New knife maker building his first knife shop, whats my priority?

I, too, have a very small shop, and limited tools. For blade grinding, I use a 2" x 42" belt grinder that I modified to suit my preferences. I send out for heat treatment.
 
You can get away with harbor freight for everything aside from the grinder.
 
Crag the Brewer said:
idk If this has been asked yet....i didn't see it?

Are you talking about making knives as your FULL time job, or just to make knives for fun?

those are probably two separate paths.
alot of us have made knives with close to what you are starting off with.

JUST a file, and sandpaper can do it....... It's just SLOW, and not profitable. Yet still achievable and Fun.
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Im starting a side buisness but it does not need to be profitable in the beginning, it would work more like a hobby in the start.

Yeah the slow method would be hard for me, I mostly only have the evenings to work, children and other work takes the days away. 1 knife would take forever to finish using only files and such.
 
MiniOak said:
Im starting a side buisness but it does not need to be profitable in the beginning, it would work more like a hobby in the start.

Yeah the slow method would be hard for me, I mostly only have the evenings to work, children and other work takes the days away. 1 knife would take forever to finish using only files and such.
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Just try and start with it. Soft steel, sharp file, slow mistakes, it goes better than you think.

show your drawings first.
 
David Mary said:
I, too, have a very small shop, and limited tools. For blade grinding, I use a 2" x 42" belt grinder that I modified to suit my preferences. I send out for heat treatment.
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Could you give me a link to your grinder? Would like to see it.
 
Actually, looking at the 2x72 grinders, the ones I've seen take up some space.. I'll post pictures of my workshop later on this evening, it's a pretty small space.
 
Whatever grinder you get, get it with variable speed.
I didn't realise you are in Sweden.
Over here most grinders are 50 X 2000 with smaller ones 50 X 1000 cm
I have a Claryx and am very happy with, but they are expensive.
Just go and make some knives with hand tools first to get the idea
 
MiniOak said:
Actually, looking at the 2x72 grinders, the ones I've seen take up some space.. I'll post pictures of my workshop later on this evening, it's a pretty small space.
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I also have a tiny and very full shop space. For this reason i went smaller on the grinder as well. I have an 84 engineering 2x48 variable speed grinder(same machine that Alec steele sells).

I did mine on a budget as well so purchased the frame and a 3 phase motor from the supplier here, this costs the same as the single phase/speed. To keep the costs down I purchased a vfd from Ali express for around 1/10th of the price of the suppler here and wired it myself. Simple job and works very effectively.

The perks of decent built for purpose variable speed knife grinder really can't be overstated, they are awesome machines and one of the most important tools in the shop. I would focus my spending on finding somthing decent and work around the other things you need by outsourcing heat treat etc.
 
Since this is a hobby you want to turn into a business in the future, and you only have evenings and days off to work on a project what is your estimated time from start to finish to complete ONE Knife?

"Yeah the slow method would be hard for me"

With your statement above ^^^in order to be fast and efficient and produce a Product people would be willing to purchase requires a larger investment on equipment than you have currently. Knife Making takes time so consider how much time Start to Finish you need, you will figure out that a Good 2 X 72 grinder is the one tool that makes both speed and efficiency the most important tool in your shop.
 
MiniOak said:
Im starting a side buisness but it does not need to be profitable in the beginning, it would work more like a hobby in the start.

Yeah the slow method would be hard for me, I mostly only have the evenings to work, children and other work takes the days away. 1 knife would take forever to finish using only files and such.
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How you know that ? Did you try to make one only with file ? With quality file you can grind bevels / anealed steel of course / pretty fast and accurately .You don t buy grinder and here we are .......i grind on first knife perfect bevels .For some guys take years to learn grinding on belt grinder ,especially if you want to grind free hand . You have good choice/quality of file there , buy several and make some knives .HT is another story ,best is to send them to professional .....
 
