# Harbor Freight Sale: 25% one single item during Mermorial Day.



## rockbox (May 26, 2011)

Harbor Freight is taking 25 percent off one single item during Memorial Day. They gave me a few coupons while I was there today getting some clamps and buffing wheels. This would be a good time to get that metal cutting band saw you've been eying.


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## watercrawl (May 26, 2011)

Or the mill/drill.


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## so_sleepy (May 26, 2011)

Damn, been thinking if getting a belt sander...


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## Kyle (May 26, 2011)

OK, I'm a total newb when it comes to working with metal (unless we're talking about welding), what time of sander would I want for working with knives? Let's say anything from removing rust and patina quickly and putting on a polished finish to putting a new edge on an old beat up knife? Would one of their belt sanders do the trick? A friend of mine found some old junk rusted and beaten up carbon knives in his attic that I wanted to play around with to get the hang of doing these sorts of repairs.


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## rockbox (May 26, 2011)

Kyle said:


> OK, I'm a total newb when it comes to working with metal (unless we're talking about welding), what time of sander would I want for working with knives? Let's say anything from removing rust and patina quickly and putting on a polished finish to putting a new edge on an old beat up knife? Would one of their belt sanders do the trick? A friend of mine found some old junk rusted and beaten up carbon knives in his attic that I wanted to play around with to get the hang of doing these sorts of repairs.


 
My first sander/grinder was HF 1x30. It was 30 bucks and could fix chips and do minor repairs in no time. My next one was a craftsman 2x42. I got it for 100 bucks a few years back. There are a lot of belts available for it and you can use it to make a knife. There are plenty of newbie knife makers using this grinder. The only real drawback for me was that its doesn't have a lot of clearance when I'm working in tight spots with a long knife. The belt gets in the way in back of the grinder. I actually finished the Brisketihiki on this grinder. I am in the process of upgrading to a grinder in a box with a VFD. I'm just waiting for some time to shut the electricity down to install the 240 Volt plug.


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## watercrawl (May 26, 2011)

I would start with either a 1 x 42 or a 2 x 42. It's not so much about which grinder at that entry level, it's more about what belts you have. All of them will spin at one speed....supersonic. 

Sears sells a 2 x 42 that a lot of people start with and I believe HF sells a 1 x 42.


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## Kyle (May 26, 2011)

rockbox said:


> My first sander/grinder was HF 1x30. It was 30 bucks and could fix chips and do minor repairs in no time. My next one was a craftsman 2x42. I got it for 100 bucks a few years back. There are a lot of belts available for it and you can use it to make a knife. There are plenty of newbie knife makers using this grinder. The only real drawback for me was that its doesn't have a lot of clearance when I'm working in tight spots with a long knife. The belt gets in the way in back of the grinder. I actually finished the Brisketihiki on this grinder. I am in the process of upgrading to a grinder in a box with a VFD. I'm just waiting for some time to shut the electricity down to install the 240 Volt plug.


 
I was just talking about getting a small sander to do repairs and now you guys are telling me I can actually make a knife with a $100 sander?!?! That sounds pretty cool and it's something I've always had an interest in trying out. I guess I have some reading to do in regards to belts and other necessary equipment. Are there any good sites or forums specifically dedicated to newbie knife making? It'd be cool if there was something that breaks down equipment- what's necessary and what's just nice to have, that sorta thing.


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## rockbox (May 26, 2011)

Kyle said:


> I was just talking about getting a small sander to do repairs and now you guys are telling me I can actually make a knife with a $100 sander?!?! That sounds pretty cool and it's something I've always had an interest in trying out. I guess I have some reading to do in regards to belts and other necessary equipment. Are there any good sites or forums specifically dedicated to newbie knife making? It'd be cool if there was something that breaks down equipment- what's necessary and what's just nice to have, that sorta thing.



There are some good threads at bladeforums.com. Here is one of the newb how-to threads. Even if you go with a 100 dollar grinder, knife making is pretty expensive. Its actually cheaper to buy a knife than it is to make one.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/694673-How-to-instructions-for-making-a-knife


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## Kyle (May 26, 2011)

rockbox said:


> There are some good threads at bladeforums.com. Here is one of the newb how-to threads. Even if you go with a 100 dollar grinder, knife making is pretty expensive. Its actually cheaper to buy a knife than it is to make one.
> 
> http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/694673-How-to-instructions-for-making-a-knife


 
Thanks for the link! I don't doubt that it's an expensive hobby, but I love to learn new things, even if I only barely scratch the surface of what I can learn. 

It's kinda like when my dad and I got into sausage making; $300 grinder here, $150 stuffer there just to get started... we should have just kept buying Johnsonville!


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## mr drinky (May 27, 2011)

so_sleepy said:


> Damn, been thinking if getting a belt sander...



Yeah, I got a belt sander from them just last week and used a 20% off coupon. Oh well...

Btw, I think the coupon code is FLAG11 and expires on the 30th of May.

When I buy stuff from HF I usually go to this site to see if there are any discount codes. From my experience they usually have working/up-to-date coupon codes for Harbor Freight. 

k.


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