Need advise for investing in tools.

J

jmar595

Joined
Apr 1, 2007
Messages
84
I will have $200 to invest in tools for this. Right now, I have a 4" vise, files, a dremel tool, some ( a few) clamps, a bench grinder (can't use very well, can't see where you are grinding as you are grinding it), about 4 knife scales, and two blades. I am looking at buying an angle grinder, belt/disc sander, drill press, a few leather stamps (already have 6), maybe a few more clamps, bits. Is there any tool that would be the most imprtant, or anything I am not thinking about? I hope to be able to get this stuff. I am working my first knife now, gonna take a little while to complete, but I know this is something I want to do. I also want to learn heat treat, and forge (gonna be a little while before I can do that, need to find an anvil). Any special things I could keep my eye out for for these?
 
You're definitely on the right track, as far as I'm concerned.

You should be able to score both the angle grinder and the drill press for your $200. Those are the big ones. (I'm not convinced that you really need a metal cutting bandsaw when you've got an angle grinder with cutoff discs.)

After that you gotta start saving for your belt grinder ($500 or so for a Coote).

Good luck, and good on ya for thinking carefully about it!

Mike
 
If I were you, I would get a drill press and then focus on a belt grinder. In my opinion, the drill press and the belt grinder are definitely the most important machines in the shop. You can basically make a knife with them combined.

Good luck, keep an eye out on ebay.

Alex
 
After I came back from the Blade show this year, I realized how many good people make bad decisions when exploring a new hobby. Take your time and talk to as many people as you can. If your looking for a drill press or a belt grinder find people that are close to you and ask to use there equipment, its just like test driving a car, find the right tool for you, and only cry once. The tools that you bring into your shop are a reflection and an extension of yourself.
 
i make most of my knives with my home made 12" disc and belt sander that works just fine for me. the combo disc-belt sanders are ok but having a sander with a soft contact wheel is a must since the hard wheels on most of these sanders are of no use for knifemaking due to the bounce you get from the belts seam. its almost impossible to do a good job when you cant hold the blade against the wheel. the soft contact wheel allows blending of lines when necessary and aids in removing grindlines. a small drill press is all you need too. i hardly use the one i have though. spend some time looking through the forums and do some reading. there's plenty of good info to be found here.
 
Been looking on ebay, some decent ones. Also have been thinking about making a grinder/sander. I have The $50 knife Shop, it shows ways to make some. I could get a lot more powerful motor for that too. I think I will get a drill press and angle grinder. I am also trying to find a bulk supply for epoxy. I am going to get some brass pins and mosaic pins, maybe some thong tubing, more sand paper.
 
In my opinion The first thing to consider is the type of knife you will be making. Do you want to hollow grind flat grind or convex grind? If you want to flat grind or convex grind you cand do that with simpler cheaper tools. If you want to do hollow grinds than you will have to have a good belt grinder Period! I do not like hollow ground knives and I feel that the hollow grind is going to keep slipping into ill favor. But as for the other types you can use a bench mounted belt sander from Lowes and be work on your skills for the next year and only be out $100 As for the drill press it can also be a buffer until you get one of those. Besides if you stop trying to make knives the drill press will always be a handy tool. I would sugest also getting the book how to make knives with sectins about Loveless and Moran and how to make a knife with hand tools only. A hacksay and some files realy can go along way. As for the smithing If you want to do that I would be happy to let you know who to get what you will need for cheap. I forge knives and have a meeager shop check out my site crumpsforge.com
 
And yet another aspiring knife maker succumbs to TAS*.

TAS is an insidious disease and there is no known cure... I know, I've been aflicted with TAS for a few years now


*TAS = Tool Aquisition Syndrome
 
I would very much like to forge, but the cost of a good anvil and other items hinders me from this right now. Steelshaper, nice site. You do what I wish to do some day. I want to paint and make knives and various other things. Yes, please let me know where to get forge items cheaply. TAS better not be curable, I like it. Went to Texas knifemakersupply, I want the grinder they have on their site, $2600 though. Be a long while before that one could ever happen.
 
