Knife shop tour and tips for new makers

hey guys II come here give me a little tour of my tiny little knife shop now maybe give some fellow new guys advice on what worked and what didn't work for me maybe a save you a few bucks in the long run or maybe in the beginning we'll see all right I guess we'll start off in the corner yeah I got this trend air shield very important protect your lungs you only get one set of lungs and this is nice because it has the face shield too you don't have to worry about something flying in your face it works great the battery life is terrible on it and it's pretty bulky it's not heavy at all but it's bulky so when you're hovering over the grinder to try and see what you're doing it tends to get pretty close to the grinder and sometimes hits it so I use it for some things and I just can't use it when I'm grinding bevels but it works it's expensive so I would get something else maybe a 3m full-face would be the way to go of what I was recommended anyway I plan on picking one of them up soon all right over here we just got a light pole I just use it for extra lighting when I take all the belts and crap off of it but right now it's holding all the belts let's see we got the craftsman 4 by 36 I don't really recommend this guy a lot of guys have this for some reason and I don't know why I bought it but I do some light surface grinding on it and it works out ok but the belts are actually kind of expensive for it it doesn't work all that great so you're better off paying the extra money up front and getting precision ground steel if I could do it again that's the way I would do it get the little magnets from Harbor Freight definitely pick one or two or three of these up there are a couple of bucks very handy highly recommended the dremel tool Dremel is handy every man should own a dremel just do yourself a favor if money allows it's not necessary to make nice look pick up a dremel there just handy overall hmm we've got extra belts for the 4 by 36 over here got a no-name angle grinder and I cut out my first few profiles with a tiny little wheel that's left it works it's loud it's obnoxious but it works if this is all you got by all means use it it will get that blank cut out for you now given a preference if I was trying to decide between what to buy I would go with this guy it's a Harbor Freight Porter band they're about 80 bucks or so and well worth the money it's held up great so far I've done a ton of cutting on it Milwaukee makes one that's about 300 bucks which I hear is awesome and you can get a swag off-road table for it to convert it into into a bandsaw something similar for that so it's got a nice nice rest where you can do some precision cutting and on it but if this thing burned out tomorrow I would buy another one it's great it's a lot better cutting out profiles than using that guy over here abrasives Sam pay for everything from 60 to 2,000 grit stock up you're going to use a lot of it get more than you think you need trust me epoxy we got the West Systems G flex this was recommended by a bunch of knife makers and so far so good I've had zero problems or issues with it held very well and the stuff lasts a while I made about 10 knives with that little bit of epoxy over here a common new guy mistake that I made myself the craftsman bandsaw and I don't know about you guys but I thought I can get this thing and get some fine toothed blades for it so I can cut steel on it they are way too fast and you cannot get the blades to cut steel trust me I've tried don't waste your money on it unless you're going to cut a lot of wood I do 99% of my cutting on the port of man from g10 handle material to steal everything I cut everything on it if you're doing a lot of wood and you're gonna get the giant blocks that you need to cut into scales maybe this would be helpful but I don't use a lot of wood so this just sits and collects dust okay we got the vise it's not a top-quality vise and if you talk to any machinist they'll tell you to spend big bucks on a vise I couldn't justify it it was way out of my budget so this is another Harbor Freight special but when you do get a vise pay the extra to get one that tilts like this it's very very helpful and when you're hand sanding and you need to get the bottom of the handle or something like that you can tilt it and turn it and get everywhere you need to get these jaws are the magnetic kind I got from Home Depot it's kind of like a hard plastic and I found these to be very handy too so you don't get the that knurling and indented into your blade you still have to wrap the blade and protect it or will get scratched and this isn't the perfect solution but they're like 12 bucks and well worth in my opinion all right another must-have for every knife maker got files whether you have all power tools or not need top-of-the-line power tools you still need files I use them a lot these are cheap crap do yourself a favor spend the money get good files I heard the old Nicholson's are the way to go but the ones that use the most are the half round this guy here you got the flat and this little round file here definitely pick up some good