- Joined
- Feb 22, 2016
- Messages
- 1
I am new to the forum as a member. I have been here before just never registered until now. I have been in the CNC Waterjet business for the past 19 years now and during that time I have waterjet cut thousands of knife blanks for customers. I am not a knife maker, not because I don't love the idea of making knives, but that I am just way to busy to take on a new hobby in my life at this point.
I own and operate Accurate Waterjet in Phoenix, AZ and since I have cut knife blanks for a number of customers of all sizes over the years that wanted blanks from all kinds of materials. While not a knife maker I am a craftsman that appreciates the effort and thought that goes into a good knife and will take the time to lay out the patterns so that the nests will give you the absolute maximum yield to reduce you material costs. I take great pride in my nesting skills and will challenge anyone to nest tighter than I do. So, far no one has taken that challenge and proven me wrong, but someday they probably will.
I had a customer that I worked with for years (who unfortunately passed away a few years ago) that I cut thousands of knife blanks for from a proprietary Titanium blend as well as A2 tool steel that he turned into knives for SEALS and other SF units around the world. He made some very high quality knives and my favorites were always the Ti knives. My biggest regret was that I didn't buy back a few of the knives he had completed but I just didn't feel at the time that I could afford to buy any $500+ knives just to look at. Now I doubt you could find many of them for sale and if you did I imagine they would be even more expensive. I would also question if they were really his knives anyway as there is a company that took over his product line and sell them under the same name but cost more like $50 so I know they are not much of a knife as the material cost more than that for the original knives.
At one point we even made divers knives from fiberglass, which if you have ever had one is very impressive. Fiberglass can be ground to a very sharp edge and it really doesn't seem that sharp when dry but once you get it in the water and it gets wet it is like a razor blade. However after the airport security changes we quit making them because if they got into the wrong hands they could easily get past a metal detector.
So if you build really impressive knives and would like to trade some cutting services for a finished knife I would certainly entertain the idea.
We do have a shop minimum of $75 for any job but since we do design work and programming at no charge on any reasonable sized order I don't think that is out of bounds. I have dozens of different knife designs but they were all drawn for customers and I do not share customer files with other people so it you want something build and don't have a file you can send me a picture, tracing, sketch or whatever and some dimensions and I will be happy to sketch up a file for you.
Over all of the blanks that I have cut the average price runs about $10 however some small folders will only be $6-7 and some large 10-12" blades could cost $11-12 but gives you a general rule of thumb to follow. We will often cut the handles from different materials with the holes to match the hole in the knife for easy attachment. We have cut all kinds of materials including, wood, plastics, fiberglass, kevlar, carbon fiber and other metals.
I own and operate Accurate Waterjet in Phoenix, AZ and since I have cut knife blanks for a number of customers of all sizes over the years that wanted blanks from all kinds of materials. While not a knife maker I am a craftsman that appreciates the effort and thought that goes into a good knife and will take the time to lay out the patterns so that the nests will give you the absolute maximum yield to reduce you material costs. I take great pride in my nesting skills and will challenge anyone to nest tighter than I do. So, far no one has taken that challenge and proven me wrong, but someday they probably will.
I had a customer that I worked with for years (who unfortunately passed away a few years ago) that I cut thousands of knife blanks for from a proprietary Titanium blend as well as A2 tool steel that he turned into knives for SEALS and other SF units around the world. He made some very high quality knives and my favorites were always the Ti knives. My biggest regret was that I didn't buy back a few of the knives he had completed but I just didn't feel at the time that I could afford to buy any $500+ knives just to look at. Now I doubt you could find many of them for sale and if you did I imagine they would be even more expensive. I would also question if they were really his knives anyway as there is a company that took over his product line and sell them under the same name but cost more like $50 so I know they are not much of a knife as the material cost more than that for the original knives.
At one point we even made divers knives from fiberglass, which if you have ever had one is very impressive. Fiberglass can be ground to a very sharp edge and it really doesn't seem that sharp when dry but once you get it in the water and it gets wet it is like a razor blade. However after the airport security changes we quit making them because if they got into the wrong hands they could easily get past a metal detector.
So if you build really impressive knives and would like to trade some cutting services for a finished knife I would certainly entertain the idea.
We do have a shop minimum of $75 for any job but since we do design work and programming at no charge on any reasonable sized order I don't think that is out of bounds. I have dozens of different knife designs but they were all drawn for customers and I do not share customer files with other people so it you want something build and don't have a file you can send me a picture, tracing, sketch or whatever and some dimensions and I will be happy to sketch up a file for you.
Over all of the blanks that I have cut the average price runs about $10 however some small folders will only be $6-7 and some large 10-12" blades could cost $11-12 but gives you a general rule of thumb to follow. We will often cut the handles from different materials with the holes to match the hole in the knife for easy attachment. We have cut all kinds of materials including, wood, plastics, fiberglass, kevlar, carbon fiber and other metals.