Kelsey Creek Knife Works Shop

A few shop pics

My forge area ............ there's always a lot going on in
this corner of my shop. I have a 24 ton hydraulic
press, a blown forge and an NC atmospheric forge.
For precise temperature control when annealing,
stress relieving, normalizing and austenitizing I use
my Evenheat kiln. I also have Stick & TIG welding
capability and an Oxy/Actylene torch.
I have a couple of anvils and a post vise set-up to help
me with my forged blades. My 2nd, smaller anvil is
mostly used for hardy work, fullering, hot cutting etc. I
have a good selection of hammers & tongs but I can
always use more.

Below are the machine tools I use in the shop. I have a Bridgeport Mill with a ProtoTrak A.G.E. 2 Control, an Acuu Mill with
a 3 axis Centroid control. A small Jet Lathe for folder pivots and other turning jobs that come up. A Jet Mill/Drill, mostly
used for drilling & boring. A small Drill Press for tapping folder liners, which, for the most part, stays set-up with my
Tapmatic 30X head. An indispensable tool around the shop is my B&S Surface Grinder. Last but not least is my little Jet
Bandsaw. Like the energizer bunny, this guy just keeps going & going ...

Here are a few pics of my grinding bench. Probably the most important tool in my shop is my KMG Blade Grinder. Every blade I make
spends at least some time on this machine. I have a 14", 12", 8" & 4" wheel for various hollow grinding applications. A flat platen
attachment for flat grinds, and a small wheel attachment with 1/2", 3/4", 1" and 1-1/4" wheels for getting into those nifty little curves
we all love so much. For convex grinding and handle shaping I have a KMG Roller Platen attachment.................IMHO, worth it's weight
in gold !
I also have a small snag grinder on the bench for tool grinding. A KMG Flat Disk Grinder, set-up in the horizontal position, and on the
end of the bench, a buffer for shining up handles and blades.
I also included a picture of my grinding belt rack. A Master Bladesmith once told me to use belts like they were free. Well, I do ........ and
at $5-$10 per belt & 5 or more belts per blade, I wish they were free ..........
To the far right is a pic of my Granite Layout Table, my Height Gauge and my Rockwell Tester. For what it's worth, there is a lot more
to edge retention than a blades Rockwell Hardness. It's just one more tool in my arsenal for bringing the customer the best possible
blade I can make.

Some small tools that help with "details" are found on my etching/anodizing bench. It's where my touchmark
is applied and where I anodize titanium parts that I sometimes use on my knives. I also use NitreBlue bluing
salts for coloring carbon & wrought iron parts. On my main work bench can be found a multitude of tools for
detailed benching and polishing. A few shown below are my Diprofil, various sanding sticks, diamond paste,
various stones, etc. I literally have an entire bench full of files, sanding papers, tools and attachments for my
Foredom flex shaft, etc. All of them are a very important part of the procedure.

My wife Joanna & I are both working at developing
the skills required to do some engraving. Not a skill
aquired overnight to be sure. We have a start
though, a great GRS Engraver along with 5
handpieces.
We still need to gather a few more accessories,
mainly an engraving microscope, a power
sharpener and a good ball vise.
Then I plan on building a dedicated engraving
bench.

Heat Treat......... in my humble opinion, is the
most important aspect of the knifemakers craft.
The knives primary purpose is to cut things. For
that, the blade needs to take on and retain a fine
edge. To insure that my knives meet the high
standard I've set for this detail, I've developed
very specific heat treat procedures for the steels
I use. I can only expect to get repeat results by
using precisely controlled equipment and
procedures. For normalizing, stress relieving,
austenitizing and tempering I use a digitally
controlled kiln. For my oil quench steels I use
engineered quenchants, such as Parks # 50. To
eliminate any retained austenite in the air quench
steels that I use I do a cryo cycle using liquid
nitrogen. I have a 30 L Dewar that I keep on hand
for just this purpose.

I try to keep a good selection of materials on hand for handles and inlays. I use everything from pre-ban elephant ivory,
mammoth ivory, pearl, whale tooth, various colors of micarta and G10, sambar stag and also many species of stabilized
wood. Some of the wood, such as the birdseye maple shown below I cut myself then send out for professional
stabilizing. When it comes to exotic materials, if I don't have it, I can usually get it. Just ask.

KELSEY CREEK KNIFE WORKS