Reviews
Knife makers often disagree on many things, but there’s a near-universal dislike for the tedious task of hand sanding blades. While it’s true that spending hours in focused work can be rewarding, the repetitive motions involved in hand sanding can be problematic for those with injuries or mobility issues and simply exhausting for most. Marcin Grabowiec from MG-Forge has tackled this issue head-on with his innovative hand sanding machines, the Finn 1.0.
Read more: Revolutionizing Hand Sanding: The Finn 1.0 by MG-Forge
There are lots of books available on knifemaking, blacksmithing and related arts. It is hard to tell which ones are worth the money. Many repeat information found in others and are a read once and forget kind of book.
We have selected books we own in the Forge library that we come back to again and again because of the richness of the content. Worth a place in any knifemaker's shelves. We haven't sorted the list in any particular order. All are a good read that we are sure you will learn something from.
If you would like to buy any of the books, there are links below to Amazon. These are affiliate links, for which we get a small commission if you buy trough the link. No pressure to do so, you can find them elsewhere, but the prices are pretty good here.
The Radiusmaster II is the latest creation from the inventive mind of John Price. The original Radiusmaster was a innovative machine with five different wheels on one belt. John was recognized on the ABC television show "The New Inventors" for his invention. John has taken on board much of the feedback from the original Radiusmaster and made some performance improvements in the second version.
I was fortunate enough to pick up two of the new Radiusmaster II's from John's factory in Sydney. What an amazing workshop! John works with a small staff in making each of the machines onsite. His equipment and jigs are fascinating - presses and benders, mill, lathes and all kinds of jigs and fixtures to make the parts. Especially interesting was the old Radiusmaster on a 45 degree angle used for grinding the rubber wheels to size. A platen holds the wheels square against the belt, but the belt drifts across the wheel, ensuring no one part gets too hot to melt the rubber. You can see the man's inventive brain hard at work in the shop.
The two new variable speed Radiusmaster II's join an old Radiusmaster (fixed speed) and a variable speed Select-a-Rad in the workshop. I retired the two 72" D J grinders, so now I am on just one belt size for all my grinders.
Choosing the right grinder is the most important decision a knifemaker might make. Beginner knifemakers looking to step-up from hand tools are faced with a lot of difficult choices compounded by uncertainty about what they need and lack of experience. Ewan Gibson from 84 Engineering has designed a grinder for people in this exact situation: the Shop Mate 48 from 84 Engineering is positioned as a versatile, effective, and value for money grinder.
The General Blacksmith by Malcolm Paine has just been released in Western Australia and I can truly recommend it to any knife maker thinking of turning to the dark side and forging blades.
The book is a complete work on general blacksmithing with more than enough information to get an absolute beginner started on the path to successful smithing or equally provide many interesting insights to the blacksmith's craft for those who have some experience. The writing style is concise and quite straightforward being more than adequately supported by simple line drawings and numerous colour and black and white pictures. The end result is a clear and easy to follow set of instructions on how to complete the processes required in general blacksmithing, from making charcoal and making and lighting a forge through making tools, punching holes and designing and making art-works in steel... A small amount of history, tradition and myth relating to blacksmithing makes the book a really enjoyable read, whilst at the same time providing a really useful text book and ready reference on blacksmithing.