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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need.

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  #1  
Old 10-06-2011, 12:02 PM
bveatch bveatch is offline
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Question Plans, Tips, or Ideas ?????

New Guy here. I need some help with setting up for knife making. I am looking for any plans for tools (belt grinder, files, instiments I may need, etc.) to help with the cost of starting. If anyone would have such ideas, or tips, how you got started... I would love the help. I have always wanted to pursue this, and now I have the oportunity. I can explain that later to whomever would like a better understanding. I would appreciate ANYTHING, no advise is turned away. Thank you all so very much for your time in reading this. I wish you all the best. Talk with you soon!
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Old 10-06-2011, 12:29 PM
Doug Lester Doug Lester is offline
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USA Knife Maker Supply sells plans and parts to build your own grinder. You can google "grinder in a box" for an outfit that sells a kit that has most of the parts needed. For files I would get mill files in single b@stard cut and single smooth cut for shaping blades. Half round files and round files for filing curves and notches. You might also want a pilar file, a file with teeth only on the faces. A drill press is good, even the less expensive bench to units will work

Good reference material is also essential. If you don't have any, How to Make Knives by Barney and Loveless deals pretty much with stock removal. The $50 Knife Shop by Goddard is also good in figuring out what you need even though it leans more toward forging.

Unless you want to send you knives out for heat treating, you will want to build some sort of forge or high temperature oven to heat treat in.

Doug


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Old 10-06-2011, 01:28 PM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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I started with kit knives. They are available from all the major knife supply houses. Basically, they are finished blades (in every style and size) and you pick whatever wood or synthetic material you want and then attach and finish the handle. The same supply houses sell all the hand tools you would need to do the job, files, sandpaper, etc. Doing this a few times will teach you how to attach and finish handles and by using hand tools you'll come to understand where a power tool would help and where it isn't so necessary so you can postpone that expense. As a bonus, you'll end up with a nice knife in a fairly short time.

After you make a few kits you have the basic tools. Then, make a blade from stainless steel (because they are easy and cheap to have the heat treatment done), send it out for heat treat, and finish it and add a handle (which you now know how to do) when it comes back. You can start with a hacksaw and files and sandpaper and add a grinder when you are able.

Once you have the metal work down, consider buying an electric oven or building a forge to do your own heat treating. At this point, you may decide to try forging your blades. If so, you'll find all the skills you've practiced up to this point will apply to your forged blades.

Get a catalog from each of the bigger supply houses like Sheffields, K&G Finishing, Texas Knifemakers, Jantz. This makes it easy to see kits, tools, and supplies and do comparison shopping. Just looking at the supplies and tools they sell will answer most questions about what supplies and tools you'll need. All it takes is a few hand tools and some knowledge to make a good knife. Power tools just help you do it faster ....


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Old 10-06-2011, 02:20 PM
bveatch bveatch is offline
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Thank you all! This is awesome. I am interested in the stock removal for now. I would eventually like to expand my skill base in the future. I can always use information so please don't be afraid to add. I think I have some good ideas now though. Thanks for the time and effort in answering.


P.S. Is "Stabalized wood", for less/ no skrinking knife handles?


Veatch

Last edited by bveatch; 10-06-2011 at 02:26 PM.
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Old 10-06-2011, 02:40 PM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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Real stabilized wood is wood with acrylic resin forced all the way through it by a very high pressure/vacuum process. Such wood will not absorb liquids and will shrink or expand hardly at all. Wood done by this process is extremely easy to finish, requiring nothing but fine sanding and buffing to achieve a high shine. This is premium stuff for burl and highly figured woods. However, there are many sellers who offer what they call stabilized wood which has been soaked in Min-Wax or some other similar process. These sell for much less but offer much less in terms of performance ....


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Old 10-06-2011, 02:54 PM
bveatch bveatch is offline
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Stabl Wood

Ray,

Is there a way to tell the difference? Is it just the price?

Brandon
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Old 10-06-2011, 10:34 PM
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Night Everclear Night Everclear is offline
 
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I used files to do most of my work before I started using a grinder. I went through a lot of files and kept them to help me practice forging. Using files help me get the hang of removing metal and I think it helped me grind better. I do it like this: http://www.pearceknives.com/Tutorials.html

I was also scared of grinders at that time though too. I think the first grinder I started using was a cheap 4x36" sander. It was definitely a learning experience, before I moved on to better grinders. :P That's just me though, there are a lot better ways, like the posts before this one.
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Old 10-07-2011, 09:13 AM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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Brandon,

The price is usually a good clue. Buying your wood from K&G Finishing or WSSI is one way to be certain since they are the only commercial sources for stabilized knife blocks I've ever heard of. They supply all the stabilized wood that is sold by the larger knife supply houses. If you buy from an individual just ask if their wood was processed by one of those sources. Most eBay wood sources will have to anser 'no' to that question and I'd pass on that wood. However, you can get very good deals on excellent wood off eBay and then send it to one of those processors to have it stabilized and save quite a bit of money that way ...


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Old 10-07-2011, 10:02 PM
Kostoglotov Kostoglotov is offline
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One thing to think about before dropping the coin on stabilized handle material is to look at something like Cocobolo. You can find Cocobolo scales or blocks for a couple of bucks Vs the $20 for stabilized

Welcome to the addiction
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Old 10-07-2011, 10:24 PM
Doug Lester Doug Lester is offline
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That is a good point. Some woods are plenty stable just the way they are. Some are so dense and oily that they can't be stabilized. Cocobolo, as mentioned, is good along with the rest of the rosewood group. African Blackwood and lignum vitae are both dense and stable, though they are starting to get a little pricy. Osage orange is a domestic wood, though there is a South American variety, that has long been noted for it's stability and it's inexpensive. Even though there are woods that I wouldn't use unless it was stabilized, unstabilized woods have been used to handle knives for millinia and have held up quite well.

Doug


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Old 10-08-2011, 09:19 AM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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All that is true enough. It should be noted, however, that some people are allergic to cocobolo and similar woods (the saw dust) and that anyone who is exposed to it long enough will become allergic. And, while cocobolo is highly stable on its own it can't be polished to a glassy shine if that's what you want. Still, it's a gorgeous wood and makes a terrific handle.

Acrylic stabilization is most useful on highly figured woods. Burl woods are not as strong as the non-burl version of the same wood due to the nature of the way burls are formed. Stabilization adds a great deal of strength to these woods. One last observation: stabilized woods always grind like a nice, dry piece of wood but the naturally stable woods like cocobolo and ironwood are gummy and tend to load your belts very quickly ....


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