jheinen 41 Posted April 13, 2019 Share Posted April 13, 2019 I want to get new dies for my 25# little giant that are more suitable to knife making. Currently I just have a set of drawings dies. I figured flat dies with radiused edges would be the most versatile, but then I saw these "knife makers" dies on the little giant website. Has anyone used them? I assume the beveled part is for forging bevels, but it seems like a pretty obtuse angle for that? Do you think these would be worthwhile, or should I stick with flat dies? Link to post Share on other sites
Alan Longmire 2,634 Posted April 13, 2019 Share Posted April 13, 2019 I'd stick with flat. Link to post Share on other sites
Joshua States 1,657 Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 Buy a set of the dies with the removeable face plates. It makes changing from drawing to flat a lot easier. It's called the "two-part system" on the parts page Link to post Share on other sites
jheinen 41 Posted April 22, 2019 Author Share Posted April 22, 2019 On 4/20/2019 at 11:32 AM, Joshua States said: Buy a set of the dies with the removeable face plates. It makes changing from drawing to flat a lot easier. It's called the "two-part system" on the parts page I was looking at those, but I'm concerned that you lose an inch of length off the dies. They also seem pretty expensive at around $700 for both flat and drawing dies. Link to post Share on other sites
Joshua States 1,657 Posted April 23, 2019 Share Posted April 23, 2019 (edited) @jheinen, the work faces are all 2" x 3 " (unless you buy the oversized dies). That's plenty for what we do. In 12 years, neither my wife nor I have ever thought we could have used a bigger die face. Even my biggest Damascus billets do not get wider than 2 inches. When you consider that changing a full die set out from flat dies to drawing dies takes about an hour or more, with removal, install, alignment, tightening, I thought it was worth the $. Also something to consider is that sooner or later those dies get worn out. Sooner if you use the hammer a lot. Replacing a set of die tops is roughly half the cost of replacing the whole die. Edited April 23, 2019 by Joshua States Link to post Share on other sites
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