What do u use to cut knife blanks with

[cbr900son]

Just curious what most use. Long fun day of hacksawing in the shop and curious what everyone else does.

[huntforlife]

Good ol' hacksaw for initial work. Get it a little better with the bench grinder, then its all files from there on out.

[Frankallen]

I use an Angle Grinder with cut-off blades. Been using the Ryobi Angle grinder for 3 years! Cut through steel like nobody business. Then Profile on my belt sander.
Hope this Helps!!

Frank

[cbr900son]

Yeah might go grab one and try tommorow since i have a pretty nice air compressor. Any advatage to a angle grinde rover cut off wheel?

[Onies]

Another one here for an angle grinder. I use zip cut blades, then refine the profile on a 8" bench grinder.

[Ray Rogers]

Call me old fashioned but I use a $200 cheapie bandsaw. I think if you took an actual count you would find that those bandsaws from Harbor Freight and Grizzly are the most common way that blade profiles are cut. Takes less than 5 minutes to rough out a blade this way, then use the belt sander to finalize the shape. The advantages to using a bandsaw, IMO, is that the steel doesn't get hot, it's very fast, nothing gets thrown around by the tool (no sparks, grit, etc), and it's very quiet. Granted, it does cost more but it easily pays for itself in the long haul ....

[cbr900son]

Originally Posted by Ray Rogers

Call me old fashioned but I use a $200 cheapie bandsaw. I think if you took an actual count you would find that those bandsaws from Harbor Freight and Grizzly are the most common way that blade profiles are cut. Takes less than 5 minutes to rough out a blade this way, then use the belt sander to finalize the shape. The advantages to using a bandsaw, IMO, is that the steel doesn't get hot, it's very fast, nothing gets thrown around by the tool (no sparks, grit, etc), and it's very quiet. Granted, it does cost more but it easily pays for itself in the long haul ....

Hmm i have a cheapm ryobi bandsaw but never cut metal with it. What kind of blade do u use for knife blanks?

[dennie]

To add to what Ray mentioned, no dust, both metal and fiber like fiberglass that holds the wheels together, coating everything or beathing it.
dennie

[Ray Rogers]

The second most popular tool could easily be the portable bandsaws like Porta-Band. If your Ryobi is of that style then you could use it. If your Ryobi is a wood cutting saw then it is not appropriate.

On the metal cutting bandsaws a bi-metal blade like the Lenox Diemaster is the best. They will outlast anything else. Metal bandsaws and wood bandsaws are designed to use differet sized blades to that you cannot put them on the wrong machine. There are significant differences between the machines even though they look similar so I wouldn't waste time or money trying to cross dress a wood saw to make it cut metal.

Another handy thing about having a metal bandsaw in your shop is that it can be used to cut carbon fiber, G-10, and Micarta handle material. It's messy and you should wear a respirator but it gets the job done very quickly ....

[cbr900son]

Originally Posted by Ray Rogers

The second most popular tool could easily be the portable bandsaws like Porta-Band. If your Ryobi is of that style then you could use it. If your Ryobi is a wood cutting saw then it is not appropriate.

On the metal cutting bandsaws a bi-metal blade like the Lenox Diemaster is the best. They will outlast anything else. Metal bandsaws and wood bandsaws are designed to use differet sized blades to that you cannot put them on the wrong machine. There are significant differences between the machines even though they look similar so I wouldn't waste time or money trying to cross dress a wood saw to make it cut metal.

Another handy thing about having a metal bandsaw in your shop is that it can be used to cut carbon fiber, G-10, and Micarta handle material. It's messy and you should wear a respirator but it gets the job done very quickly ....

Thx aton for the info while i have a pretty nice shop area it was more geared twoard auto stuff. But like any real man i love having tools and the right tool for the job. Been addicted to knives lately and trying to "gear up" my shop for what i need vs want lol

[10es&]

I am a big fan of the porta-band for several reasons.

1 Blades are readily available locally and are inexpensive.
2 As Ray said, it will cut carbon, wood, steel......
3 With my limited shop space the size is convenient.

If money and space were of no concern than a stand alone unit specific to metal would be ideal but blades would likely not be available locally.

If you do a search for band saw mounts on this site you will find many different ideas to make your own.

My first porta-band was from Harbor Freight ($80) it was toast after two years. Now I have a Milwaukee, $160 from an pawn shop. It cost twice as much but is four times better and allot quieter.

Brett

[ARCustomKnives]

After I scribe as many blades as I can onto a piece of 18" stock, I will seperate them with a cutoff wheel using a benchtop mounted angle grinder that I rigged up.

I will then use the same grinder to remove any "corners" or large scrap areas. After that I do all of my profiling on my 2x72 sander using a 34 grit belt to hog the majority away, then I clean up the edges with a 60 to 120 grit belt.

All said and done, I can get a finished blank done in a matter of a few minutes, depending on the size of the knife.

[cbr900son]

Guess after lookign into the porta band vises and stands i should prob go that route. Any suggestions on a saw thats in the 150-300 range?

[Ray Rogers]

There are some important differences in the design of various porta bands, unfortunately I don't remember the important parts. If no one else makes a good suggestion you might try the Search on porta band because the differences have been discussed at length before.

If you can go to $300 I would again encourage you to consider the small bandsaw from Harbor Freight or Grizzly. If your reason for choosing the porta band over the HF saw is shop space you might consider doing what I did, When I bought my Grizzly saw my shop was in an 8 x 8 foot space so size was very important. Using a hacksaw, I cut the base off the saw which left a roughlt porta band sized machine which I then mounted on a wooden table I built for the purpose (much smaller than the table that came on the saw). A piece of kydex was molded over the cut end of the original table stub and the on/off switch mounted in the kydex. Been using the saw that way for about 14 years ....

[cbr900son]

http://www.grizzly.com/products/4-x-...-Bandsaw/G0622

Is this what u r talking about? Can it be set up to cut vertically like my wood bandsaw?