I'll add my 2cents in here as someone who works on a tight budget for knives.
1. Drill press overall quality is not a huge issue starting out, but obviously it has to at least drill straight and without a ton of wobble. Do NOT use it as a sander, you don't want to put sideways pressure on the bearings unless it's actually designed to be used as a milling machine as well. Low speed is all you need, 2 speed, 200 speed, all you care about is how slow it can go. I run my 12 speed harbor freight at the lowest speed it has 95% of the time and the rest of the time I could have but it was more efficient to speed it up.
2. The Craftsman 2x42 is a nice little grinder, but does need a better platen surface and it wouldn't hurt to rebuild the whole thing. Right now my main complaint with it is that any kind of plunge line guide just does not work with it. Very annoying. Otherwise it works pretty well and TruGrit has a decent belt selection.
3. Rough shaping blades and trimming handle material can be done with an angle grinder and suitable disks. I do a rough profile for the steel that way and then later I use it to trim off most of the excess G10 or Micarta. You have to be careful to not trim too close since it tends to slightly burn the surface and you need enough room to sand off the unhappy areas, it's purely to get you closer and save time and belts while minimizing the dust production. I'd love a good metal cutting bandsaw but it's a low priority for now. A 2x72 grinder well suited to knife making and a more capable forge with temp control are much higher priorities.
4. Don't just look at what grits are available for an odd grinder size, make sure the TYPE is appropriate. You get far better life out of the belts that are really designed for hard materials and it's far less frustrating. Being stuck with a lot of belts made for wood is just going to drive you nuts even if they're cheap and available in every grit you can imagine.
1. Drill press overall quality is not a huge issue starting out, but obviously it has to at least drill straight and without a ton of wobble. Do NOT use it as a sander, you don't want to put sideways pressure on the bearings unless it's actually designed to be used as a milling machine as well. Low speed is all you need, 2 speed, 200 speed, all you care about is how slow it can go. I run my 12 speed harbor freight at the lowest speed it has 95% of the time and the rest of the time I could have but it was more efficient to speed it up.
2. The Craftsman 2x42 is a nice little grinder, but does need a better platen surface and it wouldn't hurt to rebuild the whole thing. Right now my main complaint with it is that any kind of plunge line guide just does not work with it. Very annoying. Otherwise it works pretty well and TruGrit has a decent belt selection.
3. Rough shaping blades and trimming handle material can be done with an angle grinder and suitable disks. I do a rough profile for the steel that way and then later I use it to trim off most of the excess G10 or Micarta. You have to be careful to not trim too close since it tends to slightly burn the surface and you need enough room to sand off the unhappy areas, it's purely to get you closer and save time and belts while minimizing the dust production. I'd love a good metal cutting bandsaw but it's a low priority for now. A 2x72 grinder well suited to knife making and a more capable forge with temp control are much higher priorities.
4. Don't just look at what grits are available for an odd grinder size, make sure the TYPE is appropriate. You get far better life out of the belts that are really designed for hard materials and it's far less frustrating. Being stuck with a lot of belts made for wood is just going to drive you nuts even if they're cheap and available in every grit you can imagine.
