What's going on in your shop? Show us whats going on, and talk a bit about your work!

Thanks Lo/Rez!

Carbide Edge Friction Folder!

Moonglow Spacer! The Moonglow (Kirinite) is cools stuff, very tough and seems to be close to what bowling balls are made of. It feels rubbery yet is so wear resistant it would "bounce" on the grinder.
Ti screws because they are awesome! Hidden stop pin too... Enjoy the pics..






 
Just got a AMK-77 2x72 belt grinder....... So far so good.... Allen over at AMK is awesome, some of the best customer service I have ever encountered... Trying to figure out this whole posting images thing.... no luck yet, when I can , ill post pics of it and my basic shop..

ALOHA,
Gary
 
Last edited:
Most of today's projects were at the dining room table, as are most of my leather tasks.

Spent the day test driving a Dave Ferry round knife and skiving knife(part of a passaround in "Sheaths and Such"). My own self made round knife on the top right. Mine cuts well, but getting the chance to use it next to Dave's definitely gave me some insight on where mine can improve.
ezzdc2s.jpg


Chris
 
Daniel Rohde said:
Those are cool! how did you sand the interior of the large circle?(finger hole thing)
Click to expand...

Thank you my friend! My tools are a bit limited as of now so the ringed holes start from a 3/4" hole saw on the drill press at abiut 140rpm, then I finish it up by hand with sanding drums from 50grit to 120 and then scotchbrite and steel wool.
 
I finally finished my first two knives awhile back. I lost another I was working on, and I am trying to get moving on my next blade project.

Its completed, finally.
KIMG0012_zpssnkcptdu.jpg


And the other.
skinner_zpsgehfzjhe.jpg


Now I have to get back to work on more. I've been enjoying summer vacation too much.
 
Daniel Fairly Knives said:
Thanks! About 3 weeks and that is the only folder of the group... so not fast but good to get them finished up!
Click to expand...

That seems very reasonable to me Daniel!

Are you roughing them out of bar stock yourself, or are you using waterjet or something now? I need to read more of your threads, you've clearly got the production side of things down and I'm learning first hand just how hard it can be!
 
aarongough said:
That seems very reasonable to me Daniel!

Are you roughing them out of bar stock yourself, or are you using waterjet or something now? I need to read more of your threads, you've clearly got the production side of things down and I'm learning first hand just how hard it can be!
Click to expand...

In general with steel I chop my bars into coupons then grind to a scribed on pattern. With Titanium or folder blades I have most waterjet cut... holes spotted with some extra material left to grind clean. I leave a lot extra on the folder lock and stop parts. I think waterjetting parts helps keep things consistent and allows me to focus on the more important aspects of knifemaking.

Profiling and bevel grinding only takes about 20% of my time and I spend all of the rest on finishing. I like to do repetitive work until I feel I am just knocking it out. I like to alternate between that and pushing myself as hard as possible with knives I may fail at making but will eventually have down. Then I mix in one-off's, etc just to keep things fun. I look at it like training and try to stay as disciplined as possible.

With large runs I am always thinking how to improve each knife and how to make them faster. If I add one process that speeds things up I will often find something else that takes a lot of time but makes the knife better. Then I'll figure out how to do that faster.

Speaking of that I've been looking into tumbling a bit more, on some knives my weak link at the moment is probably my blast setup and I'm looking to just skip that step and go straight to stonewashing.
 
Daniel Fairly Knives said:
In general with steel I chop my bars into coupons then grind to a scribed on pattern. With Titanium or folder blades I have most waterjet cut... holes spotted with some extra material left to grind clean. I leave a lot extra on the folder lock and stop parts. I think waterjetting parts helps keep things consistent and allows me to focus on the more important aspects of knifemaking.

Profiling and bevel grinding only takes about 20% of my time and I spend all of the rest on finishing. I like to do repetitive work until I feel I am just knocking it out. I like to alternate between that and pushing myself as hard as possible with knives I may fail at making but will eventually have down. Then I mix in one-off's, etc just to keep things fun. I look at it like training and try to stay as disciplined as possible.

With large runs I am always thinking how to improve each knife and how to make them faster. If I add one process that speeds things up I will often find something else that takes a lot of time but makes the knife better. Then I'll figure out how to do that faster.

Speaking of that I've been looking into tumbling a bit more, on some knives my weak link at the moment is probably my blast setup and I'm looking to just skip that step and go straight to stonewashing.
Click to expand...

How long have you been doing it full time?
 
I am in the middle of my 5th year of full time making, I sold the second knife I made and have been full time since.
 
I have just inherited a 1953 Atlas lathe and a Rong Fu drill mill. They are in pretty decent shape, just have been sitting in the Florida humidity for the last 10 years. I have them apart so I could move them and am cleaning and removing rust as I reassemble them. Pretty happy with them. My only charge was driving my truck 1000 miles both ways to see my parents.
photos to follow if I can figure it out.
IMG_3329.jpg

IMG_3330.jpg

IMG_3333%20-%20Copy.jpg
IMG_3334.jpg

IMG_3332.jpg
IMG_3338.jpg

IMG_3339.jpg
IMG_3340.jpg
 
Last edited:
I finally tried my hand at forging a blade. I started with W1 round bar. Here it is rough ground. I left the forge finish on the ricasso.



I also did a sanmai billet made from 1084 and 15n20. Forged it to shape as well. I just need to grind it out now.
 
Daniel Fairly Knives said:
In general with steel I chop my bars into coupons then grind to a scribed on pattern. With Titanium or folder blades I have most waterjet cut... holes spotted with some extra material left to grind clean. I leave a lot extra on the folder lock and stop parts. I think waterjetting parts helps keep things consistent and allows me to focus on the more important aspects of knifemaking.

Profiling and bevel grinding only takes about 20% of my time and I spend all of the rest on finishing. I like to do repetitive work until I feel I am just knocking it out. I like to alternate between that and pushing myself as hard as possible with knives I may fail at making but will eventually have down. Then I mix in one-off's, etc just to keep things fun. I look at it like training and try to stay as disciplined as possible.

With large runs I am always thinking how to improve each knife and how to make them faster. If I add one process that speeds things up I will often find something else that takes a lot of time but makes the knife better. Then I'll figure out how to do that faster.

Speaking of that I've been looking into tumbling a bit more, on some knives my weak link at the moment is probably my blast setup and I'm looking to just skip that step and go straight to stonewashing.
Click to expand...

Thanks Daniel! Nice to hear from someone that's been doing it full time for so long! I'm s.l.o.w.l.y getting to the point where I want/need to be and my second production batch is going to be a lot quicker overall, but this first batch has been exceptionally demanding. Lots of 12 hour days at the shop developing and ironing out processes!

I too have found that blasting is one of the hardest steps to make 'nice'... It's kind of amazing that it takes me longer to blast the blades than it does to apply the Cerakote!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top