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I have been doing hollow grinds for a long time and have both serrated and smooth wheels. The best scenario is to have both, because your finish work will suffer with a serrated wheel. If a guy was to only have one wheel for everything, I would recommend a smooth wheel. But that being said, I...

Online has a great assortment of tubing with different wall thicknesses for making mosaic pins, there material prices are fair, but there shipping is a little pricey. Last time I ordered the shipping was more than the materials, of course it was a small order though. Clint

I have to say, my buffer is the least used machine in my shop! Mine runs at 1800 rpm and is mounted on top of my bench with dust scoops built around the back half of the wheels. Get full sewn wheels or felt wheels, they will be much safer and less likely to grab your knife than with a loose...

I use a Starrett bi-metal blades 24 TPI wavy edge. It seems to be the perfect blade for me for cutting out blades to cutting pins and thin tubing. Seems really fine toothed, but give em a try you'll like them. Always go slow at first with a new blade to properly break them in, then you can whale...

Here is a great USA made hardness tester that I have owned for twenty years! It is made by Pacific Transducer Corp. and it is there model 415C it comes with test blocks and cost currently around $1000.00 bucks. I paid under $500.00 twenty years ago ! It chucks up into your drill press for very...

Nobody asked if you heat treated the blade first? I imagine some folks hand sand before heat treat, but I do my finish work on hardened steel personally. Very sound advice from all the hand sanders! James is so right, take it as far as you can on the belt sander before doing the hand work. it...

Absolutely simple can be elegant! I truly admire a well crafted knife without the bling bling. Design, crisp termination lines, fit and finish will impress the trained eye. Clint

Hi Randy, I use the textured g-10 a lot on my full tang knives. You can use the threaded folder pivots that come in 1/8" diameter with 2-56 threads or 3/16" with 4-40 threads. This allows you to use flat head screws or button head screws with the proper countersink. Very strong connection and...

I got my height gauge from Enco, it is a dial one with a carbide scribe. about eighty bucks. I also scribe two parallel lines to maintain edge thickness before heat treat. I bought there small granite surface plate to use with the height gauge and it works great for checking how flat your blades...

Hello, I was watching a infomercial the other day for the NU-WAVE induction hot plate and it made me think about tempering. I think there about a hundred bucks. They are supposed to be very accurate from very low temps to 575 degrees. Anybody have thoughts on this ? If you could lay a few blades...

I have a variable speed DC motor grinder with a reverse switch on my controller and I never have the need to use it. My belts are always turning down towards the ground and I do my hollow grinds with edge up, also sharpen with edge up. But with that being said, different strokes for different...

Drum switches are what to use, I bought one for my homemade disk grinder and it works great. It was a little complicated for me to wire and ended up taking it to a electric motor shop to get it wired. I think there was a tread here about wiring a drum switch? I am sure somebody here can direct...

I have to agree with the Turco for oil quench steels, it is easy to use. I think K&G supplies still sells it in quart cans. I bought a gallon of it years ago when it was still cheap and I am still using it today. Turco does lightly etch the surface of the steel, but it cleans up easy after heat...

Hello, Try this website, they sell the heating coils for kilns & furnaces with handy charts for finding the right one for your furnace. I have a sugar creek furnace too, someday I will need a coil for mine. WWW.duralite.com Let us know how it goes! Clint

Thanks for the input guys ! This was my first time with the highlighting dyes and did not realize how light they were! I should do better next time, since I know what to expect. I enjoy leather working and need to slow down with it to get better. I tend to hurry through it after spending so much...

I was using some highlighting dye the other day and it was looking pretty awesome until I noticed my layout lines showing through! A friend showed me how to use red ink pen to do my layouts for my borders and basket weave. My regular brown dye and cordovan dye has always covered the red ink...

For me the checkering files leave a very sharp cut at the bottom of the groove, I stopped using them when I had stress cracks forming at the bottom of these grooves when I heat treated and actually had a few blades snap in half. This is why we round off inside corners on hidden tang knives...

I buy the cheap Q-tips from Walmart for cleaning fresh epoxy from the ricasso area, they can be dipped in alcohol or WD-40 and thrown away each time you wipe. they will not scratch and they are cheap as dirt "well almost" !! I store mine in a plastic container to keep them them free of gritty...

I do a lot of hand sanding with different sanding sticks. Using strips of wet & dry paper I attach to my sticks with two sided carpet tape. Put the carpet tape onto your sanding block and peel off the protective film, then you can train the adhesive with your hand to make it less sticky. This...

Hi Rey, I bought a jeweling tool from Jantz supply years ago that holds a Cratex rod. With a drill press and a little practice It's fairly easy. I think Brownell's , the gunsmiths supply place has all you need for this job. No secrets here !! Clint