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Art

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Posts posted by Art

  1. Posted · Report reply

    304 stainless is good for kitchen sinks and equipment. It is typical 18/8 stainless and is austenitic (non magnetic), the only knives it is good for is flatware.

    410 is martensitic (magnetic) but just doesn't have enough carbon to make the grade for most knives, except cheap ones.

    You can get sheet stock in various knife steels and have it water jet, plasma, or laser cut. Steels I would recommend are 440C, BG-42, 154CM, ATS-34, D-2, for stainless/semi-stainless, and O-1, 1075, 1085, 52100, 1095, and L-6 and O-6 for other than stainless. You need to select a steel for the type of knife you are making and your capabilities for working it.

    Art

  2. Posted · Report reply

    Bob is good people. The Cowboy is also a great machine. The CB 4500 with the longer arm is your best buy, the extra clearance is really important, and the parts are standard 441. The resale (for your heirs and assigns) will be greater for the standard arm length machine. The CB 5500 is also a good buy if you have the room for it. Everything is heavy duty and parts are available. The money is really not that much more, and if you have any need for the big arm, it's a no brainer.

    Always make a deal on accessories. Unless you have nothing better to do, you will never install 3/4 of them. I have one machine (441 clone) that is still running the feet/plate combo that was installed on it when I bought it. Many times, unless there is one helluva deal, it is better to just buy what you need.

    Art

  4. Posted · Report reply

    It depends on whether the tool is single or double bevel. If it is single bevel, 20° means 20° per side, the only side. For double bevel, 20° to me means 20° included, or 10° per side.

    Be careful with the acute included angles like 20°, many of today's steels just won't handle it. Steels that hover around the eutectic are more a candidate for this experiment. O-1 has been a good candidate, but I have never found anything over 1% carbon that will hold 20°.

    I'd say to stick with higher numbers with any stainless steel, even D-2 (which is an "almost" stainless steel).

    Art

  7. Posted · Report reply

    Off the top of my head?

    Head Knives -- 30°

    Skiving Knives can go 20° to 25°, or even 30°. This depends very much on the steel. Most of the time, these knives are single bevel, and can be pretty thin, but I have a few that are 20° on the single bevel and then a micro bevel of 23° to 25°. Some not really leather tool makers cut a back bevel usually 12.5° to 15° on a side. I haven't used enough of these to figure out the why and wherefore of the back bevel. We do this on plane blades, but it is really a clearance thing there. Since the skiving knife works alone (without the big body of the plane to mess with the chips etc), I'm not seeing it.

    French Edgers (well any edger) -- I generally go with the design of the tool, or he who went before me. There are many designs of edgers and most of the time, you go with the flow. Just because it works, 30° included is a starting point for darned near anything, then go up or down from there depending on the use of the tool.

    I can sharpen any of my tools down as low as 20° depending on the ability of the steel to hold together, but I am going to have to sharpen a lot more often. Some really fine air hardening steels like A2 can't handle 20° and aren't that great at 25°, but do fine at 30° and maybe a 35° micro bevel on top of that. Micro bevels are more the realm of hand sharpeners who use them to more quickly cut a new edge or hone an old one.

    To get a good idea of how to sharpen something, look at it closely and determine how you will put an edge on the tool that looks pretty much like what it came with. If it is a bloody stub, think 30°.

    Art

  8. Posted · Report reply

    Just how darned sharp can you get it, and the hunter from hell.

    Today started out just fine; I have a ton of work backed-up but nothing I can't handle. I do things one at a time, or one job at a time. I usually charge $5-$10 to sharpen a knife, depending on complexity. A head knife is kinda at the top of the scale at $10, and a regular old kitchen knife is usually $5.

    I've got this hunter to do, and then some head knives. Oh yes, this is the hunter from hell. This is a custom hunter from a dead maker. Owner says it won't stay sharp. This isn't unusual as there are a ton of things that can be tricky along the way. Things that happen are when the owner changes things. This was the case here.

    I examined the knife and found that it had a burr like the hook on a cabinet scraper, big ole honkin burr. The knife was hollow ground and pretty thin at the edge. I couldn't tell the included angle exactly, but it was well south of 15°. This is ok for cutting fresh meat, no bones, and butter. When the edge was new, it probably shaved hair like a barber. Anything other than that and the edge is going to roll over (and in this case play very dead). So after contacting the owner, I proceeded to spend the next 5 hours (yes, it was all hand work on a finished knife) getting the edge to where there was something behind it.

    The lesson here is sharp is not necessarily durable. A 20° included angle is maybe as acute as it should be. But 20° is mighty thin behind the edge, even with a convex edge. The newer "high tech" steels of today do not take too well to 20° or even 25°. You won't get much rollover at 25° but the edge will often chip out; not big honking chips but you can see it with the unaided eye. Included angles of 30° and even 35° are needed for HRc 59 and above steels that are going to see some work. Finding that perfect angle is mostly trial and error, and keeping the use factor in a narrow range (like for cutting leather only) will allow you to modify the angle for a sharper knife in a particular category.

