Milling Machine and Knife Making

T

TheHermit

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May 25, 2008
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My son has an interest in knife making. I have an old, small mill and recently spent some of my employer's money to learn to use it. I haven't seen any posts about using mills to shape blades. Anyone here use them and care to share some tips?

Thanks.
 
horizontal or vertical? also "Nathan the Machinist" mills out some "'billet" knives there's an old post with pics in here somewhere if you want to go digging of him milling a blade. in all honesty though make sure your speeds and feeds are in order on the milling machine. Annealed tool steel is still much harder than 1018 mild steel ever thought of being. Also make sure you get a "Machinary's Handbook" copy and follow it like gospel
 
you cant really do a whole lot with a manual mill. i do use a mill at times to cut shoulders for guards to butt against once they are slid up the tang along with milling slots for the tang to pass through the guard. after i made the meat cleaver i was thinking of how neat it would be to make one on a mill since the edge is straight.
 
I'm of the opinion that it can be cheaper, faster, safer and cooler (less hot, not more hip) to create chips rather than dust, but that is just my perspective. It is unarguably less messy.

I think that for most folks, a knife grinder and a heat treat furnace or forge would be more useful before a mill. But once the basics are covered a mill is a valuable tool.

This is from an older post covering a similar question:

Nathan the Machinist said:
A mill can be used to flatten a part, remove bulk material in an "etch a sketch" manner, used as a heavy duty drill press with depth precision of .001", square a part (make it 90 deg everywhere, think about it, a surface grinder can't really do that very well), and can be used as a lathe by mounting the work piece in the spindle and putting a tool in a vice to turn, groove and face a pin. You could use it to turn, knurl, drill, tap, face, countersink and cut off a thumb stud (or just your thumb), hinge pins, stop pins. Hollow out an integral folder, back bore clearance for bronze washers inside an integral. I use one to set my edge thickness before grinding. You can use one for "file work".

Add CNC control and you can also use it to profile your blade, engrave your sig, mill your bevels, contour your handle, mill threads with 100% thread depth in a square bottomed hole with control of the "tightness" and perfect placement precision (handy on a folder)

A mill can also be used to make tools and fixtures that are used in knifemaking such as parts for grinders, filing and honing jigs.

And my favorite use of a mill so far is you can mount a stir in a chuck and mix epoxy with it. Okay, that's not really my favorite, but I'll bet you never thought of it...
Click to expand...
 
i use a mill alot on my knives, fullers and notches galore. you could do great flats in a mill, you just have to spend some time on fixtures.
 
J.S. Carter said:
horizontal or vertical? also "Nathan the Machinist" mills out some "'billet" knives there's an old post with pics in here somewhere if you want to go digging of him milling a blade. in all honesty though make sure your speeds and feeds are in order on the milling machine. Annealed tool steel is still much harder than 1018 mild steel ever thought of being. Also make sure you get a "Machinary's Handbook" copy and follow it like gospel
Click to expand...

Horizontal.
http://www.lathes.co.uk/atlasmiller/

I had a 15 week class, but we only used aluminum and mild steel so I know there will be a learning curve.
 
richard j said:
you cant really do a whole lot with a manual mill. i do use a mill at times to cut shoulders for guards to butt against once they are slid up the tang along with milling slots for the tang to pass through the guard. after i made the meat cleaver i was thinking of how neat it would be to make one on a mill since the edge is straight.
Click to expand...

I've thought of adding servo's and a computer. As long as there is no change of direction, backlash shouldn't be a problem. Sounds good in theory, no? :D
 
TheHermit said:
Horizontal.
http://www.lathes.co.uk/atlasmiller/

I had a 15 week class, but we only used aluminum and mild steel so I know there will be a learning curve.
Click to expand...

Cool Mill, we have a Kearney and Trekker model 3-1/2 B from about 1940
havent used it much though since we got the bridgeport,

When we did use it, my dad and me made an indexer that used a 100:1 gear box. Instead of the normal 40:1. It made figuring revolutions SOOOOOOOOO much easier, as well as more precise. We used it to mill several rifle barells into octogons, and even a seven sided with flutes running along the edges of the barrel, (Ruger M77 in 7x57 Mauser, with a 7 sides on the barrel and 7 flutes) but again way cool have fun
 
J.S. Carter said:
Cool Mill, we have a Kearney and Trekker model 3-1/2 B from about 1940
havent used it much though since we got the bridgeport,

When we did use it, my dad and me made an indexer that used a 100:1 gear box. Instead of the normal 40:1. It made figuring revolutions SOOOOOOOOO much easier, as well as more precise. We used it to mill several rifle barells into octogons, and even a seven sided with flutes running along the edges of the barrel, (Ruger M77 in 7x57 Mauser, with a 7 sides on the barrel and 7 flutes) but again way cool have fun
Click to expand...

Price was right. FREE. (Except for the $400 I just spent on tooling) My company paid for me to learn to use it. My real interest is telescopes, but I figure I'll help my son get started with the knives because the tolerances aren't going to be nearly as tight as they will be for telescope parts and may as well make something he wants while I learn.
 
im going to be using the mills at work to make some nice fixed blade integrials from cpm 3v and A2.
 
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