Where can I send out titanium scales for custom CNC texturizing

Drdan

Drdan

Joined
Dec 24, 2003
Messages
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After looking at Rick Hinderer's offerings, I am not going to be content with bead blasted or smooth 6/4 titanium scales on a custom folder being made for me in Italy. :grumpy:

I would really appreciate it if someone could link me up with a "CNC artist" who can either texturize my scales with a standard pattern like checkering or come up with a custom pattern. Without a doubt, nicely textured scales can make an otherwise plain knife spectacular.

Thanks for your help guys! :)
 
Is CNC the best way to go? Normally CNC texture is applied by the person who is making the knife, where it can be applied as part of the process that profiles, shapes and drills holes. Taking someone else's part and fixturing it for CNC milling to apply a texture would be a lot less neat, more expensive and might look like an after thought.

Have you seen any of Lee Williams' work? Not suggesting that he could do your texture work, but using him as an example of what can be done my a single artist without CNC.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...Williams-quot-Vital-Signs-quot-Iceman-Flipper
1168299708-Williams_Vital_Signs_Iceman_Framelock_1.jpg


good luck

Chris
 
Hi Chris, and thanks for your input. Yes, it might indeed look like an afterthought if not done by the maker. I have somneone who can engrave the handles, but the cost is very high. I might go with it anyway. I like Lee Williams' work. I'm going to look into it.

Thanks again!
 
You might get some more feedback over in the ShopTalk area. Although many of the things I design professionally get CNC milled, the particulars of milling and texturing contoured surfaces are outside my experience. I posted a couple of related questions and Nathan the Machinist here did a fantastic job of answering them. I have also been enjoying the youtube videos of John Grimsmo where a great deal of the process, set up and pitfalls of CNC folding knife making are shown.

These are two threads where I learned good stuff. Might help you with your decisions

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1266570-CNC-Scales

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...CNC-Textured-Handles-how-s-it-done-CAD-or-CAM

Everything I have learned is that CNC has a big up-front set up cost which makes sense only if you have to repeat the process lots of times, or the result is so important that you are willing to swallow the set up and tooling costs. Something John Grimsmo mentioned is that he has messed up a number of pallet loads of parts through a single numerical error in his code.
 
Thanks again Chris for your input and for the links.

John Grimsmo is a wizard with the CNC machine! :cool: I found his video before I started this thread. I then researched his name, and discovered that he's a knifemaker. Most knifemakers aren't comfortable with making parts for Others, so I never bothered to ask if he would take on a custom CNC job...
 
You haven't mentioned anything about the design.That can make a big difference in the method. A one of a kind ? or large numbers. One of my own Sebenzas I engraved figures from the cave in Northern Italy.like very simple line drawings . Truly custom means what the customer wants. Cou;ld you explain in detail what you're looking fo or provide sketches ?
 
There are hobbyist CNC machinists that might be able to do something like that economically, but I'd like to illustrate what the costs would be in a real shop.

Without knowing specifically what you're looking for I'll make some assumptions for discussion sake.

Scan in the original to have geometry to apply tool paths. A quick and dirty model ~ $100

Create, program and verify a simple design, ~$100

Setup to machine one side of a scale, ~$100

Actual cut time $15

The other side, ~$100

Actual cut time, ~15

Since knives are expensive and things don't always run perfect the first time you might want a setup piece to reduce risk, ~$100 (the shop is not responsible for scrap)

This doesn't include cleaning or disassemble-reassembly, nor any back and forth design iterations etc or even deburring and cleanup. And you're not guarantied a good outcome, though using an experienced shop helps that.

So the reality is, even a simple design, setup and machined in a machine shop using CNC would cost about $500 for the first one, and $30 each for additional, and double those numbers if it's a more complicated design.

You'd think somebody would be making a killing with numbers like that, but shops opperating on small projects like that barely stay afloat. It's time consuming and expensive with a bad risk:reward ratio.

Go to a big operation that actually specializes in high end design/development that does projects like this for corporate customers and you can multiply that number by 10.

CNC and one-off = $$$
 
The Buck 560 titanium always looks great. Simple design elements and still classy looking.
Maybe just drilling a few big holes is enough to elevate your plain titanium surface to true beauty.
 
Thank you very much for your responses.

Any of the below CNC machining designs would be amazing... The knife has borrowed some of its design from Japanese knives, so the last photo's "wave design" would be favored if it's not too difficult to achieve. I'd be willing to spend $500, and hopefully I can find a shop here in Europe.

RHK0223_2.jpg

ts1_gs.jpg

http://s30.postimg.org/dmnb5lalt/Japanese_Wave_Pattern.jpg

I really like the design seen in the middle photo, which is a knife made by Lionsteel here in Italy. A company spokeman informed me about the various costs for a single knife, all of which Nathan The Machinist mentioned. Lionsteel wans't interested in taking on the project, as they CNC their own knives exclusively.

Will keep shopping around... Thanks everyone for your informative responses! :)
 
Drdan said:
Thank you very much for your responses.

Any of the below CNC machining designs would be amazing... The knife has borrowed some of its design from Japanese knives, so the last photo's "wave design" would be favored if it's not too difficult to achieve. I'd be willing to spend $500, and hopefully I can find a shop here in Europe.

RHK0223_2.jpg

ts1_gs.jpg

http://s30.postimg.org/dmnb5lalt/Japanese_Wave_Pattern.jpg

I really like the design seen in the middle photo, which is a knife made by Lionsteel here in Italy. A company spokeman informed me about the various costs for a single knife, all of which Nathan The Machinist mentioned. Lionsteel wans't interested in taking on the project, as they CNC their own knives exclusively.

Will keep shopping around... Thanks everyone for your informative responses! :)
Click to expand...
The top knife in this post looks like it was processed on a fly cutter. This would be a fairly cheap way to get a textured handle. The fly cutter is usually used on flat surfaces. Google Schrade SCH601 Ti knife (image).
 
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