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Rich, A few questions: What type of blade are you wanting to make? What will be the primary purpose or use of the blade? What tools and abilities do you have at your disposal? (Forging or stock removal?) What are your current abilities concerning HT? There are so many variables with...

Kevin, Excellent primer on the basics. I like how the post was designed to explain not only "what", but also "why"!

Best of Luck, Kevin! Lookin' great. Rob

Judging by the replies, the overall consensus seems to favor starting with flat stock of the appropriate thickness. I tend to agree. It really depends upon your objectives when making the knife. Heat treatment is the most important factor in a blade, and the best way to nail the heat...

Good point, Ken. Like I said, I'm not very smart when it comes to the electrical side of things. The main concern is to have a motor commonly available to you (wherever the location) so as to avoid unintended changes. The motor I mentioned replacing earlier was the original 3-phase...

Best of Luck, Randy!

Don, You slow things down from what is used on a blade that's already "broken-in". Two ways to do it: 1. Decrease the blade speed. 2. Decrease the feed rate. I like to feed about half as fast for the first 5-10 minutes worth of cutting on a new (saw) blade. After taking it slow to...

Fred, I'll take the number 427. Thanks, Rob

Sorta makes you wonder what's worth more- the wood used to build it, or the tools in it? That's a bunch of high-dollar wood, but given his trade, I'm sure he had more economical access to it than most of us. I'm gonna guess the most valuable of all was the detailed planning and time he...

Elasmonut, Glad to hear about your grinder project, and I hope it's coming along well. I consider myself the ultimate dummy on electric motors, but I do realize motors are available in all sorts of RPM. For our purposes, the most common seem to be 1700-1800 on the low end, and 3400-3600 on...

Use what you have available for the particular contour you need. I like to use powered tools in the initial shaping, then finish by hand. Best to use a bandsaw for as much as you can first. For shaping handle material by hand, different shapes of rasps and some shop-made radiused sanding...

Given your location, maybe the possibility that some of it could be redwood? If it is, it's apt to be "dry and brittle", but will still make good-lookin' pieces. Stabilize or use a durable pore-filling finish for best durability. Stabilizing is best, but brushing on some CA glue works well...

Looks great, Randy! Course you know that you have to start gettin' serious about leather now that you've got those custom stamps!

Nice score, Clint! Looks like you did very well on a big farrier-style anvil. As a rule, I generally don't like to subscribe to the cost/lb idea, because much depends on specifics (type, construction, and condition) of the anvil in question. But lately, used anvils in any decent shape at...

Two concerns regarding your grinder conversion: 1. How much power is required? 2. What are the effects of increased wheel diameter? If we're talking about the same grinder (Skil 3380), it's 2.1 amps with a rotational speed of 3450 RPM. POWER I would much prefer to leave the...

I'm assuming that you're wanting to have one power source for both types of grinder. Yes, you can do that if you extend the shaft and disk to the left side of the grinder. You cannot go right of the drive wheel because you still need a way to easily install and remove the sanding belts.:34...

What's the question?

Most use JBWeld for this. Has a decent temp rating for the "common" (affordable) epoxies. I can't remember exact rating, but should be somewhere around 500? My belief is that if you're getting things that hot, then you're already exceeding the safe temps for the sanding/grinding belt itself...

If you mean closing up the pores on open-grained wood, pore filler is how it's done. If you mean minor splits, cracks, pinholes, etc., I use CA for the small stuff. For larger imperfections like wormholes, etc., I use clear epoxy mixed with sawdust from the wood itself. Sometimes tinting...

Since it's only a 5" disk, it could very well use a shaft smaller than 5/8". I have one of the smaller disks that use a 1/2", and yet another that uses 3/8". You're gonna have to measure and find out what you need. Regarding the shaft, try to keep it short. The shorter it is, the less...