Tig welding would have been my preferred way of doing it however you are putting more heat into the fixture that way.

I have the same welder....absolutely feel the same way about it. Cheers!

AWESOME dude. You have the first knife making channel that combines 'custom' with CNC. Which ... having never messed with machining I still watch enough of to have said "he needs a reamer in there" ... (thanks to This Old Tony, Cutting Edge Engineering Australia, et al) ... keep up the GREAT work.

Thanks very much mate! Yeah it's a little crazy how much work it is to make a video, I do enjoy doing it though and I'm glad you enjoy watching!

@@GoughCustom i have been since you’ve been hand filing in you basement. You came a long way and it is very inspiring !

Hey Jack! Glad the video brought them to light for you mate! They are a VERY useful concept!

Awesome Goran! I'm so glad to hear that your knife is still treating you so well!

Thank-you very much for your support! I really appreciate it!

Haha you gotta love how I did it every time, and not just the first time! 🤣

Thanks mate! I am hoping to keep uploading more consistently going forward, but sometimes it is hard to find time while also doing everything else!

Thanks for watching mate!

Yes sir! One little step at a time and I went from that filing jig to here! Seems like a crazy journey looking back...

Cheers Tony, hope you enjoyed the video! I will definitely think of chamfering for next time!

Hey Job! Thanks for the suggestion! At the time this was filmed I didn't have a lathe, but I could certainly have machined the oversize pins in-place on the mill... I will definitely keep that in mind as an option for next time! Cheers!

Thanks Scott! Hope you enjoy the video!

Haha should I add a sobriety test as part of the checkout process on my website?? Thanks for the kind words mate! I will hopefully be releasing my kitchen knife in a couple of months, so might be worth waiting until then if that's something that will interest you!

@@GoughCustom I did see your kitchen knife project, and I'm confident that it will be impeccable, but I'm in love the Resolute Mark III mate. Hands down the best survival knife on the market. Very interesting video btw. I actually spotted the incredibly slight misalignment between the tang and scales, which was barely detectable unless you were looking for it (microns). Then again, I am the asshole who emailed you about the rubbing on the bevel that I only spotted using a microscope so I guess its fairly safe to say Im a pedant. Keep up the good work and dear lord dont introduce sobriety tests... at some point I want to buy another one.

Thanks very much mate! Sounds like I would get along well with your Dad, I love fighter aircraft of all types! I actually have a pair of turbine blades from an A-10 that I need to hang up in the shop soon! I will very much look forward to making you a knife mate!

Thanks for the suggestions mate!

Thanks Mr. Bananapants! I will have another video coming soon!

@@GoughCustom this is just the best news.

No worries Russ! It works amazingly well, simple and effective which is how I like it!

Hey Dash! That is definitely a relatively simple way of achieving that end result! The issue for me is that it would make my production process more complicated... I would have to have every handle made and fitted to the blade before I send the blade off for DLC coating which creates a large bottleneck, then if the customer changed their mind or canceled their order I'd have a blade/handle pair that I have no use for! I am working toward getting 'perfect' fit just by eliminating as many variables as I can... The next version of the fixtures for this process will be VERY different!!

Thanks very much Robert! I am definitely still learning a lot and I love the process of improvement that's for sure! I have made big changes this year to allow myself more time to work on improving things, and to work on new things! Kitchen knife and folding knife are in the process of being made with the kitchen knife leading the way! Should be an exciting year and I will definitely see you again soon with more videos!

That's a good suggestion Bill! Thank-you! Now I will know for next time!

Thanks mate! It's always fun to share this stuff!

Thanks Paul! Really glad you enjoyed the video mate, hopefully I will have more coming sooN!

Well I gotta stay enthusiastic otherwise all the hard work would definitely not be worth the paycheque lol! I think it's the only way to keep improving as well!

Thanks Darryl! I will definitely do that next time, it was a pain doing it this way!!

That is definitely true! 🙂

Cheers Mic :)

Thanks very much mate!!

Thanks Frank! It's definitely something I struggle with at times... Being a perfectionist is good in that it helps me keep pushing for improvements, but sometimes polishing things can get in the way of just getting work done! I think I am getting better at finding the balance...

Very much agreed William! Thanks very much mate!

Hey Az! I'm just too lazy to weld outside the machine! 🤣

Thanks Bibin! :)

No worries at all, thanks for watching!

