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The semester is about to begin here which means almost everything studio will be put on pause till the summer. I am frantically trying to finish up this folding knife project which is something I have wanted to do for a long long long time. It has turned into a hell of a project. I am learning so much!
Honestly, I really do not have the proper equipment to do all of the work. I dream of owning or having access to a KMG belt grinder (maybe I should just make my own). It would make sharpening blades and finishing parts a snap. Also a metal band saw would be handy. I would love to be able to chunk out some of the parts in order to then file and grind them down. While we are at it a mini milling machine would be nice and surface grinder and a screw press....... yeah.
I also have discovered that blade steel alloys can be insane. There is a wide range of steels that can be used to make the blades but only a few that I could actually temper using what I have. Think heating in an enameling kiln then air, water or oil cooling compared to cryogenic quenching.
I have been doing some test cuts on some different types of steels in order to see what might work for me. Luckily there is a laser cutter right down the road that will do test cuts for almost nothing. He is a super nice guy and willing to experiment which is RARE. I am trying to take full advantage of this in order to get some parts cut as fast as possible to get through some design iterations. Laser cutting is not great for tool steel because it basically tempers as it cuts. Also one side is perfect and the other is garbage and requires some serious grinding (this is where the belt grinder would come in handy). I am looking into waterjet cutting for the blades but that gets pricy. As in $500 per blade. If anyone has a hookup please let me know. Until then, I have a few changes that need to happen and I will keep designing and cutting until it works. I almost have a working prototype.
