What equipment is required to make a knife?

SSonnentag

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OK, lets say someone wants to try their hand at making knives. What equipment should he have on hand? Lets assume this person wants to be able to make top quality products, so if there are varying grades of equipment, lets go for the good stuff. If you can provide an approximate cost of the equipment, that would be nice as well. I've always wanted to make knives, but never had or made opportunity to do it. I'd like to know what I'd be getting myself into.

Thanks,
Shawn
 
files, drill, hacksaw, sandpaper, patience, and the number of a good heat treater
 
Stock removal, forging, or both?

Top quality equipment may make the prcoess go faster, bot nothing is going to beat experience. I'm newbie at this myself but I can guarantee if I went out and spent several thousand dollars on all the best equipment. And gave a seasoned maker a hacksaw, files, and sanpaper they would make a higher quality knife that the one I made on a $2500 grinder.
 
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For stock removal, I'd say (in rough personal order of importance) belt grinder, drill press, bandsaw (wood and metal), buffer, maybe a disc grinder, lots of little c- clamps, a couple of vises, files, sanding blocks, lots of sandpaper, and either a HT oven or that phone number. For a forging setup, all of the above plus a basic propane forge, anvil, heavy vise, hammers, some anvil tooling, tongs, quench tank and oil. And an oxy/ace torch. More forges, power hammers, a press, etc. to make much damascus if desired. This is for fixed blades. A nice thing to have when making folders is milling capability, and a small metal lathe if you can find one.

You did say "set up to make top quality products" and "varying grades of equipment, let's go for the good stuff." Take the above list, or any other list you or someone else comes up with, and use search to find the many opinion and fact threads about what the best equipment is, and then the prices. Kind of a lot to reply to all in one post.

On the other hand, it can be overwhelming to deal with the cost and enormity of setting up an ideal shop right off the bat, and not at all necessary to make some very nice knives, or to learn the craft.

Wnease has a pretty good list, too. Patience may be the most important item of all.

Actually, get all of the books about knifemaking and study those first. That's my list.
 
Thanks for the info, guys. It looks like I could go all manual on the shaping of the steel for $100 or mechanize a good portion of the shaping for upwards of $5000. I'm not looking at getting into forging just yet. I'll stick to stock removal for starters. :)

Next question: How much shop space should I plan for, assuming all the machines Salem Straub listed above, minus any forging equipment?
Shawn
 
Invest in knollege first
Books, DVD's, classes and/or stroll the internet
 
Yes, you can spend somewhere in the range of $23 to $5000. You can also spend just about any amount in between. You also forgot the Benchtop mill and plasma cutter(for cutting slots in guards).

I started at the $200 level and automated quite a bit of the process. Although I learned that you can't beat a file for some tasks.
 
No two shops are the same. Some folks want three high end grinders and a basic drill press, others want three mills and only a basic grinder, and others will have a forge, hammers, anvils, files and stones. Different people operate different ways, and that is part of the fun of it. It blows my mind how many different approaches there are.

I recommend you make a knife or two with simple tools and figure out how you want to go about making knives. Files, hacksaw, drill and sandpaper are all you really need to start. A person could make a fine basic knife in one day with just those tools (minus HT).

As far as a real knife grinder goes, if you are handy and can setup your own with a surplus motor and base, you can get one of the better grinders on the market, the KMG, for a little over a grand. Paul Bos and Peter's HT and others can do your HT, but otherwise an inexpensive HT oven is about a grand. A small drill press and a metal cutting bandsaw are a few hundred each. The rest of the piddly stuff would probably add up to less than a grand and you'd have a good solid basic setup.

If you're into folders, a basic mill, lathe and surface grinder will help and will set you back another 2-4 grand.

All told, you could spend 10K on a "professional" level knifemaker's shop without too much trouble (I know somebody with a six figure shop), but before you get to that point you'd develop some pretty specific preferences of your own.
 
No two shops are the same. Some folks want three high end grinders and a basic drill press, others want three mills and only a basic grinder, and others will have a forge, hammers, anvils, files and stones. Different people operate different ways, and that is part of the fun of it. It blows my mind how many different approaches there are.

I recommend you make a knife or two with simple tools and figure out how you want to go about making knives. Files, hacksaw, drill and sandpaper are all you really need to start. A person could make a fine basic knife in one day with just those tools (minus HT).

As far as a real knife grinder goes, if you are handy and can setup your own with a surplus motor and base, you can get one of the better grinders on the market, the KMG, for a little over a grand. Paul Bos and Peter's HT and others can do your HT, but otherwise an inexpensive HT oven is about a grand. A small drill press and a metal cutting bandsaw are a few hundred each. The rest of the piddly stuff would probably add up to less than a grand and you'd have a good solid basic setup.

If you're into folders, a basic mill, lathe and surface grinder will help and will set you back another 2-4 grand.

All told, you could spend 10K on a "professional" level knifemaker's shop without too much trouble (I know somebody with a six figure shop), but before you get to that point you'd develop some pretty specific preferences of your own.

Perfect answer. I had the exact same question.
 
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