What part of knife making do you like the least?

As I don't make sheaths, i will go for hand sanding for the win. :D
 
Ordering belts.

Never gets easier. Always feel like they don't last long enough.

I hate grinding belts.
 
Maelstrom78 said:
I don't like doing the final sharpening. I use a KME and it takes a few hours to do and it drains my will to live. I get the edges .10 or lower on all of my edges as well so it's not that they are too thick I think.

http://www.kmesharp.com/kmeknshsy.html

Would something like this DMT bench stone system make it faster? http://www.dmtonlinestore.com/12-Dia-Sharp-MagnaBase-System-P90.aspx

I'm sure the grinder would be even faster, maybe to take the edge down a little more and then use the KME to put an even angle on it.

All of the other stuff I like for the most part. Even the hand sanding.
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Have you tried a Bubble Jig for final sharpening. It takes 5 minutes with a new 120 belt. Its extremely accurate.
We made this video last year, check it out. [video=youtube_share;iFzVjH8DXYo]http://youtu.be/iFzVjH8DXYo[/video]

Fred

Sales is my least favorite part of knife making.
 
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Cutting out blades and springs, yeah I know I could have them waterjetted I just
don't make enough of the same pattern to justify it.
Ken.
 
When I buy blade steel and the surface of the steel is pock marked, pitted, has heavy mill scale vinegar won't remove or has an orange peel surface and I've got to surface the blade blanks. I don't have the equipment it takes for surfacing the blanks and I gotta do it by hand.

Any recommendations on how to handle this with a 1x30 and a 6x48 with a 12" disc on the side, both single speed?
 
ron_m80 said:
Trying to stay motivated while constantly seeing work that far exceeds anything you can do at the moment.

:D
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Ain't that the damn truth. Especially when they're selling their stuff for peanuts(when compared to what it's really worth). There's a few guys on here who sell their stuff WAY low for how good it is, ahem Bailey knives, bacustom. It makes me winder how the hell I'm ever gonna get anywhere with my work. I probably just need to stop looking at the exchange all together lol. It's all really inspiring until I see the low price tag.
 
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Hand sanding without a question. I do a LOT of hand sanding when I make a knife particularly because with my little 2x42 I get bad belt bump on the finer grits if I try to sand out my scratches from grinding the bevel. So I generally get to about 220 and even then I don't get too close to the plunge because the bump can mess my plunges up. So I'm usually doing a lot of hand sanding to get the scratches out. Although I will say I do enjoy doing a hand rubbed finish. So basically anything before like 400 Grit I hate doing lol.
 
Trying to keep all scratches off the finished blade.
 
Up until 2 days ago it was gut hooks. Then I decided to try a hamon and cracked the blade in the brine, then made the knife smaller and now it's hand sanding good enough to bring it out... So yeah hand sanding
 
kc custom said:
Cutting out blades and springs, yeah I know I could have them waterjetted I just
don't make enough of the same pattern to justify it.
Ken.
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My Water jet man will Nest a batch of as many different patterns as You want. They don't have to all be the same pattern.
I have a sheet of steel than left Bruno in New Jersey to Mo, where Jay at http://www.waterjettech.com is and then they are going to Paul Bos HT in Idaho and finally home to Papa in Santa Monica Ca. The expensive shipping is the sheet of steel to jay. Then its Priority mail Boxes.
 
Rhinoknives1 said:
My Water jet man will Nest a batch of as many different patterns as You want. They don't have to all be the same pattern.
I have a sheet of steel than left Bruno in New Jersey to Mo, where Jay at http://www.waterjettech.com is and then they are going to Paul Bos HT in Idaho and finally home to Papa in Santa Monica Ca. The expensive shipping is the sheet of steel to jay. Then its Priority mail Boxes.
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IIRC Aldo's son is doing water jet now. Might knock out one link in the chain. FYI.
 
For me its surface grinding and gluing.

I don't think I've ever had a pain free glue up. Something always goes wrong. There's always one pin that won't fit, or you break your scale trying to push a pin through because in the 30min since you drilled your hole with your oversized, .257 #F bit, its managed to somehow shrink to .240....or you get epoxy all over the blade, or you drop your glue covered scale on the floor and like a piece of toast it falls face down.... or you pop a glove, or you over clamp and the front of your scale pulls away, or your blade rusts out WHILE you are gluing, or you run out of clamps, or q-tips, or paper towels, or acteone, or all of them at once. Or you have a perfect glue up, clean everything and let it dry and the next day when you check on it, you find the epoxy monster has come and taken a dump all over the front of your scales.... :o


Surface grinding takes forever and its very difficult to get the blank flat on a 2x72. I have a dedicated surface grinder but its slow as hell and just generally sucks to use. I still need to convert it to run belts.
 
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