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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need.

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  #16  
Old 08-15-2013, 09:45 PM
Doug Lester Doug Lester is offline
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Actually, of the mystery metal that you can choose from, old leaf springs are probably about your best source. It will be something on the order of 5160 but it will still leave you guessing a bit about the proper heat treatment to get the performance that you will want. You just can't assume that it's 5160 or will heat treat like it. Auto coil springs and railroad track would be pretty safe too but they would be a nightmare to break down.

Another problem that you will have to accept using old springs from any source is you will occasionally run into a section that has a stress crack(s) in it but I've even run into a new bar that had a defect running through it.

Doug


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  #17  
Old 08-15-2013, 10:00 PM
Imakethings Imakethings is offline
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Thanks Eric!
I'm also pleased you got the idea behind the bevels on that chisel. The customer was very pleased and excited over it.

The 2.5" one is done, but I neglected to get pictures. I did a 18" handle for it and a 8" blade with a 1.25" fuller down the middle, I'll get the customer to snap me a couple pictures of it so I can post it later.
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  #18  
Old 08-15-2013, 11:04 PM
Imakethings Imakethings is offline
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Doug,
I know the woes of stress fractures in used/recycled steel, I've had a couple that I've roughed out and later found cracks and fractures in after the etch. It's a pain in the butt, but I'm too cheap/poor to go buy the proper stuff, so I deal with the annoyance and frustration.
Coil springs are a pain the the butt to straighten out, but #### good stuff for doing tools for stone work. I might be doing a new set of lathe gouges out of some coil springs that I replaced in my truck awhile ago.
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  #19  
Old 08-17-2013, 10:38 PM
Imakethings Imakethings is offline
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Out of curiosity, what do you think would be a fair price for the chisel I've posted a picture of? I'm thinking about $65 for it, does that sound reasonable?
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  #20  
Old 08-25-2013, 07:44 PM
Imakethings Imakethings is offline
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Pictures of the larger slick and its smaller sibling.





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  #21  
Old 08-26-2013, 04:35 AM
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Crex Crex is offline
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Those turned out pretty nice. Look like they will do the job.

Have you tried using a cutoff in your side grinder to cut the coil spring in sections (to length) before straightening? Lot easier to work into straight bar that way, (Not trying to infer anything, but some folks just don't think about doing that).


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  #22  
Old 08-26-2013, 08:12 AM
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cbsmith111 cbsmith111 is offline
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That price doesn't sound out of line to me.
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  #23  
Old 08-26-2013, 08:36 AM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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$65 ? He should jump at that price and never look back. The price should have been settled before the project was started.

I know you're not doing this for a living but you should not give your work away. Once your reputation grows to the point where people generally know how much you charge to do something like this it becomes more difficult to raise the price. As for what your price should be, start with material cost, add consumable material costs, and then add the hours x your shop rate to arrive at a ball park figure. Your shop rate should not be less than $20/hr. So, for $65 your materials were free, you spent $5 on consumables, and it took 3 hours to make these. Not bad.

I know, when you calculate the truth of the formula above you would have to charge maybe $500 or maybe $1000 and the market won't bear that. But, it does show you that if you ask $200 or even $300 you would not be outside the bounds of reason. But again, price should have been set before the project was started. If you think the customer anticipates a charge in the $65 range - and you know you gave him some hint at some point - then you're stuck this time. Don't let it happen again .....


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  #24  
Old 08-26-2013, 11:58 PM
Imakethings Imakethings is offline
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Part of the reason I hooked him up with these is because he has a LOT of lumber kicking around, some of it rare, all of it seasoned. Between him and the other carpenters I trade with I can get a lot of really nice exotics and choice local species, so I cut him a deal on them. They also shop my name to their friends and give me feedback on the tools I make, I keep the number of people I do that for small (there are just 3 of them).
I also like to work in trade, makes it more difficult for the other guys to figure out what to try equate some of my tools for.

Next set of these I do I think is going to be closer in price to $100 for the smaller and $175 for the larger.
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