I've come across a design or two of yours, but didn't realize you had this channel. I got into machining/manufacturing partially due to a love of knives so I will be subscribing to you and checking out your other videos!
I was going to suggest the face mill but your on the right track. It should give you a better finish and quicker run time. offset the tool path so the face mill is not centered over the blade from the outside edges and you should have room with the fixture you have. Great videos keep it up.
Saw a Blade Hq video a couple of weeks ago where I was introduced to the Swartz Scalpel and ordered it immediately, Loved it and quickly became part of my daily edc. Made the mistake of letting my wife use it, and she loved it, and I just ordered a second one for me, AGAIN. Great video on how it's made. Looking forward to more informative videos.
Slick fixture. I would design one clamp in the center that can clamp both parts and is spring loaded and can rotate. So essentially just back off center screw a couple turns, rotate clamp 90 degree and switch parts. Clamp would probably need to be made from at least aluminum and use a larger screw such as a 3/8-16
I needed this so badly. I hope to start making knives here. I am going to try to program this today and tomorrow. Thoughts: Yeah, magnets aren't going to work great for chip evacuation. It does seem like if the main grinds were cut as operations 1 and 2, instead of 3/4, you would have extra material to have a bolt hold the knife in place. This would keep you from needing the magnets at all. The idea of putting a spacer into the gap and using epoxy, though? Great idea. Theoretically, you could get the same type of support by using a steel spacer and a magnet on the other side of the blade to fix the blade in place, though, right? Genuinely, thank you for posting this video.
This is perfect! thanks for sharing. How do thing it will be the process for classic knives bevels? I mean, how will you deal with the round part towards the tip where the angle turns.?
Wow. I have zero custom knifemaking experience, but I have a few pencil sketched designs. Do you have any suggestions on resources for me to learn how to make a knife design on a CAD file? Or just learning CAD in general?
I love videos like these! I'm curious as to whether the magnets are for location or secondary work holding? and would the score you got from the chip on the blade just disappear after heat treatment and grinding anyway?
The pins locate and the magnet is to hold the tip down. I actually don't grind them after this process. Just sand blast and tumble. Sometimes the swirls do appear after that at which point I lightly stone them out.
Have you considered using toggle clamps instead of screws for holding the knives to the fixture? They would reduce the loading and unloading times considerably.
Could you use a vacuum instead of the magnet. Sure, you would need to figure out the compression of the o-ring, but an island inside the vacuum cavity might be useful as a 'elevation' stop.
I don't think you need magnets since you already have locating pins! One problem though, your work piece is not fixed at the tip which may at some pieces introduce vibrations.
That's what the magnet is for, to support that floating end of the blade. Some other knifemakers use epoxy or hot glue or just fully 3d machine a pad to do the same thing.
The Scalpel+ has been shelved for a while. In our small shop we are limited to a few projects in the works at any one time. We would like to bring it back, but we're not sure when that will be. Thank you!
The difference between amateur and professional shops is fixturing. Great job!
I've come across a design or two of yours, but didn't realize you had this channel. I got into machining/manufacturing partially due to a love of knives so I will be subscribing to you and checking out your other videos!
Nice work TJ. The fixture worked very well. Cheers, Aaron.
Love the thorough explanations. Ciao, Marco.
Great fixturing idea. Cool stuff. Keep it coming.
That magnet idea is pure genius! I’ll be stealing that for sure.
Thanks for sharing your thinking and methods. It’s cool!
Thanks for sharing! Good fixturing idea with the ramps. I like it!
Very clever, thanks for showing us 👍
wow got to appreciate all the thought behind the design of this little utility blade i wish i could have picked on up they are all sold out.
I was going to suggest the face mill but your on the right track. It should give you a better finish and quicker run time. offset the tool path so the face mill is not centered over the blade from the outside edges and you should have room with the fixture you have. Great videos keep it up.
Awesome work bro! Didn’t know you had a channel until today. Glad I found it!⚡️🎩🇺🇸
Brilliant! Really! Brilliant!
Saw a Blade Hq video a couple of weeks ago where I was introduced to the Swartz Scalpel and ordered it immediately, Loved it and quickly became part of my daily edc. Made the mistake of letting my wife use it, and she loved it, and I just ordered a second one for me, AGAIN. Great video on how it's made. Looking forward to more informative videos.
Thank you very much for your support!
Very nice job and set up
Slick fixture. I would design one clamp in the center that can clamp both parts and is spring loaded and can rotate. So essentially just back off center screw a couple turns, rotate clamp 90 degree and switch parts. Clamp would probably need to be made from at least aluminum and use a larger screw such as a 3/8-16
Great idea!! 🔥👊🏼
Brilliant idea! I have been thinking of a way to cut an edge on a blade using ECM and this might work
Thats a really nice work around, now if I can figure out how to do that on the onefinity....yeah, it's a stretch but impossible? hopefully not.
great video. pretty inspiring.
Cool, thanks for sharing 👍
I needed this so badly.
I hope to start making knives here. I am going to try to program this today and tomorrow.
Thoughts: Yeah, magnets aren't going to work great for chip evacuation. It does seem like if the main grinds were cut as operations 1 and 2, instead of 3/4, you would have extra material to have a bolt hold the knife in place. This would keep you from needing the magnets at all.
The idea of putting a spacer into the gap and using epoxy, though? Great idea. Theoretically, you could get the same type of support by using a steel spacer and a magnet on the other side of the blade to fix the blade in place, though, right?
Genuinely, thank you for posting this video.
These ever gonna come back?! No one has them and I love the design!
Yes, we are working on more soon! Please sign up for the newsletter on my site schwarzknives.com - Thank you!
This is perfect! thanks for sharing. How do thing it will be the process for classic knives bevels? I mean, how will you deal with the round part towards the tip where the angle turns.?
Wow. I have zero custom knifemaking experience, but I have a few pencil sketched designs. Do you have any suggestions on resources for me to learn how to make a knife design on a CAD file? Or just learning CAD in general?
I love videos like these! I'm curious as to whether the magnets are for location or secondary work holding? and would the score you got from the chip on the blade just disappear after heat treatment and grinding anyway?
The pins locate and the magnet is to hold the tip down. I actually don't grind them after this process. Just sand blast and tumble. Sometimes the swirls do appear after that at which point I lightly stone them out.
Have you thought about pulling a vacuum under the blade portion of OP 2? Are your primary magnet problems on OP 1?
Have you considered using toggle clamps instead of screws for holding the knives to the fixture? They would reduce the loading and unloading times considerably.
That could definitely work on a future iteration!
I would remove the magnets and use some air cylinders to clamp your parts that will speed up production.
Could you use a vacuum instead of the magnet. Sure, you would need to figure out the compression of the o-ring, but an island inside the vacuum cavity might be useful as a 'elevation' stop.
Excellent idea. Might have to try that someday.
Saw the scalpel+ on Blade HQ and looked up your channel! Do you ever plan on creating kydex sheaths for these?
No plans for Kydex at the moment. Thanks for looking!
I don't think you need magnets since you already have locating pins!
One problem though, your work piece is not fixed at the tip which may at some pieces introduce vibrations.
That's what the magnet is for, to support that floating end of the blade. Some other knifemakers use epoxy or hot glue or just fully 3d machine a pad to do the same thing.
Why isn’t your scalpel on your website? And some sort of sheath or blade protector would be nice.
The Scalpel+ has been shelved for a while. In our small shop we are limited to a few projects in the works at any one time. We would like to bring it back, but we're not sure when that will be. Thank you!