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the person just called me and they do have a digital controller for $240.00 more.
 
i have another question -can i cut the O-1 without a bandsaw? can i use a hacksaw? can i use a cut off wheel? what about the other steels. i thought if they come anealed (? ) they are easier to work with. thank you
 
A hacksaw would take forever. The metal cutting bandsaw from Harbor Freight works if you use bi-metal blades and it's pretty cheap. You could also cut steel with a chop saw or angle grinder but those may be less helpful for cutting out blade profiles.
 
for blade profiles i would use the grinder-isnt that the prefered way? thanks
 
I cut the profile out closely with the bandsaw and then take it to the final dimensions with the belt grinder. Bandsaw blades last longer than belts so it is more economical to do it this way I believe. The bandsaw doesn't cut curved lines very well, so I just work it with a bunch of straight or slightly curved cuts.

Here's something else to think about - how are you going to flatten your steel?
All the steel we buy, even precision ground steel is not perfectly flat. Precision grinding only makes it a precise thickness, it can still be bent or wavy. You'll need an arbor press to bend it straight and something flat to sand on like a disc sander and/or a surface plate.
Do get the 1ton $50 arbor press from Harbor Freight. Do not get the disc sander from Harbor Freight... save your money and get a nicer 9" disc sander somewhere else like Beaumont Metal Works or build your own. Get a 9"X12" surface plate from Grizzly. You could just use any flat piece of granite but the surface plate is pretty cheap and it's really heavy and precisely flat. I use mine constantly. This isn't the intended purpose of a surface plate. They are made for measuring but they work great for flattening.
 
I've not had too many problems with my O-1 being out of flat. Yeah, when shipped in 3 foot lengths, you may have a bow to get out. A flat surface (like Rugar suggested) and sand paper can help, I usually just flatten against the platen on the grinder if there is any that needs to be done.

I don't have a band saw, and it would take an eternity to cut out with a hack saw, so I use an angle grinder from Sears. I scribe out the pattern, cut away the bigger chunks using a metal cutting wheel in the angle grinder, and then switch to a grinding wheel in the angle grinder to get closer to the layout lines. From there, I go to the belt grinder to finish up. It's messy and loud, but it works.

Oh for the day that I can have a metal cutting band saw and a KMG!!

--nathan
 
well im waiting on my kmg-do i still need to get that 1 ton arbor press? I have a 6 " disc grinder attached to my 1x42" delta beltsander-will that due? I also have a piece of marble/granite about 2ft by 2ft. what do you think? If i layed the piece on the marble then i would just look for which part needed sanding to level it? or with the kmg platen i would just lay the hole knife blade flat until it was even? the 1 ton arbor press seems very focal you would have to get lucky it seems, but i dont know. tell me what you think ..thank you
 
Nothing in the world is perfectly flat. But at some point things are flat enough.
The surface plate is accurate to +/- .0005 so it's very close to perfectly flat.
To measure flatness, you use a precision straight edge. Those are cheap from grizzly as well. Get one.
You can get pyroceramic platen backing material that will improve your KMG's flat platen. I've heard it's possible for that stuff to shatter and injure you. But I use it and it hasn't caused me any problems.
http://home.comcast.net/~eellis2/EllisCustomKnifeworks/ceramicplatenliners.html
 
marekz said:
well im waiting on my kmg-do i still need to get that 1 ton arbor press? I have a 6 " disc grinder attached to my 1x42" delta beltsander-will that due? I also have a piece of marble/granite about 2ft by 2ft. what do you think? If i layed the piece on the marble then i would just look for which part needed sanding to level it? or with the kmg platen i would just lay the hole knife blade flat until it was even? the 1 ton arbor press seems very focal you would have to get lucky it seems, but i dont know. tell me what you think ..thank you
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You use the arbor press with a jig, commonly referred to a "three brass rod" jig. You make the jig yourself. Run a search to find pictures of other peoples jigs.

