• The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
    Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
    Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.

  • Today marks the 24th anniversary of 9/11. I pray that this nation does not forget the loss of lives from this horrible event. Yesterday conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was murdered, and I worry about what is to come. Please love one another and your family in these trying times - Spark

Tool help!!

T

Tayous

Joined
Oct 22, 2001
Messages
47
Ok right now I live in an apartment and in the next month or so we are moving to a townhouse with a basement as you can guess I'm going to set up a small knives making shop down there. I had a lot of the tool back at my parents house thats a nice 2 hour trip for me to make and my Dad is have to much fun with them now so I can't take my tools back(He bought most of them anyway.)

Anyway I was thinking of what I should pick up to start off with I only have about $300 right now to use on tools I have a lot of metal that I packed up with me most of it ATS34,440C and O1 so I have my metal covered right now.

What I want to know what do you guys think I should get I was looking at the knife makes belt sanders and I'm not going to spend $399 on just that(Or should I?) I was also thinking of picking up a small band saw from Grizzly but I don't know if it will do the job of being able to cut the metal. I know to get a filter and a mask so I'm not breathing in the metal but what else should I get. Thanks for the help.
 
Check out Harbor Frieght for a drill press, horizontal bandsaw, and a buffer/grinder. Don't buy any of their blades, sand paper, or sanding belts, they are garbage. Your best bet for a grinder is to buy a big bench grinder,I bought a big buffer grinder from them for $99, excellent tool, or build your own belt grinder. Check out the archives for some good ideas and use the search mode here too. You'll find a table top wood cutting bandsaw handy too. Those are the basics plus some hand tools and safety gear like a respirator, face shield, heavy apron, and welder's gloves. A good dust removal system or a big fan is a must. A good shop vac is nice too. Here are some knife maker's supplierlinks for you to checkout.
http://www.knifeandgun.com/
http://www.jantzsupply.com/
http://www.knifesupplies.com/html/index.htm
http://www.popsknifesupplies.com/grinder.html
http://www.google.com/search?q=knife+making+supplies&btnG=Google+Search&hl=en
http://www.harborfreight.com
Keep checking out the forums and you'll pick up alot of good info for some great folks!
 
I haven't made all that many knives, but I'd have to say you should get a 2x72" grinder and drill press before you buy a bandsaw. Having small belt sander is really frustrating... I used to use a 1x42" (one of the smaller sanders at most hardware stores), and then got a 2x72" grinder. Never want to go back to the 1x42"... the 2x72" makes it so much easier. For a beginner like me, I would suggest you check out the Grizzly G1015 machine. Mine has worked great for what I need it to do. If you are working indoors, make sure no air is getting from the basement to the living areas. My grinder generates huge clouds of dust.
 
I use to have two bench grinders one that was used for grinding the other used for the polishing wheels. I first started out with the bench grinder but I could never get the nice 45 angle down on that.
I may try it once more because I took everything on that bench grinder so I could switch the wheels faster. So I had no guide on it. That might have been my problem.

Also where is a place where you can get stuff to make your own belt sander? I like working with my cheap belt sander I had if it was not getting clogged from the metal it worked well. Thanks for the help I need any info I can get right now.
 
Look in the phone book for a metal fabrication shop in your area. Go and talk to the dude that runs it and tell him you're a beginning knife maker and you're looking for some steel in certain sizes and I bet he'll give you a deal on it. As far as the drive wheel, tracking/idler wheel, and contact wheel, you'll have to go to a knifemaking supplier or straight to Bader. You can scrounge a motor up easily, get atleast a 1 horse and a variable speed dc is a bonus.
If you're a flat grinder, you don't need a contact wheel, just a platent and two small wheels to put on the ends of it or you could rig it up like a grizzly.
 
I'm inventive but I think the wife would go crazy if I made one of thou. Anyway where is a good place to get a belt grinder? I also saw that in the TXknife makers catalog they got that multi-tool thing for your bench grinder has anyone tried that yet?


Also I'm not worried about the metal my Father owns his own Coil making shop so he send's about 10 lbs of any size or shape metal I want. Most of it is stainless.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top