files all right then we got the the grinder itself this is the first grinder that was actually able to make a knife on you know anything that really resembled a functioning knife I made the mistake like most new guys and started with the little one by 30 and honestly I've made a few knife-like objects on it but I never had a ton of luck it's really easy to stole the motor on that guy it's just not precise it's 40 bucks what do you really expect so do yourself a favor save the 40 bucks save a few more bucks after that for 150 bucks get yourself this guy the craftsman 2 by 42 I wasn't able to find it locally I had to order it online but they still make it as far as I know the belts are pretty reasonable and will last a lot longer than a 1 by 30 no don't get me wrong if you have the money to go and spend on a good to buy 72 by all means do it I would if I could but my budget weights way too tight to spend a thousand fifteen hundred two thousand dollars on a grinder so I wanted to see if I was into it so I've spent 150 bucks so far so good I will save up and buy a better grinder if you're gonna spend the most money in your shop on just one item just get a good grinder if you got it and you lay it out by all means to it but if you're using the 2 by 42 like I am here for the flat platen I really recommend the glass platen here I got it at us a knife maker for about 8 bucks be advised if you use these they are not tempered glass they will shatter into a billion pieces well they're not they will they can't you know so just so you're aware of that I haven't had any issues with this but it helps you get nice clean drawings definitely recommend it for this machine as you can see the platen a little wider than two inches it makes it tough to get into some of the tight spots over here I have a well those cheapo drill bit sets as you can see the ones that are upside down are completely ruined they don't last very long at all I didn't know what sizes to get so I just bought one of these sets to see what I use the most and honestly find out the common sizes and spend the money and get these Cobalt as you can see right there not the kind you get from Lois the cobalt is the type of drill bit these are some 316 s some quarter inch get yourself a bunch of eighth inch and some of the common sizes and pipe duplicates by multiples maybe five of each or so and you'll be good to go for a while all right over here we got the die cim layout fluid I was using sharpies in the beginning and this stuff's there's a couple of bucks and it works a lot better than coloring your blades and with sharpies and for guys that are new this is so you could see your scribe lines to get a reference point so you get your grinds nice and centered and everything you can see I got a bunch of blanks here with the layout fluid on them and then you scribe a nice center line down the middle you see how well that stands out let's we can oh these are a bunch of works in progress hope to get those done pretty soon this guy here is my work in progress Sugar Creek Forge build along friction folder I learned a lot from this building stay tuned oh there's gonna be more about this guy coming up now when it comes to grinding I didn't know what I was doing so I went and I spent I think it was like 70 bucks on this guy this is for those of you that don't know this is called the bubble jig it comes with a little bubble level gets magnetized to this and you go by the level in the bubble to adjust your your grind degrees so you can set it to 5 degrees 10 degrees and so on at first just suffer through it ruin some steel and learn how to grind freehand trust me I picked this thing up fumble around with it what just not for me I find learning to free hunt a free grind it was better for me in the beginning and it definitely taught me a lot protractor very handy definitely pick one of these up they're pretty cheap center punch everybody needs a center punch as long as it's sharp I guess but this is a cheapo from Sears they go for about eight bucks you definitely need one of these to mark your holes so everything lines up nice and I seen your drill bit doesn't walk on you one two three blocks pick up a set of these very very handy for multiple reasons for example if you want to use the platen and need to get it completely 90 degrees see how quick that was the precision ground on all sides pick them up they're 20 bucks worth the money okay the drill press itself is $100 Ryobi home depot special it works it drills holes pretty straight they do have a little bit of run out because well it's a hundred dollar drill press but it's a lot better than using a hand drill so if you're on a tight budget and this is all you can afford it'll work that that was my situation I'm on a tight budget so pick this guy up and I really don't have any regrets one day I would like to get a nice quality drill press like an old delta or or a mill but you're talking big bucks for those guys so tight budget don't be afraid to pick up the rail beats you've been good to me so far I got the little $20 vise I really don't use this guy a whole lot huh mine already broke $20 that's what you get I guess