Who's good at knifemaking efficiency?

J

Jason Fry

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Jun 5, 2008
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Anybody with industrial manufacturing take on knifemaking as a hobby? I'm looking for someone with knowledge of lean manufacturing or other theoretical manufacturing knowledge who had applied that to hobby level knifemaking. Anyone come to mind?
 
That's my day job. I have not applied much to my knife making, because then it would be work.

What are you looking to accomplish?
 
Jason, I think your question is very broad. When I think "Lean" manufacturing, I think of concepts like just in time supply and subassembly outsourcing. These could certainly be applied to knifemaking but, it would take a pretty high volume to make any of it cost effective, IMO.

Bob
 
I'm thinking of somebody with background in those concepts who can push their knowledge into our arena. Even little things about how to batch build... multiple knives in one steel, multiple designs off of of one size stock, heat treating in batches so you only heat the oven once, standardizing pin size or material. Anything to push your production to the next level, beyond one at a time, if that's what you're looking for.
 
well it used to be my job before full time knife making.

you have already listed things that make sense
in short, tools make you money, but not cheap tools,
seek to minimize setups, sometimes you need three grinders, or more.
reduce the type of knives you make to just a few like patterns and styles.

work on the batch processing, but in my experience it's the finishing work that takes the most time for every knife. And I haven't figured out how to make that better I just don't have enough experience in this full-time.

I can tell you having worked with a few top known makers, they are highly skilled, very efficient and I didn't see them make any mistakes. And I would chalk their speed up to experience from my viewpoint. So the answer to your question is - these guys I'm referring to.

If I think about this further, each of the fastest efficient makers I know, does very little by hand. For example shaping a handle pretty much complete is done on the grinder.

but as John said above, what are you looking to accomplish specifically?
 
Jason Fry said:
I'm thinking of somebody with background in those concepts who can push their knowledge into our arena. Even little things about how to batch build... multiple knives in one steel, multiple designs off of of one size stock, heat treating in batches so you only heat the oven once, standardizing pin size or material. Anything to push your production to the next level, beyond one at a time, if that's what you're looking for.
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I have my 6 Culinary patterns water jet cut! The sheets of Steel go from NJB to Water Jet Tech to Buck for Ht ... I haven’t ground a profile except for a few one ofs, in over 5 years.. it saves so much time & wear & tear on me not doing mindless stuff like cutting & grinding blade profiles.
 
I'm a nobody here but I like to do a few of these and few of those and maybe make this guy and that guy, because its a hobby and fun as I like to try new things. Making super large batches at a cheetahs pace like a robot sounds like no fun for a minion who likes to work for the "The Man", because he needs to get paid to feed the family. Long story short- theres no hobby left but a job.
 
Not sure if you follow the Grimsmos or the business of machining podcast, but they touch on this kind of stuff a little bit.

I took an industrial engineering class in college, and it was easily one of my favorites, particularly going over studies of efficiency and cost saving and such. For example, how can simple things like ergonomics or reduced motions increase output. How can changing a single dimension on a tool increase quality and efficiency, etc...

One major takeaway I learned, however, (and Bob touched on it) is that scale is certainly a factor. Not that you shouldn’t try to squeeze every bit of efficiency into your knife making as you can, but in a smaller scale shop, this may only amount to completing one additional knife per week, per month, or so on.

That said, there’s ALWAYS a way to be more efficient. At the beginning, it could be as simple as batching processes or having dedicated work stations, multiple tools set up for single processes or even just building skills to work faster, but eventually you’re probably gonna have to pay a premium to increase beyond a certain point. Where that point starts or ends is obviously up to you.
 
Maineiac1 said:
I'm a nobody here but I like to do a few of these and few of those and maybe make this guy and that guy, because its a hobby and fun as I like to try new things. Making super large batches at a cheetahs pace like a robot sounds like no fun for a minion who likes to work for the "The Man", because he needs to get paid to feed the family. Long story short- theres no hobby left but a job.
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It doesn't have to be like that. It's not a black and white proposition where on one hand you have a bespoke artisan who painfully crafts each piece of artisanal firewood, and on the other a guy in front of an obi press blanking out thousands.

There's a big gray area in between. The biggest thing the individual knifemaker can do is ask "Why am I doing this operation and is it necessary to my product or for my personal satisfaction to continue to do it myself?"

The hardest part for an individual will be to ask "Why?" and answer it critically, objectively.
 
kuraki said:
It doesn't have to be like that. It's not a black and white proposition where on one hand you have a bespoke artisan who painfully crafts each piece of artisanal firewood, and on the other a guy in front of an obi press blanking out thousands.

There's a big gray area in between. The biggest thing the individual knifemaker can do is ask "Why am I doing this operation and is it necessary to my product or for my personal satisfaction to continue to do it myself?"

The hardest part for an individual will be to ask "Why?" and answer it critically, objectively.
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You mean like a certain step in the making process? For example: having someone hand sand the finishes on the blade for you? That makes sense, because if there is a step you hate doing and you loose the will to continue in the hobby then yes I see how finding someone to do a certain step or two to save you the pain can help!
 
Based on the conversation, I think Enrique Pena is your man. He made 70+ handmade knives (in addition to his new production line) for Blade this year and you know his standards are very high.

Bob
 
IIRC, there’s a handful of vids in the Entrek Knives shop, showing Ray Ennis grinding out a knife in real time. Takes just a few minutes.

I know hand sanding is one of those areas that hang a lot of makers up. Some guys spend as much time hand rubbing finishes as they do making the whole knife. Solution? Pick a different finish, or find a faster technique. Maybe it means spending $3200 on one of those fancy new Moen platens. Could be as simple as getting a better sanding block, or a different abrasive, or adding a different step into the process.
 
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