Making multiples

[Sickboy]

Hi Folks,
Having built a few knives over the past few years (plus a few other little projects, paddles and the like), and side stepping the good ladies request to spend time making something for us/her many times I cant put it off any longer.
So a set of steak knives it is as ours are a joke.
I'm seeing mini bowies, coffin handled obviously.
Now I'm not going to go crazy with these, intending to keep them pretty simple, brass bolster and pins, still unsure on the wood, maybe a liner.
Anyone have any tips as far as making multiples of the same knife, only ever made one of each (and indeed design, so many to try) before.

Thanks in advance

 

[mick91]

Hi Folks,
Having built a few knives over the past few years (plus a few other little projects, paddles and the like), and side stepping the good ladies request to spend time making something for us/her many times I cant put it off any longer.
So a set of steak knives it is as ours are a joke.
I'm seeing mini bowies, coffin handled obviously.
Now I'm not going to go crazy with these, intending to keep them pretty simple, brass bolster and pins, still unsure on the wood, maybe a liner.
Anyone have any tips as far as making multiples of the same knife, only ever made one of each (and indeed design, so many to try) before.

Thanks in advance

Making 2 of the same I epoxied 2 rough cut billets together and ground them together. It was fairly difficult though. Love the idea of that btw!

 

[pieinthesky]

You can (obviously) save a lot of time making in a batch but it is also possible if you are not careful to make the same mistake on every knife before you realise.

If you are not sure of your design or construction, do a one off first or at least make a model and check the ergo's

Sit down and write a procedure and/or go through the whole knife making process in your head. Check you have everything in the correct order and are not repeating things unnecessarily. This will help prevent mistakes and make things more efficient.

For example - I used to tidy up the tang edges several times during the build. It is pointless doing this at all until after your scales are glued up and shaped. It only takes a few minutes each, but do it twice on a batch of 6 knives and time adds up.

It might be worth making templates, patterns or jigs to save time and increase accuracy, but for a small batch, maybe not. Paper templates of the tang are useful. Print a few off and glue to your steel, dot punch (but don't drill the holes- it will destroy the pattern) and then grind the profile. Keep swapping between knives so they don't get too hot and burn the pattern - or your fingers. When you have finished the profile the pattern will likely be ruined but you can still drill the holes from the punch marks.

Beware, batching makes it seem more like work.

 

[Sickboy]

Thanks for the replies, I thought I'd have to be a bit more methodical than I normally am, mainly so I don't scrap a load of steel. Talking of which, I can see that the choice of metal will be a bit of a head scratcher hmmm