Price check on blank profiles, alternatives?

Josh K

Josh K

Joined
Sep 29, 2008
Messages
10,394
Hey, I'm new, and wanted to ask about getting (custom) profiles cut. I have a design that fits in a 4.4" x 2" box. 10 blanks cut out of 1/8" D2 on a laser runs roughly $35 each. As a less-than-knowledgeable person these blanks in hand look great. They are all consistent, edges are very square, there is no burr to speak of. I sized a hole at 0.25" and my 0.2505" reamer took off barely anything at all.

Two things I'm wondering. First, the heat affected zone sucks. I have a very hard (though very thin) edge and need to get that off. Files won't touch it, so I have some flat stock and 80 grit sand paper working through it. This is taking me nontrivial amounts of time to get through. The other is price. Without having tried to compare anywhere else, is this fairly reasonable? If I put a few different things together I can get as few as 3-4 blanks at about the same price. This makes prototyping without a bandsaw or belt grinder possible with a lower per-cycle investment depending on structure.

I'd love to get the same quality without the HAZ and without changing the price. As far as I understand that means moving to a water jet. Is this possible?
 
Price wise I would expect the price to be much better if it you talked to Jarrod Todd https://www.jarodtodd.com/. He plasma cut, pierced pin holes, surface ground and heat treated about 15 AEBL knives for me and it was closer to $27 a blade. So if you were just getting them cut I would expect the price to be quite a bit better.
 
JT has a new order wizard on his site. One of the options lets you get just cut out blanks. They seemed pretty cheap to me. Check it out.
 
Do you have access to a HT oven? or will you be sending them out?
If you've got an oven, do an annealing cycle when you get them and you should be fine.
 
weo said:
Do you have access to a HT oven? or will you be sending them out?
If you've got an oven, do an annealing cycle when you get them and you should be fine.
Click to expand...
Annealing D2 ? Not easy task my friend , not easy ...............
 
Josh K said:
Hey, I'm new, and wanted to ask about getting (custom) profiles cut. I have a design that fits in a 4.4" x 2" box. 10 blanks cut out of 1/8" D2 on a laser runs roughly $35 each. As a less-than-knowledgeable person these blanks in hand look great. They are all consistent, edges are very square, there is no burr to speak of. I sized a hole at 0.25" and my 0.2505" reamer took off barely anything at all.
Click to expand...
35 $ for one blade ??????????? Why you don t cut them with angle grinder ?
 
I just started an annealing cycle for T1 last night. The pid said it’s a 23hr process lol.
 
Randydb said:
Price wise I would expect the price to be much better if it you talked to Jarrod Todd https://www.jarodtodd.com/. He plasma cut, pierced pin holes, surface ground and heat treated about 15 AEBL knives for me and it was closer to $27 a blade. So if you were just getting them cut I would expect the price to be quite a bit better.
Click to expand...

I'll reach out to them, thanks! I don't need heat treat but edge cleanup and surface grinding would be great.

weo said:
Do you have access to a HT oven? or will you be sending them out?
If you've got an oven, do an annealing cycle when you get them and you should be fine.
Click to expand...

I'm sending them out. I don't have a heat treat oven, or space to get one, or the required talent for working with red hot metal in the shop space I have :D

Natlek said:
35 $ for one blade ??????????? Why you don t cut them with angle grinder ?
Click to expand...

I price checked some D2 flat stock and it would cost me about $14/ea to get maybe four profiles out of it. That's before I factor in the consumables or time it would take me to hit the same starting point as I get having someone else cut blanks.
 
I got my AEBL blanks ht'd by JT and am grinding them post ht. I just dip them in water every pass and grind with no gloves so I can feel the temperature if it starts to get hot. Don't have to send them out for HT then.
I don't know how hard it is to grind d2 post ht but might be an idea to do it all at once.
 
I would say 90% of the blanks we get to heat treat do not have edge bevels ground. D2 is not bad if it has had a proper knife heat treat.
 
Randydb said:
I got my AEBL blanks ht'd by JT and am grinding them post ht. I just dip them in water every pass and grind with no gloves so I can feel the temperature if it starts to get hot. Don't have to send them out for HT then.
I don't know how hard it is to grind d2 post ht but might be an idea to do it all at once.
Click to expand...

I’m working with more rudimentary hand tools so I can’t work with a hardened blank. The 1/64” or so of HAZ is annoying enough as it is.
 
JTknives said:
I would say 90% of the blanks we get to heat treat do not have edge bevels ground. D2 is not bad if it has had a proper knife heat treat.
Click to expand...

For plasma cut blanks without heat treat how big of a heat affected zone is on the edge?
 
Let me recommend JT for profiling and hardening your blanks. Sure, you could do it yourself, but the package price is really good and the HT is spot on. Every blade gets hardness tested and marked. They come back flat and ready to grind the bevels. You can also have him do the tang holes if you don't want to have to drill them with a carbide drill.
 
If you are set up to do multiple blades I would venture you can do hardened blanks. The most you would need to ad is a Kool-Mist system. Most folks are surprised how much time and belts it save in the long run hardening profiled banks.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
If you are set up to do multiple blades I would venture you can do hardened blanks. The most you would need to ad is a Kool-Mist system. Most folks are surprised how much time and belts it save in the long run hardening profiled banks.
Click to expand...

I would need a belt grinder and belts, along with dust management. And talent. :D I’m currently using a set of files.
 
Wow, you have my respect and sympathies ... D2 and hand filing/hand sanding is a real task. When you said you wanted batches of blanks cut, I assumed you were making batches of knives. Nothing wrong with your plan, I just didn't see the comment that you were not using power tools and misunderstood.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Wow, you have my respect and sympathies ... D2 and hand filing/hand sanding is a real task. When you said you wanted batches of blanks cut, I assumed you were making batches of knives.
Click to expand...

I figure having 3-4 blanks cut is economical for the person doing the cutting and gives me room for mistakes, of which I know I'll make plenty. It's definitely giving me a workout, but that's all in good fun. And I don't have the space for a grinder. I may get there sooner rather than later.

McMaster just delivered a 16" file that I can't wait to try out though :)
 
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