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

Sando said:
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!

View attachment 1663586
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.
Click to expand...
That looks like a Doyle vise from HF. If so, how do you like it?

ETA Nevermind I just ordered a Wilton. I'm outfitting a second smaller shop so I didn't bring my other vise.
 
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Sando said:
MiniOak, you've gotten a lot of good advice about starting small. So, you don't need me to repeat it.

* 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.
Click to expand...
+1 on the knife vice and sanding sticks. I don't think there are many makers out there that don't use some version of these.
 
The priority is developing an eye, esthetic judgement.

Look at 10,000 photos of good knives.
Try Coop the photographer's website.

Salem Straub does nice kitchen cutters, there's thousands more. Find your influences.

Handle them if you can.

Go to hammer ins,


If hand filing takes way too long, there's a good chance you're using stock that's way too thick.

Thin is in.

Watch the youtue videos by nick Wheeler on Hand sanding, Salem Straub, Kyle Royer, plus other reputable ones.
Look at the sanding tools and supports like the post above.

Make the sanding board, sanding sticks, knife vise. It is not a waste of time, it's skill building.

Plus go see the Count's sticky thread. Lots of broken links, lots of not broken links.
check out the drawings by the Australian, and Bob ???

sketch on graph paper
show us your sketches

Make models from cardboard, balsa, plywood, playdough, what ever you have.

Show us your sketches.


Tool you underestimate the value of.

Dial caliper.
measure like a machinist, think like a machinist,
If you were here, I'd say in thousandths of an inch, but metric is 0.01 mm
Like

Mitutoyo 505-732​

 
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Richard338 said:
That looks like a Doyle vise from HF. If so, how do you like it?

ETA Nevermind I just ordered a Wilton. I'm outfitting a second smaller shop so I didn't bring my other vise.
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Richard, That's a Yost vice. I just replaced my old HF. I just couldn't stand the slop in the jaws anymore.

BTW MiniOak, a descent 4"+ vice is necessary. If you are sawing or filing you need to clamp down hard near where you're cutting. Amazing how fast it can go.

I'll vote with 01234567890 that a caliper is necessary. You'll use it constantly.
 
MiniOak said:
I just found a 2x72 belt grinder for 1050 usd, it seems legit. 1,1kW 400V 1.5 hp.
Again, sorry for the swedish site. Picture in link.

www.slojdfokus.se

Bandslip BS1 - 1,1kW 400V

Bandslip för slipning i metall. Maskinen levereras med en platt slipplatta. 400V-maski
www.slojdfokus.se www.slojdfokus.se
Click to expand...

That looks like Batkovic from Croatia (my homecountry). Might be cheaper buying from him directly. Another budget option with VFD is Salus Production from Poland.

https://szlifierkitasmowe.com/index.php

Početna

batkovic-alati.hr batkovic-alati.hr

That said, get some half decent hand tools first and just give it a go. Empty your dads/granddads shed and tool box, if they have one. If you are starting for a hobby, dont blow your whole budget on a 2x72. You can start with a 50x1020 (Metabo BS175), there is a very solid choice of belts for it including zyrconium, ceramic, trizact and scotchbrite belts. There is a video on Youtube how to upgrade it with a hardened platen a do a table for it.
 
FredyCro said:
That looks like Batkovic from Croatia (my homecountry). Might be cheaper buying from him directly. Another budget option with VFD is Salus Production from Poland.

https://szlifierkitasmowe.com/index.php

Početna

batkovic-alati.hr batkovic-alati.hr

That said, get some half decent hand tools first and just give it a go. Empty your dads/granddads shed and tool box, if they have one. If you are starting for a hobby, dont blow your whole budget on a 2x72. You can start with a 50x1020 (Metabo BS175), there is a very solid choice of belts for it including zyrconium, ceramic, trizact and scotchbrite belts. There is a video on Youtube how to upgrade it with a hardened platen a do a table for it.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for the links, I've been looking everywhere for something similar. Theres a kit there thats def. in my price range. I just emailed him.

On the subject of the handfiling and such, I will try it out, but the kicker is that my 1500 bucks needs to be spent before the year is out, otherwise my lovely country will mark it as profit and I'll have to tax about half of it.
 
MiniOak said:
Thank you so much for the links, I've been looking everywhere for something similar. Theres a kit there thats def. in my price range. I just emailed him.

On the subject of the handfiling and such, I will try it out, but the kicker is that my 1500 bucks needs to be spent before the year is out, otherwise my lovely country will mark it as profit and I'll have to tax about half of it.
Click to expand...
I have the polish grinder 50x2000 with full kit (2,2kw, big wheel and small wheel attachment), it was about 1100 euro with postage. Its definetly a budget grinder, but massively built and it makes a quick job of grinding. I just upgraded the platen for now.
 
This is a another step up if it is within the budget.

He uses siemens motors and vfds and has nice finishing on the grinder.

Paweł Pruszyński

Paweł Pruszyński
www.beltgrinders.pl www.beltgrinders.pl
 
MiniOak said:
Thank you so much for the links, I've been looking everywhere for something similar. Theres a kit there thats def. in my price range. I just emailed him.

On the subject of the handfiling and such, I will try it out, but the kicker is that my 1500 bucks needs to be spent before the year is out, otherwise my lovely country will mark it as profit and I'll have to tax about half of it.
Click to expand...
That sucks, but that being so the Polish machine looks good.
It looks like you can get extra accessories later, that is good.
This one will come in handy:
www.beltgrinders.pl

Przystawka do szlifierki taśmowej 50x2000

Przystawka z wymiennymi rolkami do szlifierki taśmowej 50x2000
www.beltgrinders.pl www.beltgrinders.pl

The machine, a collection of belts and shipping costs will fill your 1500,-
If you're lucky or can spend a bit extra get the table/small wheel attachment
 
Look, I know you think you want to make knives for ecommerce. Lots of upstarts think the same, but they never get any good advice, so I'll help you out.

First, you go get yourself 500 railroad spikes, a coal farrier's forge, and a 3 lb ball peen hammer, a good pair of vice grips, 500 lbs of coal, and a piece of railroad mainline.

You take those railroad spikes and you start forging them into knifes, one by one. Forge them completely to the final knife shape, none of this sissy grinder nonsense. Keep forging until every spike is a knife.

Then you take the knife billets and you start heating them up until they glow enough to where a magnet doesn't stick to them anymore, and dunk it in the creek. Do this for all 500 of them.

Then, maybe, just maybe, you'll be ready to make a knife worth a darn.
 
Mecha said:
Look, I know you think you want to make knives for ecommerce. Lots of upstarts think the same, but they never get any good advice, so I'll help you out.

First, you go get yourself 500 railroad spikes, a coal farrier's forge, and a 3 lb ball peen hammer, a good pair of vice grips, 500 lbs of coal, and a piece of railroad mainline.

You take those railroad spikes and you start forging them into knifes, one by one. Forge them completely to the final knife shape, none of this sissy grinder nonsense. Keep forging until every spike is a knife.

Then you take the knife billets and you start heating them up until they glow enough to where a magnet doesn't stick to them anymore, and dunk it in the creek. Do this for all 500 of them.

Then, maybe, just maybe, you'll be ready to make a knife worth a darn.
Click to expand...
I am on that route for sure, coal forge and railroad track anvil. But no track spikes, just loads of used harvester saw bars, they harden nicely...
 
Mecha said:
I make sure to forge buck naked, so I can channel the power of barbarian sword spirits into the blade.
Click to expand...

Geeze, I've been doing it all wrong. I'm glad we have you grizzled veterans around to keep us young fellows up to speed on best practices.
 
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