Newbie questions

[Tracker Scout]

I have played around a little with knife making. I have made my first knife by filing the grinds and shaping with a file, and than heat treating in a make shift grill/hair drier. I have also made a couple blades with a craftsman belt sander. All blades were made with O1 steel. I would like to get a little more serious. What type of grinder and heat treat oven should I purchase, and what is it going to cost me? I just want to play around. Any other ideas would be great.

 

[grawulf]

The first thing anyone is going to say is learn to use the search function. It's kind of buggy sometimes but you should eventually be able to get a lot of info that way.

I think you'll also find a lot of controversy when it comes to your question because there are so many variables. If you want to spend less than $350 there is a grizzly 2x72 belt grinder that's pretty good for starting out. There is another comparable one that's a little more but I don't remember the manufacturer. The really nice ones will cost $1000 plus, and that's BEFORE you buy a motor. You can spend $2000 pretty quickly on a professional grinder setup. The heat treat ovens work pretty much the same way. I first did my heat treating with a cutting torch. I can't refer you to any manufacturers for the oven because I don't have one but for grinders look at Grizzly, Bader, KMG. Others will probably give you more info to research.
-Jeramy

 

[Tracker Scout]

Do the grinders like Grizzly, Bader, KMG have multi sppeds? When I use my Craftman it is too fast, and hard to controll.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Get a variable speed unit (or change the motor).
I would also advise you to get some more experience with blade making.Go to some makers shops,attend a few hammer-ins,etc.That way you will get a feel for what works and what doesn't.Basically you are saying you had a couple of good swims in a pool and are now ready for the English channel.There are a few stages between a Craftsman sander and BBQ forge and buying a Bader and a Paragon.As to the cost,a good grinder and oven will cost several thousand dollars.

 

[grawulf]

Grizzly's grinder- the cheap one- is a single speed. I haven't found any way to change that without altering the unit. Some guys have attached a pulley on the wheel side and connected that to a variable speed motor, but then you're adding at least a couple hundred$$ to your cheap grinder. The above advice about trying things out in other's shops would probably be a great way to get a clearer idea of what you want and how deep you want to get.

I've also heard a lot of people say that they started out using the small bench grinders. I made quite a few blades on a 1x24" belt sander, but it wasn't fun. Probably would have been smarter just to get good at filing them, and then using the sander for finishing work.