Recommendation? Water Jet Service?

You have a grinder I see... just grind it! It will go pretty quickly with a 36 grit belt to start. I made thousands of knives without a real saw.

You can try to get close then glue a drawing of the knife to hit your final dimensions. You might want to make a plastic/etc template then scribe it on your bar of steel instead of gluing on a drawing. With practice you can get it within thousandths of an inch to your template.
 
I only make 10-15 knives per year, but I've never been tempted to buy a band saw, let alone send stuff out for waterjet. I can profile any knife large or small in just a few minutes using a hacksaw, grinder and rarely a drill press. It's probably 2% of the total build time. Also, as I fine tune the blade shape I get a feel for the cutting edge and sometimes tweak the design. I leave WIP near my desk to look at, pick up, think about how to execute next steps.
It would be different if I was trying to run a business.
 
Your blank isn't hard yet, correct?

profiling is the easiest/Best stage, don't skip it.

I'll give you a practicle reason...... It gives you more grinder time. You NEED time at your grinder. You need to build confidence. Confidence is easily 50% of the build. Take Deep breaths, figure it out.

Grinding bevels is tricky (I do it free hand) it takes Many Many knives to get ok at...... Grinding profiles is easy. You will be a Pro after your second knife. Don't deprive yourself of that confidence building, grinder time.

I agree with first making a template out of cheap steel or plastic or something..... It's great then for repeat blanks to trace around, and then you get even More grinder time!
 
Thanks Richard,

I am not trying to become a professional knife maker or design custom knives. My only goal is to reproduce a few knives I have had for about 30-years, with minor cosmetic and material quality improvements. For me it is just easier to pay the very affordable price for the water jet service, and save on belts and time, which would be much longer for me than someone that has been grinding knives out for a while.
 
Crag the Brewer said:
Your blank isn't hard yet, correct?

profiling is the easiest/Best stage, don't skip it.

I'll give you a practicle reason...... It gives you more grinder time. You NEED time at your grinder. You need to build confidence. Confidence is easily 50% of the build. Take Deep breaths, figure it out.

Grinding bevels is tricky (I do it free hand) it takes Many Many knives to get ok at...... Grinding profiles is easy. You will be a Pro after your second knife. Don't deprive yourself of that confidence building, grinder time.

I agree with first making a template out of cheap steel or plastic or something..... It's great then for repeat blanks to trace around, and then you get even More grinder time!
Click to expand...
Thanks Crag,

Correct - not hard.

As mentioned previously in this thread, I have a few pieces of 1095 that I plan to practice on, to see if I can even come close to being able to grind. Having the water jet cut blank will act as a template for the 1095 versions that I will have to saw and grind out.

If I do not feel comfortable grinding after 4 junked blades, I guess i will have to start looking for someone that might be able to grind the M4 for me. I have no intention of wrecking the M4.

Thanks again for the design help - I think it looks great!
 
Retired Spook said:
Thanks Crag,

Correct - not hard.

As mentioned previously in this thread, I have a few pieces of 1095 that I plan to practice on, to see if I can even come close to being able to grind. Having the water jet cut blank will act as a template for the 1095 versions that I will have to saw and grind out.

If I do not feel comfortable grinding after 4 junked blades, I guess i will have to start looking for someone that might be able to grind the M4 for me. I have no intention of wrecking the M4.

Thanks again for the design help - I think it looks great!
Click to expand...

It sounds like you have your mind made up, but what I would do if I were you is get enough steel (cheap, whatever steel) and do enough profiles for maybe 3 blades.
Use those "dummy blanks" to practice ALL steps of your process. It Will help you.

-If you wont/cant do profiles, bevels aren't going to be any easier.......

I'm actually planning on grabbing a piece to help me do a hollow grind, with a new wheel I got. Just to get a feel how thin I can go, and what that looks like

We are here to help, and Cheer you on..... Go grind your outlines. :D just do a little at a time.

I cover my steel with marking compound, like Dykem or Wolf and scribe, let it dry..... then grind to line slowly..... Outside radius are easier than inside.

For inside radius, track your belt OFF your platen by about 1/2" Use that to soften your INSIDE radius. It's actually pretty easy and works great.
 