these sanding drums I got these it's super grit I believe it is where I get a lot of my excuse me I get a lot of my abrasives this is the one-inch drum and a 3/4 inch drum they are great for cleaning up the toils in the finger area let's see this leaves are 50 cents or 33 cents apiece I use the coarse grit a lot and here's some medium here buy a bunch of them they burn out pretty quick but it's better than filing the entire thing and then trying the hand sand it just don't put a lot of lateral force on this or you will burn out the bearings the drill press isn't made for that you don't want to kill your drill press because you're pressing like a gorilla on this thing alcohol every shot needs alcohol I use it for cleaning the handles before I put the scales on it get some of the crap and gunk off of it it dries up acetone a lot of guys use that stuff but it tends to leave a residue so I don't bother I just use the alcohol okay we got the Harbor Freight buffer a little 6-inch buffer works alright for me a lot of guys say it's crap but I also know of probably an equal amount of guys that use it and it works out fine for them for oh I use it for polishing the kira night handles or if you want to attempt a mirror polish on your blade or something like that I use the white Rouge the most and I've also got a brick of the red Rouge see if you're going to change the compounds you have to change the wheel to don't mix your compounds you're gonna screw it up and you want a clean wheel - I know it doesn't look clean I have to I have to dress that wheel hmm alright clamps you can never have enough clamps every time you go to Home Depot swing by the clamp section they're a couple of bucks each and pick up a clamp if you're doing multiple knives at once you're gonna be glad you have a bunch of clamps all right over here we got the 3m super 77 spray glue this stuff works great for putting my templates on the steel and it comes off a really easy with some wd-40 holds up through the water and everything mmm it's just a paper template getting beat up like that now for the grinder I picked up one of these I think it's a duct or a piece of a duct for HVAC and it's a couple of bucks and I just cut a hole in the bench ran some of the duct work down into a bucket and it really cuts down on the dust and crap I mean you can see how much garbage is in there don't mind the cigarette but definitely helps instead of just slinging it everywhere Windex I gotta fix them up but get a bottle of Windex it works great for hands and II to keep the sandpaper clean I don't know why it works great a lot of guys use it and recommended it and they were right pick up some Windex got my bucket of water for cooling off the blades see over here we got got a radio you definitely have to have a radio you go bananas in a tiny little shop like this by yourself and silence you've got a bunch of stainless pin material a bunch of handle material inside this tub I'm on Long Island and it's gonna get cold pretty soon hopefully this heater can help take the bite out of the cold I'm in this little tin shed I mean no insulation at all it's gonna get freezing in here well you do what you can keep on grinding right over here I got another respirator this is a Harbor Freight one it's not the best if you're gonna spend the money spend the extra $15 and get a 3m with the good filters I mean you could see how much crap gets sucked into there like I said it's better than nothing but get a quality mask I plan on getting a 3m myself safety glasses those are not saying protect your eyes you only get two of them don't ruin them I didn't mean for that to rhyme that was kind of corny all right ear plugs the bandsaw the angle grinder and even the grinder itself tend to be pretty loud protect your ears this package is like a dollar and they come in cool tactical pink and purple no excuse not to protect your ears all right I got some D to some spare steel for coming up projects paper towels they have a ton of em on hand you're gonna need them you're gonna go through a lot of them just a bunch of paper towels same thing with the cotton swabs for when you're cleaning up the excess epoxy author acaso trust me you're gonna go through a lot of those too I got the blast cabinet here I haven't used it yet it's cheap of model I got off the eBay for about a hundred bucks some guys use it and think you know they get on with it all right some guys say it's crap but it was a hundred bucks so I figured to give it a shot I still have to get the the abrasives the media for it we'll see how we go I'm still doing some research on what kind of finish I'm trying to get out of it but that's about it guys yeah just me and my tiny little tin shed with a tarp for a roof and my my light hanging from it there's a roof up there but it leaks that's why the tarp is there but yeah stay tuned for some more videos and I'll catch you on the next one guys

Channel: Ekim Knives

Views: 89,791

Keywords: Knife, shop tour, knife making, custom knife, how to, fixed blade, harbor freight, 1x30, 2x42

Id: W8s7CgPGivY

Length: 18min 19sec (1099 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 12 2014