What tools, products or practices do you wish you implemented or known about sooner?

Steelhog

Steelhog

Joined
Jul 2, 2009
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Recently I got a swag table/portable band saw and some surface conditioning belts. These items were such a huge improvement for me in efficiency and end product I started to wonder what other items are huge game changers that other have experienced. Outside of the obvious 2x72 and HT ovens what tools, products or practices do you wish you had implemented or known about earlier?
 
I was going to make a similar post..... What our favorite "non-knifemaking" knifemaking tools/items are?

*I absolutely agree with the portaband saw. Love it!!! I wish I bought one ages ago. I made my base/table for it though. My fil has the swag one. I still need the foot-switch. I use a hand clamp.

*My next suggestion would be a moffatt shop lamp. It's Amazing, American Made. We have some at work that are older than me, I bet.
It's probably my favorite thing in my shop.... seriously. I'm wanting to buy their similar magnifying lens/lamp too.

*I really like having a extended drillpress table. Mine is just a plywood board. But I use it all the time as a taller workbench, and I might buy, or make something nicer with a hold down slot.

*I've got a router table built into my table saw, and that is handy with it's cast iron top. It's flat, and magnets stick to it.

*Tall cheap barstool. It's a piece of **** but I put my water bucket on it, and it's the perfect height.

*Bosch worksite radio. It's portable (kinda) loud and booming for when I am streaming music. and dancing in the shop

*Klein digital angle/protractor

*Digital caliper

........ I'll add more.
 
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Kool-mist setup
variable speed
disc grinder
metal band saw (SWAG table and a used Milwaukee Porta-band is a great combo).
Granite surface plate
Good LED lighting at 6500K

My most important suggestion for something you will realize you need as soon as you start getting the hang of knifemaking is SPACE. Make your first shop three times the size you think you need. That way it might last a couple years before it seems too small.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Kool-mist setup
variable speed
disc grinder
metal band saw (SWAG table and a used Milwaukee Porta-band is a great combo).
Granite surface plate
Good LED lighting at 6500K

My most important suggestion for something you will realize you need as soon as you start getting the hang of knifemaking is SPACE. Make your first shop three times the size you think you need. That way it might last a couple years before it seems too small.
Click to expand...
Stacy would you mind expand a bit on the Kool mist system and the disc grinder? How you use it and if there is a maker/manufacturer you recommend.
 
Crag the Brewer said:
I was going to make a similar post..... What our favorite "non-knifemaking" knifemaking tools/items are?

*I absolutely agree with the portaband saw. Love it!!! I wish I bought one ages ago. I made my base/table for it though. My fil has the swag one. I still need the foot-switch. I use a hand clamp.

*My next suggestion would be a moffatt shop lamp. It's Amazing, American Made. We have some at work that are older than me, I bet.
It's probably my favorite thing in my shop.... seriously. I'm wanting to buy their similar magnifying lens/lamp too.

*I really like having a extended drillpress table. Mine is just a plywood board. But I use it all the time as a taller workbench, and I might buy, or make something nicer with a hold down slot.

*I've got a router table built into my table saw, and that is handy with it's cast iron top. It's flat, and magnets stick to it.

*Tall cheap barstool. It's a piece of **** but I put my water bucket on it, and it's the perfect height.

*Bosch worksite radio. It's portable (kinda) loud and booming for when I am streaming music. and dancing in the shop

*Klein digital angle/protractor

*Digital caliper

........ I'll add more.
Click to expand...
On my porta band I use a zip tie on the trigger and have it plugged into a light bar. Its the only thing on the light bar so I use the switch on the light bar for on and off. Has worked very well for me and the way I work probably better than the foot switch.
 
Given my limited drawing skills I'm glad to have Adobe Illustrator. I can make and tweak designs, save them, print them as patterns, and modify them in future projects, stretching in one or more dimensions or scaling up or down.
I'm doing a Bowie guard right now and when John White did it in his WIP, he used the trick of folding a piece of paper in two directions and then only drawing a quarter of it. This works if your folds are square. I did mine digitally and then went back to overlay where the tang and ricasso should line up. After scribing the lines I can file along them. The second image shows using the reflection to keep the file straight. The last shows it after bluing. I'm happy I got a very tight fit on this one.
Guard_design.jpg
Guard_mirror.jpg
Guard_black.jpg
 
There are many threads on the Kool-mist system and using it. It keeps the knife blade and grinder belt cooler and lubricated. If you grind post-HT it is almost a necessity. Use the Custom Search Engine in the stickys to find threads about Kool-mist. The name brand Kool-mist is more expensive, but the low price Chinese knockoffs all over ebay and Amazon are pretty much just as good. I do recommend using the Kool-moist lubricant #77. It seems pricy, but a gallon will make 30+ gallons of spray mix. A reasonable size air compressor that delivers 100-120 PSI is needed to properly run a mister. A mister can be moved from machine to machine if needed, because many have a magnetic base. They are good on all types of grinders, mills, drills, etc.

A disc grinder is amazingly useful for getting flat bevels on kitchen knives. They are also wonderful for getting perfectly flat or beveled ends on scales. A tilting table and a Wixey digital angle gauge can make setup simple. I still like to use a calibrated flat edge right angle square to check for a perfect alignment of the table. A set of three ranging from 3" to 6" is less than $50
VS and reverse are the way to go. A good 9" disc grinder will cost around $700-1200 depending on your sourcing abilities and what features you want. They are mostly used with the disc vertical, but I really like it horizontal for working bevels. I have both. Beaumont and Tru-Grit are two popular brands offering complete units or just a chassis.
 
Horsewright said:
On my porta band I use a zip tie on the trigger and have it plugged into a light bar. Its the only thing on the light bar so I use the switch on the light bar for on and off. Has worked very well for me and the way I work probably better than the foot switch.
Click to expand...
I imagine your way is cleaner not having debris falling on a foot pedal, not to mention dealing with moving it around and tripping on it.......

And a little more professional looking compared to my "switch".
 
To expand on the kool most suggestion, even if you don’t want or have the means to run a mister get a gallon of the lubricant to add to your slack bucket or whatever water you dip your blades into. I use a 55 gallon trash can under my grinder and on carbon steel you’ll get flash rust even if you wipe things dry, added about a quart of the kool mist concentrate and no more rust on carbon steel blades.
 
Dial calipers
Number drills
decimal equivalent tap drill charts

$50 knife shop is garbage, it's not a beginner book.

Variable speed

graph paper

stock reduction vs forging

portaband vs the HF bandsaw
The HF style bandsdaw is $400 here now and it's still nfg
 
All the things everyone else said plus:

-leaf blower: It's way faster than sweeping, and mine runs off the same battery pack as my weedeater, pole saw, and hedge clippers.
-carbide faced file guide
-foredom rotary tool
-jeweler's bench pin
-jeweler's saw
-optivisor
 
Travis Fry said:
All the things everyone else said plus:

-leaf blower: It's way faster than sweeping, and mine runs off the same battery pack as my weedeater, pole saw, and hedge clippers.
-carbide faced file guide
-foredom rotary tool
-jeweler's bench pin
-jeweler's saw
-optivisor
Click to expand...
I'm thinking of a pendant style carver instead of a dremel.
In your opinion, how do you like yours?
I know foredom's are the big name..... But I'm just curious about the style
Is it strong enough for light steel grinding, too? Like for cleaning up smaller radius?
 
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