Need someone to finish blanks

lsheldon

lsheldon

Joined
Jan 2, 2009
Messages
3,143
I want to pick up a couple of fixed blade blanks that are available on that well known auction site, and have someone do the grinding on them, then do the edge work, sharpening and finish work. Also to temper them and fashion some scales out of micarta for me and mount it.

The blanks I am looking at are untempered D2 steel at .25", 10" total length with a 4.5" blade. One would be a tanto type, the 2nd would be a drop point. They list them as testing to a Rockwell hardness of 13 so they would need to be tempered to a RC 58-60 or so.

Can anyone recommend someone or several persons I might approach who does this type of thing? I know it will cost me, but I don't want to pay an ungodly amount to have it done.

I suppose I could try to do the Micarta thing myself, and just have someone do the metal work and tempering.

Anyway, if there are some people with some ideas on whom I could approach, it would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards to all,

Les.
 
I dont have one of the originals to check, but I would think a hollow grind would be appropriate at a .25 blade thickness. But I'm not a knife maker, so I would be open to recommendations.
 
I could do the work for you if you know the steel is D2. You can look at some of my knives here:

knives.caphayes.com
 
Yes, you have some nice stuff on your site. I would be willing to have you look at the blanks, I could email you a link to see them. Then you could give me a quote to do the metal work and tempering and a 2nd quote for the Micarta work. That way I could do the Micarta work myself if the blade work was more than I anticipated.

You could send your email address to me at "les.sheldon@live.com".

I havent purchased the blanks yet, I wanted to wait until I found out if it was cost prohibitive to have this done. I would need to purchase the blanks and then purchase the 3D micarta I want on them.
 
If Cap will do the work for you then that's really cool and I hope pics will be added here. :)

I want to point out though, that what you're asking is just shy of ordering a full custom knife.... which is NOT cheap.

A blank is just the VERY VERY VERY beginning of a knife. Getting a profiled blank is shaving very little work off of the overall product, and a minimal amount for the blade steel.

If someone approached me with this, they would get a quote just a hair under a full start to finish custom.... Like $30 less.

Just so you know... :)
 
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Les, I just re-read my post and it looks kind of "short." I didn't mean for it to, just wanted to give you some insight on the idea. :)

Also, I should clarify my thinking here....

I might have misunderstood, but I read it as though this is just a profiled blade in D2 that's annealed.

IF that's the case, then it will need to be cleaned up on the profile, rough ground, then hardened and tempered, then finish ground, blade finish applied (hand-sanded, sand-blast, etc), guard or bolsters fabricated and installed, and then handle material prepped, fitted, shaped, and finished out.

So see, that's quite a bit of work yet.

Sorry if I seemed curt... just meant to explain a little :)
 
sheldon there are lots of people with web sites Nick is competely correct . You should look before you leap. Its like saying you have a chunk of steel can some one make me a knife. I would also look at a stainless blade over d2 cost is near the same.Cap makes nice knives keep an open mind and let the maker help you make the best of your buck.
 
No worries, I didn't read it as curt. I read it as informative and the information was appreciated. I know that it takes a lot of skill to make knives, and I appreciate that fact. A lot of the knives I've seen on these forums by makers I would classify as art.

I'm not looking for a hand out, and I will pay a fair price for the work. I may not have them both done at the same time, but I want them done regardless. I will purchase 2 blanks in advance so that I have them on hand if it is feasible to have this done.

This is a new area for me, so any and all information I can get is appreciated.

Best regards,

Les.
 
Hey guys, I don't make much money on the knives that I make and no one knows who I am, so I don't get top dollar for the work. I'll charge enough to cover my costs plus enough to get some materials or tools to keep doing what I like to do. I think Les and I will both walk away happy, but I won't be offended if he thinks my deal isn't fair. The thing about custom knives and custom work is that there's not really a blue book for most of it.
 
NickWheeler said:
I want to point out though, that what you're asking is just shy of ordering a full custom knife.... which is NOT cheap.

A blank is just the VERY VERY VERY beginning of a knife. Getting a profiled blank is shaving very little work off of the overall product, and a minimal amount for the blade steel.

If someone approached me with this, they would get a quote just a hair under a full start to finish custom.... Like $30 less.

Just so you know... :)
Click to expand...


I was thinking the same thing. A profiled blank is the easy part.
 
AcridSaint, more power to ya for helping this fellow out.

Isheldon, with all due respect, you're making this way more complicated than it needs to be. Nick and Nathan are right, you'd be better served just ordering a custom. You'd have far more options, and the cost difference will be made up in the shipping back-and-forth.
 
There really won't be any cost difference since you're paying for a blank anyway. Why not just buy that from the maker too? That way you can get it exactly the way you want it.
 
Hi Guys - Les and I have worked something out. In my opinion there is a difference between grinding a blank and designing one from scratch. Part of what you're paying for in a custom is the maker's "vision". There are a lot of makers out there who grind knives for other people or companies and they do it for less than what they charge for their own work.

In my view, the customer wants a custom look on a particular style of factory knife - we always say there's more than one way to skin a cat, I guess the same should apply to knife orders. Who knows, maybe later Les will want a custom and we'll have built enough of a relationship that I'm the person asked to do it.
 
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