I thought knife making would be an interesting metalworking topic. I mean we got tools, quality metalworking, steels, heat treating, forging, and on and on.
So if I get my shop building and have more convenient access to my equipment, I'd like to make some quality knives. For one, I want a blade of D2 because I hear it's almost stainless but holds an edge real well.
So if I could come up with a nice folding knife locking mechanism I could design in CAD and machine with the CNC, I could use that design to make an assortment of blade styles and handle styles.
One thing I noticed about knife making is that you can get a lot of money tied up in equipment, and I always like the idea of getting more equipment but not spending lots of dollars. I thought I could make a knife makers grinder by using tubing in the Reese hitch size ranges, maybe using polyurethane wheels ground true for contact wheels.
The heat treating furnaces are quite high too. Maybe get some kiln firebrick and heat elements, fabricate a frame to hold the bricks, and use an industrial ramping temperature controller with a solid sate relay for temperature control. Then I can set it to soak, ramp to temperature, hold, then switch to tempering temperature. Also it seems one of the controllers would be great at annealing, heat, soak, let it cool at specified rate at the critical temperatures.
Anyone here do any knife making?
RogerN