What's that niche tool you can't live without

JTknives

JTknives

Joined
Jun 11, 2006
Messages
8,651
You all have them I'm shure, not talking your 2x72 grinder. I'm talking about that little hand or power tool that found its way into your shop that you could not live without. Mine is this little 1"x21" makita belt grinder (#9031). I guess it technaly takes a 1-1/8" belt but I find it easier to buy 3"x21" belts and split them into 3 belts. I use this thing all the time, maybe it's because I don't have a small wheel set up on my 2x72. But I love it, it has adjustable speed with a dile and a trigger lock. So I just clamp in the post vise and set speed and lock the trigger. It had a platten but I removed it as I don't use it for that. I use it for finder grooves and shaping around them. I also use it for bringing down the tang to be flush with the wood. I fit the wood with hidden pins and do 99% of the shaping and sanding then I glue. Then I finish sand and most of the times by this point the tang can be felt to be just a touch wider when the handle scales which REALLY bothers me. This happens because well wood is removed a lot faster then metal when hand sanding. So I get it all finished sanded and go to this little beauty and pop on a fine belt and just kiss the tang all the way around. After that I clean up with sand paper and then buff on the baldor buffer. But I also use it for heavier steel work as well. My 2nd Amendment knives have a 1" choil which I rough in with the edge of a belt. Then pop over to the makita and zap done. Being that it has slack belt after the wheels makes blending finger grooves a sinch. Here are a few pictures of how I use it. So let's hear about your cool tool.

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My own "one legged man" as I call it. Sorry no pictures. I use him when sizing the leaf spring in a liner lock. Sure my making friends have one also.
Frank
 
Oops . . . when perusing new posts I some times get in over my head.
I work metal but am not a knife maker.
 
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hard to say i have a bump file guide but most of the times i can eye close and get it right (if buildig hunters and bowies its handy) if i didnt have it i woudl use a carbif mill and do it that way.
sick as it sounds cause of my work flow it might be my band saw. i make alot of kitchen knives and cot alot of sheet out having a 18x30 table to work from and a 14 inch throat saves me piles of time (roll in saw 14" gravity feed ) if they coudl make one half the size i have and get it at the right price point knife maker should beat the door down to get them (got mine used cause no joke they aint cheap)
 
Definitely rely on my Bump file guide as well as another generously gifted to me by Eric Kidwell. Wouldn't want to do without my 20 ton shop press. Other items I've grown to depend upon are various jigs, broaches and other tools most makers construct to make their lives easier, a magnifying glass to inspect my work, profile and radius gauges. Heck, look around your shop. You could pick any number of items.
 
I have a little 1x42 Viel belt grinder, I don't grind blades with it anymore but I do lots of other stuff. I still do almost all of my sharpening on it, as well as sharpen drill bits, deburr little stuff, modify corbys and size pins, lots of quick little jobs in folder making, modifying cutters- it along with my benchtop portaband form a great little pair of light duty quick bench tools as an alternative to firing up something heavy with a 2-3 hp motor.
 
I like bolsters on many of my knives and getting them pinned well enough to grind to a different shape without having those little telltale rings around the pins used to be a problem. Once I began chamfering the pin holes with this tapered carbide chamfering tool I was able to really secure my bolsters firmly and without a visible sign of rings. I use this tool every time I get ready to pin bolsters and I know that they are secure and invisible even when using pins as large as 3/16 in my bolsters. I make knives that I hope last a couple hundred years and this is one of the tools I use on every knife with bolsters. Larry

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I would also say my file guide. With that said, if I could find a little tool to remove broken drill bits from an ironwood block, that would be my new favorite.:D
 
sanding blocks... in all shapes and sizes. made a bunch out of micarta and wenge wood and they make life easier by a lot.
 
Not sure you would call them a tool, but my Dyneema gloves are certainly something I replace when they are wornout. They saved me a big ole gouge in my thumb today.
 
good chainsaw files
cheap HF needle files ($3.50/dozen)
and so kdogmcg and no.4shot don't feel bad, nail files. I keep a couple in my woods kit too.
 
1) my black granite surface plate
2) Elipse P100 Dust Masks (I've bought 3 so I can leave them where I use them)
3) Starrett Adjustable-Jaw Cut Nippers (found them at a garage sale and stopped using my Dremel with cutoff wheels so often)
 
LARRYZ10 said:
I like bolsters on many of my knives and getting them pinned well enough to grind to a different shape without having those little telltale rings around the pins used to be a problem. Once I began chamfering the pin holes with this tapered carbide chamfering tool I was able to really secure my bolsters firmly and without a visible sign of rings. I use this tool every time I get ready to pin bolsters and I know that they are secure and invisible even when using pins as large as 3/16 in my bolsters. I make knives that I hope last a couple hundred years and this is one of the tools I use on every knife with bolsters. Larry

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Hey Larry where did you get that one?
 
i will be adding a granite as funds are made for it as i already have a hight gauge and know how handy it can be on layouts
 
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