Natlek said:
How you know that ? Did you try to make one only with file ? With quality file you can grind bevels / anealed steel of course / pretty fast and accurately .You don t buy grinder and here we are .......i grind on first knife perfect bevels .For some guys take years to learn grinding on belt grinder ,especially if you want to grind free hand . You have good choice/quality of file there , buy several and make some knives .HT is another story ,best is to send them to professional .....
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I made a chisel using a knife filing jig, took some time to get finished, although I must admit that it was alot of other factors other than the filing that made that particular instance a bad time.
 
instead of answering the question "what's my priority" I am going to tell you that your priority should be making knives so that you get better at it. Equipment? Who cares? Use what you have and buy what you need as you need it in order to get and keep going. Leaning on the opinions of a bunch of strangers in a forum to tell you how you should outfit your shop is like asking which girl, (or guy) you should marry. Your time is better spent getting to know him/her, instead of relying on other people's opinions, before you make any big commitments.

for the record, my first few knives were all made with hand tools, and the first couple with a hand drill since I didn't have a drill press. They took a super long time and I learned A LOT about making knives from those experiences.

I don't mean to bust your balls, but this "what should I do" type of thread always winds me up. Be like Nike, and JUST DO IT. You'll come up with a million useful, answerable questions once you get going. I understand there may be some value for a new member of the forum to start a thread like this as a way of introducing one's self, but I think there is more value in reading and researching. But that's just my opinion, so take it for what it's worth.
 
This is just my opinion and just to elaborate on my previous comment a little but all the money in the world does not mean you can make a knife that people will actually want to buy. I started out doing handle modifications to production slip joint knives. My first recover I did with an old ass harbor freight drill press, a hand saw, sanding block, sand paper and a hammer. I was hooked on it right away but that first one was a lot of work so I purchased a few tools that would make the next one a little easier. Coincidentally this new investment in tools improved my work. As my work and knowledge improved I figured out what tools to add next to make my life easier and my work better. It's a process. We can all easily tell you how to spend your money but I guarantee you will waste half of it if you listen to us and don't take the time to figure it out for yourself. There is no magic pill here. You can certainly buy your way into making knives but you can't buy your way into being a good knife maker. That takes experience and hard work and time. If you can't do it with a file I promise you can't do it with $1500 dollars.

I'm a part time knife maker too. I have only been making knives for about a year now. I make slip joints. Not including HT it takes me around 15 hours to make a knife but I don't view a project based on time. I view it based on quality. Being part time implies that your not doing this to put food on the table. If that's the case you have nothing but time to ensure the highest quality of your product. To this day every penny I make selling a knife goes right back into improving my shop. As I make each knife I gain an intimate knowledge of how best to spend my money to make MY process better.

I remember back for many years I knew this was something I wanted to try my hand at but for a long time it seemed daunting because I thought if I didn't have all the tools right now how could I possibly do it and then you look at the cost for all that tooling and it becomes a daunting thought. It's self defeating. Pick up a damn file. Make a few knives the hard way. If you love it when it's hard you'll learn and you'll most likely succeed.
 
I think there is a bunch of great advice in here! As many others' journeys started, I made my first 5 knives with a hacksaw, drill press, files, sandpaper, and dremel (for nail nicks on folders). The nice thing about starting with minimal gear is the sheer joy of upgrading. For kitchen knives, I don't even think you would need a drill press. Just hacksaw, hand drill, files, sandpaper, and the internet.

I like how Lorien put it: Just do it! It is very daunting to start, but go forth and ruin build some knives. You'll get better quite quickly.
 
MiniOak, you've gotten a lot of good advice about starting small. So, you don't need me to repeat it.

Under the theme of getting started ... I thought you might get inspiration from some of the 'tools' I built early on and some I still use 20 years later!

IMG_6406.jpeg
From left to right:

* Shoulder Jig
* A knife vice for holding blade while working on the handle (gets used on every knife)
* A steel bar with a piece of mouse pad glued to it for hand sanding convex bevels
* A piece of wood to hold the knife while hand-sanding, so I don't stab myself
* A piece of glass glued to a board with sandpaper clamps on the ends. Used to sand flat bevels by moving the knife rather than the file. It's also great for sharpening. You can use various grit sandpaper instead of buying multiple stones.
 
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