    Just keep in mind that 16° is a straight razor, and those edges, (even of hand forged high carbon steel where they can pack the edges) are just not that durable and require stropping all the time when just slicing hair (and occasionally skin). A straight razor will not get 2 or three inches into hard leather before the edge rolls over and just plain stops cutting.

    Art

  9. Posted · Report reply

    This thread is sort of my knifemaking/sharpening blog.

    I make the occasional knife, most of them tactical ones for friends kids and grandkids who are just graduating from basic or advanced training. I mostly sharpen scissors (from standard to technical stylist scissors/shears, to a pair of Fiskars), knives, hand and power tools, leatherworking tools, most garden tools (please don't bring a 1,000 lb garden tractor over here with the mower blades attached), Dog and human hair clippers and blades (sharpening and repair), I'll tackle most anything if you are in a bind, but I will send out saw blades and end mills as there are others who can do them better.

    That being said, I am retired. I don't have to do anything If I don't want to, I do it just to do something that I know how to do. We all like to feel useful, but I ain't going to work myself to death.

    This is kind of the see something, say something of a knife shop. Everyone is welcome to add to or ask questions.

    Art

  11. Posted · Report reply

    Ok, the imagery sits wrong with you. Maybe someone else gets really offended when someone signs God Bless. Long ago, I stopped signing A Dios, I liked to do that, now just my name. What you are vaguely proposing is the ultimate slippery slope, and is why we have the first, hell not just the first but ALL the amendments. If someone wants to fly a flag, as long as it is not pornography, (and the moderators will know that when they see it) it is just a flag and sometimes one that flies over a country or state. As far as Nazi symbols, the swastika was used for millennia by a lot of Eastern and then Western communities.

    If you don't like the symbols, simply stop reading their posts. There is a button for that.

    Art

  12. Posted · Report reply

    This has got me intrigued. I'm not convinced that the dotted lines indicate another switch box (or something) - if that were the case I would expect some sort of indication on the drawing. Also, every other cct. that I've seen that switches out the cap/start winding at the very least shows a contact in that part of the cct. whereas this doesn't.

    So, I got my spare Consew motor and removed the back cover (where the leads go in). Four wires disappeared into the motor body, a cap was mounted at the back with two wires also heading inside. I looked through the cooling slots, no centrifugal switch. Inside the switch box the four wires were connected as pairs to the line side. I separated the wires and did some testing with a meter. It's wired the same as the earlier diagram, i.e. two wires to one coil (run) and two wires to the start coil via a cap. I started it, but couldn't hear any centrifugal switch, but to be sure I removed the flywheel at the front - no switch.

    This one is wired as per the OP's diagram, with the start cct. permanently connected. Not ideal, imo, bit it works and it's obviously cheaper to make.

    Lovetolearn, as has been said earlier, replace the cap with the same value. If the motor is running fine, with only the direction being an issue then that's all that's wrong. Without the cap it's simply freewheeling at the start and you have a 50:50 chance which direction it will choose to run.

    Of course, the question occurs as to what the dashed lines represent. However, your analysis does bear out with their use of the run cap in the circuit as opposed to a start cap. The run cap having a 100% duty cycle as opposed to a lesser duty cycle for a start cap. Since this application seldom has any startup load and runs at optimum, there is little benefit to a start cap other than getting things spinning in the right direction. If you are going to leave the start circuit "on" all the time, it explains the use of the run cap; as much as this whole design concept can. Why are those damned dashed lines there?

    Art

  21. Posted · Report reply

    This machine is a cheap Chinese clone. There is no problem with that, I wouldn't have one in a factory that I expected to be there for any period of time, but that might work for some. You are always pitting price against quality etc. I have one of these machines in the top and bottom configuration, and it works great; I would buy another. The model in China is an export model, copy some ancient design (out of patent), make it as cheap as possible (especially cheaper than competitors), and sell as many as you can. That works, and it is our responsibility to buy something that is cheap enough and still works. There are things made over there that are very cheap and don't work for long. So understand, they are all using a Fortuna or Consew design which they clone to save on design costs, and they cheap it down some. Now try to find someone in one of these factories who speaks (much less writes) English. Rotsa Ruck. If one of these factories made a really good manual for one of the products it produces, it would cost them serious money. The problem here is that all the other factories would get it for free (or the cost of copying or downloading). All their competitors would let their customers know where they could obtain this manual (remember the machines are clones) gratis. Kind of a funny mix over there of Wild West and Jungle.

    Art

  22. Posted · Report reply

    If you look where the lines come in, there is a box (could be switch or relay) that has dashed lines for the starting circuit and solid lines for the main (run) circuit. It probably has a cent switch. If it is a Japanese motor, these are a lot quieter than the Taiwanese or Mainland Chinese motors and you would have to listen very carefully to hear it. It could also be stuck in run mode I guess.

    Art

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