Crag the Brewer said:
It sounds like you have your mind made up, but what I would do if I were you is get enough steel (cheap, whatever steel) and do enough profiles for maybe 3 blades.
Use those "dummy blanks" to practice ALL steps of your process. It Will help you.

-If you wont/cant do profiles, bevels aren't going to be any easier.......

I'm actually planning on grabbing a piece to help me do a hollow grind, with a new wheel I got. Just to get a feel how thin I can go, and what that looks like

We are here to help, and Cheer you on..... Go grind your outlines. :D just do a little at a time.

I cover my steel with marking compound, like Dykem or Wolf and scribe, let it dry..... then grind to line slowly..... Outside radius are easier than inside.

For inside radius, track your belt OFF your platen by about 1/2" Use that to soften your INSIDE radius. It's actually pretty easy and works great.
Click to expand...
You mean like this?

IMG-2101.jpg


I did this on a 1x42 Kalamazoo - it is my 1/8" thick mild steel template for a few blades that I want to make. It is not perfect or finished in this photo, but the template is finished. I filed and sanded the inside curve - and looks good enough for me - I am not trying to make collector knives. I will get a better photo of the template soon. I am retired so I am working on my own schedule and it can take me a while to get to things ;)
 
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Retired Spook said:
You mean like this?

IMG-2101.jpg


I did this on a 1x42 Kalamazoo - it is my 1/8" thick mild steel template for a few blades that I want to make. It is not perfect or finished in this photo, but it is finished in real life, and looks good to me. I will get a better photo of it soon. I am retired so I am working on my own schedule and it can take me a while to get to things ;)
Click to expand...
It looks fine....

What I often do is smooth the profile out with a hand file.
be careful not to bend it. I usually do it Hard, with a cheap Am*zon diamond file clamped upright in a vise.

*In the future, I like to drill holes First.
It's easier to hold securely in a vise when the sides are parallel, but you should still be able to, just take it easy
 
Crag the Brewer said:
It looks fine....

What I often do is smooth the profile out with a hand file.
be careful not to bend it. I usually do it Hard, with a cheap Am*zon diamond file clamped upright in a vise.

*In the future, I like to drill holes First.
It's easier to hold securely in a vise when the sides are parallel
Click to expand...
I think I edited the post while you replied?
 
Crag the Brewer said:
It looks fine....

What I often do is smooth the profile out with a hand file.
be careful not to bend it. I usually do it Hard, with a cheap Am*zon diamond file clamped upright in a vise.

*In the future, I like to drill holes First.
It's easier to hold securely in a vise when the sides are parallel, but you should still be able to, just take it easy
Click to expand...
I have a milling machine I intend use to drill the holes. I moonlighted for years in a machine shop (because I always wanted to be a machinist! :p) running a manual mill, a surface grinder, made lots of carbide form tools, and ran a CNC milll and CNC lathe, so I am going to use my mill to drill the holes. I thought about drilling the holes first but I was anxious to get to the profile because I wanted to see how it went - frankly, I thought the profiling was rather easy?

I am the kind of guy that if I can get to the point where I can make a few decent knives, I will probably never make another one, and leave the grinder and everything else to my niece when the time comes.

That's just me.
 
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For the exceedingly reasonable cost ($28 each, delivered), rapid turnaround, and the perfection of the work, I cannot comprehend how this could possibly be beat.

(4) of my Recon Tanto clone designs in 3/16" 1095 courtesy of the superb services of New Jersey Steel Baron:

IMG-2629.jpg


And the drawing I sent the CAD file for:

RECON-TANTO-CLONE-RS.jpg


I feel like a kid at Christmas :thumbsup:
 
On the shearing note... Don't try shearing any cpm stuff without preheating to 500f for the process... Here's a piece of s90v I had someone try to shear

1000005355.jpg
 
Retired Spook said:
What shearing note? Shearing had never crossed my mind.
Click to expand...

Retired Spook said:
So much for my water jet service thread I guess...
Click to expand...
There was some mention about shearing CPM steel earlier.
Overall I'd say your thread was a success. You got help tweaking your design, and steered to a water jet service that you are now quite happy with.
Please post pictures of the completed knives.
 
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