The great thing about forging is you can practice on scrapyard steel such as saw blades, old files, springs and get this steel cheep actual using scrap you can make some nice knives. As for the forge I mostly use a coal forge I made and get coal wherever I can find it. If you cant find coal you can use charcoal brickets like you would use grilling. You should be able to get the cross pein hammer at H.D. or Lowes for $10. The anvil thing is tricky as far as getting a realy good one cheep good luck but the knife making anvil for $100 on ebay is Ok. I got one to try it out my anvils are all old but again looking in junkyards and yard sales in the rural areas you may get lucky and find some stuff you could improvize with. Grizzly has a 55 # anvil for $57.95 that could get you started. I was considering making some small coul forges I could make a simple on for about $60. good luck
 
First, do NOT use charcoal brikets to forge with, they're mostly saw dust, and they've got toxic chemicals that can make you quite sick when you cook them at forging temps. Second, the "$100 knife making anvil" on ebay is a piece of crap and not at all worth the money. All it is is a person going to harbor freight and buying the anvils to sell them on ebay at a higher price with a large fixed shipping cost that's non refundable. They're soft faced, poorly surfaced, have unuseable horns, and by the time you're done grinding it down you've spent 50$ in flapwheel discs and grinding discs to get a useable shape out of it you'll have spent over 200$ for an anvil that still is pretty poor.

The grizzly anvil is even WORSE than the soft cast ebay anvil. Railroad track is better than either of the above options, as it's actulaly hard and will let you get work done on a useable surface. There are a huge number of scrap steel items made out of a hardened tool steel which are far superior to the ASOs.

Here's an anvil MUCH better than any of those, which was just a cutoff which Larry T got and put feet on.

(yes, my shop is a total mess right now with half my tools not even set up for use at the moment, because iv'e been doing a lot of work on the building my shop is in, new door, gutters, etc)

http://www.tharkis.com/images/4140anvil1.jpg
http://www.tharkis.com/images/4140anvil2.jpg


edit: Trimmed the images and resized to get rid of my messy shop from the pics !
 
Got an angle grinder yesterday. LOT MORE POWER! 11,000 rpm sure does things faster. Got some sanding discs for it, and a bunch more sandpaper. Gonna get a drill press today.
 
My suggestion for just starting out is to check out what they have at Harbor Freight. You can find a lot of tools there, may not be the best money can buy, but it will get you started. For $30 you can buy a 1x30 belt grinder. It will come in handy for handles but will work good for beveling your blade. The most expensive part of a belt grinder is buying all the belts. The cost adds up over time. Just my $.02.
 
I am sorry If I was steering you wrong but I was telling you the things I have done. I have never got sick using charcoal but if it can make ou sick than I will stop using it. thats great that you got a angle grinder they are very useful and the drill press will be also. I look forward to seeing how your first knife turns out. And keep looking through this site thereis so much good info and so many helpfull people.
 
Yep, I'm here to stay, this site is great. I have gottne a lot of help from many good people. Look forward to the day I will be in the position to help out with useful info. This knife will take some time, but these tools help cut that down a lot. Need to get better at using them before my blade turns into a toothpick, anyone done that one? It is hard to get a smooth finish on the blade and I get frustrated unless I can get them all out, want a smooth finish. One day I will look back on this and say, stupid rookie. It's fun learning, I am amazed when I see the craftsmanship and detail on many of the knives on here. I think that is why custom knives are growing more and more in popularity, just amazing work.
 
Hey Jmar,

I can kind of relate to where your coming from. I am busy doing my first knife at the moment and have decided to just use the basic tools that I currently have, using knowledge read up on mostly on the internet. I annealed an old file in a barbeque using charcoal brickettes and then covering it over with slate and sand to slow the cooling time right down. I then cut the patterns for two knives ( using hacksaw, angle grinder and finished off with a hand file. The next step is to grind the bevels, which i will again use the angle grinder for. I expect to then use a hand file to finish of the shaping and do the final finish with various grades of water paper, and finish the edge with my Lansky sharpening set. The design is full tang with slightly recessed wooden scales of a wood still to be determined. Obviously somewhere in this process I will need to reharden the steel. The intention is to get it as close to nett final size/shape when this is done so there is not too much work after the steel is hard to work with.

My thinking is that after this exercise I will have a stronger sense of which equipment/ tools are priorities as far as spending money on is concerned. As I want to start using stainless steels for future knives, my current thinking is that a decent furnace is an important investment. That and a belt sander. I think things can go wrong very quickly with power tools, so starting off with hand tools might be a good plan?

Im looking forward to hearing how your first knife(s) go... let us know! Good luck
 
I can't get the finishing on the blade right. Can't get those little scatches out. I hit it with the angle grinder with a sanding pad, then go up the grit sizes and 220 there are still scratches everywhere. Does anyone do blade finishing by hand? If so, any pointers would help me to get past this and on to putting the knife together.
 
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