New Here - Need Your Opinion!

[claybuster5]

Please don't judge me, I am NEW
Hello, I just recently started looking into knife making and thinking I should start with knife kits, then use blanks, then go all out. Also I need your opinion on what to get, I also have a couple questions.
1) What grits and type of belts do you use on micarta and g10?
2) Do you need a full face respirator or can I just use a half piece with safety goggles.

Here is my plan for a setup let me know what you think!:
Belt Sander: http://www.harborfreight.com/1-inch-x-30-inch-belt-sander-2485.html
Drill Press: http://www.amazon.com/3320-02-120-V...SS0W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353270132&sr=8-1
Respirator: http://www.amazon.com/3M-6391-P100-...ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1353270186&sr=1-1
Glasses: http://www.amazon.com/Uvex-S3970DF-...ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1353270275&sr=1-1
And I will get the kits from knifekits.com and the belts from supergrit when I know which ones to get!

Thank you for your time!,
Patrick

 

[james terrio]

Welcome! You have a good plan. :thumbup:

A half-face respirator and safety glasses will work well. Micarta and G10 can be ground with the same belts you would use on steel. Don't lean into them when rough-shaping, G10 especially can scorch badly when it gets too hot.

Supergrit and TruGrit are good sources. Don't waste money on cheap AO belts. Go for ceramics, they last a lot longer. I use mostly Blaze and Cubitron (whichever is on sale, they both work great) in 50 grit for hogging, and A45 Trizacts to clean up. There's really no need to step through every grit available when grinding.

You will outgrow that 1x30 grinder very quickly. A Craftsman 2x42 is a better choice, and still pretty cheap. There are vids on youtube showing how to tweak it for better performance and convert it to run 2x72 belts. The drill press you show is probably fine.

Buy the best drill bits and files you can find, not cheap imports.

 

[claybuster5]

Thank you so much! However is there anything better than ceramic belts for just g10 and micarta? I'm not doing anything with metal quite yet. Thanks!

 

[Patrickknives]

Those will work fine on micarta and G10, you do need some rubber gloves, the dust can be quite irritating to the skin. When I do my hand finish sanding I do it over a bucket of water to keep the dust down and off my hands. Makes better use of the sandpaper as well. Also have a plan to clean up the dust from the sander, it goes everywhere. Typically once the G10 and mircarta are cut to size it does not take much effort to shape by hand, you can use the same belts just sand by hand.