Micron Updates

MicronKnives said:
The goal is to determine if the design is good, and why.
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I'm just peanut gallerying here, because I got roped in after the initial burst of drama. I'm a sucker for drama. But what I would say is thin for the win. Y'all knives too thick.

Mecha

Thread '[S]Ya'll[/S] Y'all knives too thick'

Yeah that's right, they're too thick. Some of these things are as thick as a damn hatchet! They're all twice as thick as they need to be. Every damn one of 'em. A little bit of flexibility from being thinner could be considered a strength under shock loads, you know. o_O

And what's with the obtuse Degrees Per Side edge angles? 20-25 dps? That's like a 45 degree included angle. That's like the corner of a box. It's not supposed to be a splitting maul. :rolleyes:

They all need to be thinner. And sharper! :mad:
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Mecha said:
I'm just peanut gallerying here, because I got roped in after the initial burst of drama. I'm a sucker for drama. But what I would say is thin for the win. Y'all knives too thick.

Mecha

Thread '[S]Ya'll[/S] Y'all knives too thick'

Yeah that's right, they're too thick. Some of these things are as thick as a damn hatchet! They're all twice as thick as they need to be. Every damn one of 'em. A little bit of flexibility from being thinner could be considered a strength under shock loads, you know. o_O

And what's with the obtuse Degrees Per Side edge angles? 20-25 dps? That's like a 45 degree included angle. That's like the corner of a box. It's not supposed to be a splitting maul. :rolleyes:

They all need to be thinner. And sharper! :mad:
  • Like
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Its all peanuts, it always has been.

So more slicy, less dicey. Right now I have it at 0.022" BTE and am decreasing it to 0.020", with and an exclusive 36, inclusive 18 DPS. That seems to be more slicy especially compared to similar knives in the category. (This is an open invite to criticize)

Although I agree that a sub 4" blade should not be a chopper, I would hesitate to shoot for too thin, as I think a folder would fit that service sector a bit more appropriately.

People do have folders much larger than this though, maybe we do need more delicate fixies...
 
.020 is still fairly chunky behind the edge. What steel are we talking about? Where is the info/design? I often used 3/32"-1/8" stock and go pretty thin at the edge. I think the Nitro V one you bought from me was 3/32" or so stock?
 
Taz said:
.020 is still fairly chunky behind the edge. What steel are we talking about? Where is the info/design? I often used 3/32"-1/8" stock and go pretty thin at the edge. I think the Nitro V one you bought from me was 3/32" or so stock?
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Finishing this one at 0.100 with magnacut. Yours is the thinnest I've gotten ahold of by far.

So maybe I should make one thinner and see how that turns out.

BTW your knife has received a ton of abuse in the kitchen before the gf got herself some kitchen knives after she moved.
 
Nice, glad it's getting used!! Nitro V at 62 hrc is pretty tough still!

Lots of people grind to .02-.04" before heat treating and do minimal grinding later on after heat treat. It leaves a thicker edge, which doesn't cut as well as it could. I like to take mine down to around .010" or so before sharpening, sometimes a touch thinner for hunters and edc. Kitchen knives, I go much thinner, almost 0 edge before sharpening.
 
MicronKnives said:
Its all peanuts, it always has been.

So more slicy, less dicey. Right now I have it at 0.022" BTE and am decreasing it to 0.020", with and an exclusive 36, inclusive 18 DPS. That seems to be more slicy especially compared to similar knives in the category. (This is an open invite to criticize)

Although I agree that a sub 4" blade should not be a chopper, I would hesitate to shoot for too thin, as I think a folder would fit that service sector a bit more appropriately.

People do have folders much larger than this though, maybe we do need more delicate fixies...
Click to expand...

By too thick and obtuse, I mean the stock thickness and primary bevel included angle, rather than the secondary edge bevel.
 
I agree with Mecha.

You're probably going to have to decide if you're going to swim in the "sharpened prybar" pool or the "fine and slicey" pool.

It's hard to do both.

There is nothing quite like the joy of using a THIN, sharp knife for cutting. A knife was designed for cutting and slicing and not much else. If you start trying to make it chop and pry, it won't cut all that well and there will be better suited tools that will out-pry and out-chop it too. So it really won't excel at anything.

Geometry will even negate poor heat treating to some (not insignificant) degree.
 
SharpBits said:
So, how are things progressing? Hopefully, all is well.
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Going well! The building is still waiting on power. I'm currently getting sheath prototypes together. I recently made a thermo/vacuum form mold to try it ourselves, and we are getting quotes from plastics companies as well.

We are also getting ready to head to bladeshow, so if you see some nerds in micron shirts feel free to say hi. Unfortunately Olive will have to stay home and guard the equipment.

On that note she needs to guard better than that. Our wire for the machines was stolen. How fun! Shits not cheap that's for sure.
 
SharpBits said:
Wow, sorry to hear of the wire thefts. Covered by insurance I hope.
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Currently pending. Crossing my fingers.

It'll be a while till we need it thankfully. Installing the three phase it's far beyond how expensive and time consuming I ever could have expected.

We've got plenty to do in the meantime, after being bullied into a thinner knife and all
 
So I remember when I brought Micron Knives to bladeforums one member suggested to get a priest to bless the equipment to rid it of survives bad mojo. I really should have done it LOL

Wiring the equipment is proving to take forever. The power company finally paid us a visit yesterday though so I'll have more info in a couple weeks.

I have knife updates too fortunately. We are in the process of going from a one off prototype to a production style prototype run. This will allow us to make design changes to help with manufacturability before we make all the fixturing. This batch of 5 knives is supposed to match production level surface finishes, dimensions, and heat treatment. With these five knives we should be able to create our quality control metrics, our testing requirements, all the fixturing for production, and content for the website and socials.

1: I need to finalize the name of the knife. For the first knife being a 3.5" pocketable edc/survival knife, I like the idea of something small. Maybe Micron Ember? Micron Ember 3.5? Micron Trek? Micron DE3.5?
2: I need to figure out 1- what to measure 2- how to measure and 3- how much variation is acceptable. The tang is skeletonized under the scales, so measuring the pockets is difficult, as it's mostly fluid. A go-no-go may be the only real option here. QC for heat treat and material quality is difficult. Hardness testing is easy, but I am also thinking of heat treating a coupon with every batch for a charpy impact test. This would not be to quantify toughness, but rather document the change of toughness between batches. With time we would then be able to establish a high and low acceptable variation. I do need more ideas for testing. Maybe a jig that cuts rope?
3: Sheaths will quickly become a major hurdle. I picked up a vacuum thermoforming machine and will be trying my hand at thermoforming our own kydex.
4: Hardware is on the lathe! We are using our old live tooled TL15 with a sub spindle. Not the most hands free automated process, but it's accurate, and it's just another thing we can make in house.
5: The website is basically done. It's still a landing page at the moment so add your email to the list and you'll see the knife before anyone else does. Once I get enough content then the rest of the website will be available.
6: To jimp, or not to jimp...
 
SharpBits said:
I would avoid using the name "Ember" as it is already in use by a maker here on BF. See the REK Knives sub-forum for more.

I like small fixed blades, so I'm watching closely.

Nice update, keep 'em coming, thanks!
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Ahh that'd be why it kept coming to me.... I should stick with the precision/cold/sharp names instead of the artisan/nature/warm names anyways
 
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