastenall, McMaster-Carr, etc,) is a set of top grade files.10-12" length, a mill bastard, a double cut, a smooth cut, and a 1/2 round tapered. I would recommend Simmonds or Nicholson files.You can do more in the beginning with them than anything else. The other good thing is that three or four files, a piece of 1X3X16 wood,a sanding block and a stack of wet-or-dry paper, a C-clamp, and a knife blank will fit into a small bag or box. You can then work on a knife almost anywhere.
Stacy
 
Stacy's little box trick is true! I work for a land surveying company so I am on the road from time to time. In a sturdy shoe box I carry a bunch of various grit sand papers, files, c-clamps, a couple blanks, and a small vise that I can clamp to any type of table.

Good luck in the army!
 
Welcome to the forums and the Army. Can't really add anything to what the other guys said.

Bob, you left out the wonderful phrases, beat your face, beat your boots and some others that won't bear repeating in polite company. Feet and knees together and may all your PLF's not be the 3 point kind that I specialized in.
 
Thanks a lot for all the advice, I'm definitely going to make good use of it.

I'm going out of town this weekend, so I won't be able to reply again until tuesday. Just so you guys don't think I'm impolite.

You have got to quite talking about the army, it makes me want to move up my ship date.
 
In the military, don't try to change NOTHIN once it is set up. It will only lead to sorrow. Don't worry, you will get there and start having fun soon enough.

Will, I know I left out a few things, but there is only so much room on the page. Phrases like : "HIT IT!" and "Get your head out of your 4th point of contact!" quickly come to mind. Oh well, it woulda spoiled the fun for us too if somebody had told us ALL about it before we got there.

BTW, you being from AL and me from MS, we may have been in different parts of the same unit for a while.

Take care,

Bob
 
number one thank you for what your doing with going the army god bless you man we need more people willing to protect our freedoms
the habor freight grinder works fine I have had two (get the warrenty) but it doesn't take long before you want a up grade
 
Welcome,tell the 75th I said "hi." I was with the 1/75th on activation day june 1974. Good place to be.
The info here is good stuff.
 
Well I am now looking at tools, this is what I have come up with.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=34951

http://www.grizzly.com/products/1-X-8-Belt-Disc-Sander/H8192

http://www.grizzly.com/products/1-X-8-Belt-Disc-Sander/H8192

any imput would help

I would like some thing like this eventualy but right now I can't justify buying a $400 sander 3 months before I ship to BCT.

$140 is about as hight as I can go on a sander right now.

I will also be looking into a buffer, $30-$40 max. if you have any ideas let me know.
 
Welcome.
Nice to see another aspiring maker here in michigan.
If you are ever in northern mich, stop by and see me.
I would avoid the buffer at this stage, you will learn more without it and if you are not careful it WILL KILL YOU!
Thank you for serving, if I can help you I will.
Thanks,
Del
 
delbert ealy said:
Welcome.
Nice to see another aspiring maker here in michigan.
If you are ever in northern mich, stop by and see me.
I would avoid the buffer at this stage, you will learn more without it and if you are not careful it WILL KILL YOU!
Thank you for serving, if I can help you I will.
Thanks,
Del
Click to expand...

Hi Del!

Pay attention to what Del says about the buffer, it's amazing how fast they will take a blade and throw it, hopefully not THROUGH you, but Del is right A lot of folks get a beautiful finish by sanding, then block sanding, then hand rubbing with a real fine grit.

-Page
 
J-Siah, You will find that this can be a small world. I am in mid Michigan. I am just learning to grind with a 4x36 Ryobi from Home Depot, and some tool steel purchased at a local supplier. Welcome to BF and learn to read fast! (More time for grinding!)
 
j-siah, warning!! you are about to become a HARD-CORE knife making addict!! if you go through with making these first knives you will become a slave to steel! on the happier side what a ride! everybody here is great! what other passion will you be able to get help from truly great craftsmen? none! so jump in and feel welcome! in my humble opinion( im still far from a great craftsman,but working hard at it) instead of spending that money to buy that knife grinding machine. which you will probably find lacking. buy the plans for $25 from tracy mickly at www.usaknifemaker.com and make one for close to the same money. the plans are well made so its fun to build. and as you get better you can add on and it will grow with you. any way thats just my humble opinion. good luck!....willy:D
 
J-siah,
I'd just buy some files and not worry too much about tools.
When you get out of training you should have nice bank unless you're foolish with money. just remind yourself on purchases what you had to do to get that money. DO NOT BUY A CAR FROM A DEALER JUST OFF OF BASE, THEY'RE RIP OFF ARTISTS!!! Buy the nice tools when you get where you're going.

The last teaser I'm going to give you is this, unless things have changed a great deal, when you leave the Jump School barracks to fall in with the RIP instructors, do not, I repeat, do not wear anything on your back. If you carry things, carry them in your hands. You will love having this information if things haven't changed, if things have changed, well you just had to carry a bunch of stuff from the barracks.
 
Well guys, thank you for all your input. Is there a clear winner between the two Grizzlys.


On a different note please stop thanking me for my service. I have done nothing yet, my father and most of my family have served in the military. I do not wish to be thanked like them, I have not been to basic or fought for my county yet and I do not want to be thanked a such.
 
You can also look at the 2X42 grinder from Sears $129 (Craftsman), it served me well until I got a KMG and I still use it occasionally.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top