Your piece of marble is probably fine. When you start sanding, the high spots will get scratched first before the rest of the surface. You can see the fresh shiny scratches. If you want to get it very flat, keep sanding untill the scratch pattern covers the whole surface. Start with very coarse sandpaper and then progress to higher grits.
If you have some really tricky spots that require a whole bunch of sanding... and you're brave, just use the wheel to sand off the peaks of the high spots. It's pretty easy to screw up. I do it with a 400grit belt early on in the flattening process. You kind of have to know what you're doing before you try that.
 
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can anyone tell me how to navigate through the bladeforum to find people who sell steel--aldos and kelly cupples were mentioned ---thank you m a r k
 
marekz said:
the person just called me and they do have a digital controller for $240.00 more.
Click to expand...

Digital controls are available through Pottery supply houses.
http://www.nmclay.com/ has them for $197.00.
This is not much more than you quoted and yours is installed.

As far as slow heating goes, this is not a problem as most manufacturers reccomend slow heating at least for higher alloys.
 
Got a Grinder, ordering some 1084 from Aldo. Then its time to learn how to do this!

Patrick
 
cut the profile out closely with the bandsaw and then take it to the final dimensions with the belt grinder. Bandsaw blades last longer than belts so it is more economical to do it this way I believe. The bandsaw doesn't cut curved lines very well, so I just work it with a bunch of straight or slightly curved cuts. I COPIED THIS TOP PART FROM THE STATEMENT AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE--SORRY DIDNT KNOW HOW TO QUOTE



ill be getting some 1084 from pops--pops is getting it around the same time as the other 1084--in august, but i was thinking--why not just start off using O-1? wouldnt that be fine.
can someone do profiling on a blank with a horizontal/verticle metal cutting bandsaw- it would seem difficult. After i cut the piece im working on --say 9", on a 2" wide piece of metal thats 3/16th thick----i need to profile out the blade, so instead of wasting belts on the grinder i would use the bandsaw as stated above. so im just wondering if the horizontal/verticle harbor freight will allow me to do that. i guess i would have to profile in the verticle position--right. I dont want to buy this bandsaw if its not gonna do what i need. any suggestions--thanks mark
 
You're not going to have a lot of luck profiling close on the saw. You'll be using belts for much more than just grinding, so don't worry too much about wasting the. Save your coarse belts after they get on the dull side and you can profile with them. If you're ordering from Pop's, just pick up a couple of the blue AO/Zirconia 60 or 80 grit belts for a couple bucks each and use those for profiling.
 
I use the HF metal cutting bandsaw with a bi-metal blade. The blade isn't perfectly perpendicular to the table and that's the main thing that limits how closely I can cut to the final dimensions. I cut it within 1/8" - 3/16" in most areas.
 
I'm a new guy at knife making as well. I have been ordering O1 from flatground.com and have been very happy with it. I got one piece of ATS-34 from admiral and it was a pain to work with. Looks like they cut it with a sheer that seems to roll the edge. It was hard to fix and took alot of time. Won't use them again soon. I built a Jim Lively coal forge for the O1 and have been very happy with the results. I like making my knives completely by hand myself. It just does somethin' for me!

My mistake....I actually built a "Tim Lively" Coal Forge. I works very well and I also enjoyed watching his knife making tutorial. Look at his site. There was a link that showed how to build the forge there. It's livelyknives.com ....
 
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O-1 bar is precision ground and it will be a lot different than hot or cold rolled steel, no matter how it was cut. The thing is, you pay a serious premium for precision steel and some folks just don't need it. My knives don't usually depend on the edge of the bar, so the condition of it has no impact on what I'm doing.
 
B.V. --how difficult was it for you to heat treat the O-1 with a forge. I really want to get a forge ( build one) and i intend to use O-1 as my starting steel-----i want to use it until i am proficient with it. so i need to decide wether to get a heat kiln to treat the blades or a forge. Im thinking in the long run there are just some steels that you really cant treat in a forge-so if i stay away from those steels a forge would be fine--but do i want to limit myself. I dont know -im so on the fence between a forge ( which i really want and will end up getting in the future regardless ) or a heat treating kiln.
 
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