Thanks PJ! Really awesome that you're still watching and commenting on every video, I appreciate the support!

@@GoughCustom The Pleasure is mine!

Makes total sense in hindsight, not sure why I didn't think of that! Thanks mate!

@@GoughCustom Worked in the end so no worries! you might have bored out any voids anyway. cheers!

Thanks for watching Max!

I have learned that knowing how to get stuff fixed or dialled in is usually more important than the initial making! There are always things that go wrong that's for sure!

You're very welcome mate! Thanks for watching!

Thanks Russell!

Thanks very much mate! Really glad you liked the video!

Thanks very much!

Very glad you enjoyed it Remi!!

Thanks for sharing it with me Doug!

Really glad to hear that Tim, thanks mate!

Thanks for the suggestions Dean!

Thanks mate! Yeah they are a lot of work, but I do enjoy making them! I will have another one coming shortly!

Will do mate! Lots of interesting stuff is happening at the moment!

Thanks very much mate!

Thanks Goran! I am looking forward to finishing your knife for you!!

I try to balance it out with being practical, but I really want to work to improve continuously as well!

Thanks mate! I do my best and will continue to improve them when I can!

Thanks Matt! Yeah that fixture has worked out really well, it's made a lot of knives that's for sure!

Thanks man!

Thanks very much Maxime!

@@GoughCustom Been hooked ever since your first video came out. Back then I was in the middle of my mechanical engineering degree and I've always been a sucker for knives and their making, so I was truly mind blown by your process and attention to details. Soon enough I'll have the means to purchase one of yours! :)

@@maximeb190 Awesome! I hope you're enjoying engineering, and I'll look forward to making a knife for you when the time is right! I really appreciate you following along with my journey!

@@GoughCustom For sure! Discovering your channel on KZfaq really inspired me in many ways, I've always dreamt of one day owning my own little shop where I can build things, help friends and family out with repairs and eventually try my hand at knife making. I feel grateful to even be able to write this to you directly and get replied to. Godbless!

@@maximeb190 Of course! I try me best to respond to all comments, though sometimes it can be hard to keep up! I hope you get your dream of having access to a workshop!

Thanks very Mike! I definitely learnt long ago that perfection is impossible, it's still fun to try though! 😀

Thanks very much mate! I'll look forward to making you one!

Thanks very much Zoran! Hope you enjoyed the video!

@@GoughCustom o yes Aaron! I'm sure that will come day when I order your product. Watched all your video!!👍

Ah yes, widening the hole first makes a lot of sense, not sure why I didn't think of that lol! 🤣

Might consider that next time! I think if the fixture was smaller I'd definitely want to avoid welding & possible distortion, figured in this case I was probably safe...

Hey mate! I vary the sections of the endmill that I use for the different passes at each stage. The roughing endmill makes the first spine cut with the tip of the endmill, then steps down to do the second rough cut, then steps down again to do the first cut on the edge, then steps down to do the second cut on the edge. Spreading the wear out seems to extend the tool life a fair bit! For the finishing endmill I do the same thing, taking spring passes to make sure the machined surfaces are as nice as possible...

Makes sense! I really want a TIG but haven't quite justified it yet given I have the MIG working well....

Thanks very much mate, glad you enjoyed it! I actually do have a podcast called XYZ where we talk about CNC, automation and the business of making things, you can find that here: redcircle.com/shows/67a8f6e5-6129-4963-9386-67922aefe0c7 I also recently did an interview on the Rewild Gear Podcast which was a lot of fun! rewildgear.buzzsprout.com/1412701/8526156-ep-10-aaron-gough-on-quality-sustainability-in-knife-making Hope you enjoy the listen! -A

@@GoughCustom Awesome 😎 Thanks for sharing, Aaron! 🙏🏻👍🏻

Yeah widening the hole makes total sense in hindsight! I will know for next time now! Any reason you'd choose TIG over MIG for this? I have wanted a TIG for ages, but never quite managed to justify it lol

@@GoughCustom Yes, in order to create heat whit a MIG, you consume the wire and deposit it. With TIG you create the heat then add the filler metal when you decide that the base metal is ready to accept the filler. On a big chunk of metal as your jig, you would have to go full pedal down at the beginning of each fill but then can adjust as needed once the parent metal is ready to weld. I guess it boils down to greater control.

