Micron Updates

MicronKnives

MicronKnives

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Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Sep 9, 2024
Messages
89
As some of you know, we are in the process of fixing up a building and setting up machinery to start our knife manufacturing journey!

I purchased this building after purchasing enough equipment that I had no place to store. The roof was caving in, and one of the walls was not touching the ground, rather suspended by the roof.

We added flitch plates and extended the beam, and rebuilt the wall. We rewired the building and added plenty of lights, and are remodeling the bathroom. Here is the building, along with us moving in some of the equipment including the Blanchard grinder, blast cabinets, tumbler, and waterjet.1000003963.jpg1000003979.jpg1000004820.jpg
 
Here's a before and after (during, it's not done) of the bathroom. We ended up finding another bathroom on the other side of the block wall that we didn't know about. Only figured it out when we were removing drop ceiling and looking over the wall into the office that we hadn't yet cleared. Featuring the old man

Bathroom During
Bathroom Before
 
harrisonbrothers said:
Curious, is any of that Survive's old equipment?

edit: sorry, saw the answer was yes on another post after a quick search
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It is! No need to apologize. I'm sure you can see some stickers on the equipment if you look close enough
 
Good luck. I think the key thing you'll have to convince the knife community of is that you're not a shill and/or direct silent business partner of the previous owner because on the surface that's how it looks since you have the same equipment, same proposed knife designs, and say positive things about the previous owner and his products. If this is the case I have a hunch there will be a huge class action lawsuit from all of the guys that have paid deposits and that equipment might be at risk of repossession by creditors. Not to mention legal ramifications from the bankruptcy courts. But I'm no attorney, and really don't have a dog in the fight, just pointing out the obvious. $0.02
 
harrisonbrothers said:
Good luck. I think the key thing you'll have to convince the knife community of is that you're not a shill and/or direct silent business partner of the previous owner because on the surface that's how it looks since you have the same equipment, same proposed knife designs, and say positive things about the previous owner and his products. If this is the case I have a hunch there will be a huge class action lawsuit from all of the guys that have paid deposits and that equipment might be at risk of repossession by creditors. Not to mention legal ramifications from the bankruptcy courts. But I'm no attorney, and really don't have a dog in the fight, just pointing out the obvious. $0.02
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I appreciate the good luck and the $0.02. I am sure that with time I'll be able to show that we aren't a shill and that we are a good example of a family owned American company. There's not much that I can do to speed that up, and that's okay. The silent partner thing is not the case and idk how I'd prove that. I'd never jeopardize our family like that.

I expect something to come of the survive situation. Idk if it'll be a class action or prosecution or what, but everything that we did with the equipment purchase is above board. Again I would never jeopardize our family like that.

With time we will prove ourselves, we just need a chance to do so.
 
Welcome to PA! I went to college at York College and saw soooo many weird streets and signs!
 
Yeah, I've driven through a couple times in the last 20 years coming back from vacation, but never stopped in York since!
 
Well we've been busy on prototyping and cleaning! Here's a before and after of the attic which was cleaned out today. We are in touch with material suppliers and heat treaters while we finish up the designs and the production plan. We also are thinking about making our own kydex sheaths, is that a bad idea?
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MicronKnives said:
Well we've been busy on prototyping and cleaning! Here's a before and after of the attic which was cleaned out today. We are in touch with material suppliers and heat treaters while we finish up the designs and the production plan. We also are thinking about making our own kydex sheaths, is that a bad idea?
View attachment 2773809View attachment 2773811View attachment 2773814
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be careful on demo work. that old building likely has asbestos products in it and absolutely has lead paint. I'd use proper safety gear and hepa air scrubbers, if I were you......
 
Boru13 said:
Got sketch of the prototype?

Depends on the quality.
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I've got my first 3D printed one :cool:, but I'm going to reveal the design at a later stage.

Quality first, of course.
beeinak said:
A well made, good fitting sheath is always a big deal for me. Whether you make them in house or contracted, having the ability to attach different style mounting clips and positions is great.
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Now how to do this with or without handles 🤔. I'm starting to lean back towards contracting them.

Which aftermarket clips do you use?
jbmonkey said:
be careful on demo work. that old building likely has asbestos products in it and absolutely has lead paint. I'd use proper safety gear and hepa air scrubbers, if I were you......
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Got the masks, but no air scrubbers. The bad stuff was the first couple weeks of demo, we absolutely could have used a scrubber or three.

Quick update: Just ordered the third dumpster and sent payment for MagnaCut. Yesterday we cleared out a tenant's stuff that was using the office as a storage unit. Today we gutted it, and made a huge mess. I've fortunately been very busy at the shop (my real job) so I'm playing catch up with Micron stuff after hours. I hope Micron is successful, it's way more fun. Maybe one day I'll take a vacation in the name of "content creation". For now my vacation is reading every word Larrin Thomas has ever written down.
 
MicronKnives said:
I've got my first 3D printed one :cool:, but I'm going to reveal the design at a later stage.

Quality first, of course.

Now how to do this with or without handles 🤔. I'm starting to lean back towards contracting them.

Which aftermarket clips do you use?



I use Tek-loks for lots of knives being horizontal or tip up on bibs, wader suspenders, and pack straps. Ulti clips are very secure, but I really like Mummert clips as they offer a lot of versatility for carry positions.
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We have slowed considerably on the building as of recently. Our focus has been on prototyping and testing. Here is a pic of the bathroom, which is about the only thing we made progress on.

We do have an update on the website, it should be pretty far along in the next few weeks. https://micronknives.com/
 

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SharpBits said:
Any new updates?
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Yes! I've been meaning to update, thanks for the reminder!

We have been building the website, wiring up machines, making fixturing, and testing knives.

The website is basically done, just needs still and video content. Fixturing is in the works and I do not anticipate many problems with that. We ran into a problem when the copper wire for the equipment was stolen, but that should be resolved in the next week or so. In the meantime we are playing with different designs and coming up with our quality tests.

There are two types of testing we are doing. One is design and material choice testing, and the other is manufacturing quality tests. For design testing, think cutting rope and making kindling and prying on stuff you shouldn't. The goal is to determine if the design is good, and why. For manufacturing testing, think of a QMS. How many parts do we run before we test hardness along the entire profile, how do we test for surface finish requirements, how do we measure toughness, how do we measure sharpness, etc. While we work on getting the machines up to make the first knife, we've been making coupons for testing at different edge geometries and hardnesses. We are also using these to set benchmarks in tensile, retention, and charpy v-notch tests.

We are also going to blade show in Atlanta now as visitors. Hopefully we can have a booth there at some point.

As for the building, not much. The bathroom is almost done, the office is completely torn down, we cleaned up a basement and found our water supply line, and the lighting is getting so close to being done in the entire shop! Here's a pic of my Dad in the basement 1000005002.jpg
 
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