Brian Dougherty

Amen to that! My pastor, of all people, turned me on to Ardbeg Uigeadail recently. If you like Laphroaig 10, chances are you'll like Uigeadail.

It'll take a while to find the types of belts you like to use in various situations. Once you find the ones you like, I suggest you follow a piece of advice that I found on here: "Buy the belts in bulk, and use them like they are free" Good ceramic belts are not cheap. However, I have never been glad that I have tried to push a questionable belt a little further, and I have never regretted it when I decided to put another $10 belt on the grinder. It's not just a matter of a worn out belt might take a little longer either. There are things a fresh belt will do that a worn one will not. I find that I simply can't get as good a quality of grind lines with a worn out belt.

Interesting. Kind of like tillering a bow. I'm not sure I would have thought of that on my own.

Alan's advice is on point. Cutting the blanks is the cheapest part. Grinding finishing and assembly will cost much more. The more sweat equity you are willing to put into each unit, the more likely you are to come out with some profit margin. Your time is valuable, but so is everybody else's, and they will charge you plenty for using theirs. Waterjets are generally cheaper to run per hour than a laser cutter, but are slower so you have more machine time in the same part. As Alan said, thin parts like these may well be cheaper from a laser shop.

Thanks for the additional input guys. I've been promoted at work, which is generally a good thing, but the transition has kept me from my hobbies the last few weeks. Once I get back into the swing of things, I'll need to get my boning knife made.

Nice!

There are probably "Contract Manufacturers" in your area. That is what I would be looking for if I were in your situation.

Fantastic Dave, I'll take that sort of quality over quantity any day

I'll be following along. Thanks in advance for taking the time to document the build.

Nice

Nice work. Congratulations! I wish you 2D10 years of happiness. (Unless the first number comes up in the bottom half of the die, in which case you can roll again)

Looking good Gary. Good luck with the new shop. How do you keep the grinder dust from getting all over your public shop?

Looking good Gary

Nice! I'm glad you decided to post your work. WIP pics are always appreciated!

I don't know enough about this to claim it is a benefit, but the 300 series of stainless steels are annealed by quenching. This makes the cladding dead soft after heat treating the blade. In the very few I have done (5 or 6) I find that it makes straightening easier. It also makes hand sanding easier. That being said, the blades I have seen with the really wild carbon migration patterns tend to be clad in a 400 series steel.