@@repalmore Makes sense mate! I will think of this next time I'm ogling a nice TIG welder :)

@@GoughCustom When I started welding TIG machines were out of my price range. Now days, you can get them off Amazon at a reasonable price. My suggestion would be wait and keep an eye on local "for sale" and see if a good sized one come up for sale. I strongly suggest get one bigger than what you think you need. So much easier to not go full power than have it at full power all the time. Once you get the hang of TIG, you find more things that need fixing and what do you know, there's this nice TIG machine of yours ;o) Best of luck with it.

All good Dean! I still appreciate the suggestions!

Thanks Jesse!

Thanks Pete! I definitely give many shits! :)

Hey mate! Sorry for the slow response! The diamond pin (there should only be one per workpiece) are oriented so that they are tangential to a circle drawn from the solid pin... It's a little hard to explain with only words! Check out this article: www.carrlane.com/engineering-resources/technical-information/manual-workholding/locating-devices/locating-pins

Cheers! Yeah I've seen those before, but honestly for onsie-twosie stuff like this it seems easier to just interpolate the holes with a single tool, rather than setting up 3 separate tools! For production that solution would definitely make more sense though!

Hey mate! That doesn't sound ideal, maybe there's an issue on that knife that I missed? Sometimes there's a tiny gap under the handle scales at the ricasso because of the way I machine the ricasso but that should not be noticeable unless you're me! Want to send me an email with some photos and I'll have a look?

Nah, it should be fine. I've tried fitting feeler gauges and shim stock into the gap, but I either do not have the coordination I thought I did, or the gap is a product of that part of the tang being very rounded. Either way, the knife has held up fine, and given the fact that I don't get a lot of rain here, it isn't a big concern

Hey Matt! That would certainly work, however measuring the exact location would be a little painful, and would then require that I have multiple offsets calibrated for that single fixture... Right now I have one offset (exact middle bottom of the fixture) that I use for this fixture and also any other fixture plates that I swap out, there are dowel holes on the machine table that locate the fixture. If I had used different offsets instead of fixing the pin locations then I'd have to move those extra offsets to any other machine I might use the fixture on, as well as remembering that extra detail about the fixture. Either way would certainly work, I just generally try to keep things as simple and idiot-proof as I can! There's are lots of days where I'm the idiot :)

Honestly I don't even have it hooked up... I think they are really useful if you're using a radiused platen, but for a flat platen I think they're unecessary!

I think if the plug was larger then yeah that would totally work! Press fit the plug, machine it off flat and then re-bore the holes. I think that would work just fine!

Getting there! 😀

Hey, I know you! :)

@@GoughCustom you bet

Hey Roberto! No worries at all mate, I just hope you enjoy the videos!

@@GoughCustom omg you answerd!! Of course i enjoy and i will enjoy the following videos, keep up and best of the lucks!!

Yes sir! I have been milling bevels for many years! You can see this process in action on several of my recent videos.

Hey Marco! I have wondered about using threadlocker, I will try that next time!

My main concern doing that is the weld joint with the pin would be pretty superficial, I'd be worried that I'd end up machining away most of the weld when boring the new hole and the old pin might come loose or something!

@@GoughCustom I agree, that's the concern. Crank the piss outta the MIG and give 'er all the heat she's got! It won't be welded all the way through, but you can guarantee there won' t be any voids.

@@ZPositive True story!

Hey Robert! Won't that mean that the weld joint with the pins is very superficial though? Wouldn't boring back out potentially cause the pin to come loose?

@@GoughCustom, Yes, it could. I guess I wasn't thinking clearly. I thought I had a fix for you, but I evidently didn't think it through enough.

@@TrojanHorse1959 All good mate! Considering every option is always a good idea!

Nah, making a complete new fixture just to fix this one little problem would be a huge waste of time and money!

Unfortunately a wear offset would not necessarily have fixed this problem, because I'm not sure in which direction the blade was offset! I don't think it was perfectly at 90º for instance. I do still use wear offsets to comp for endmill diameter when changing tools, but I wanted the fixture to be right before anything else.

Short version: it's coming! Long version: it's coming slowly! I am working on the fixtures for making the kitchen knife at the moment actually! I hope to have the first CNC made versions ready within a few months!

I understand... However if I had continued making knives by hand I definitely would have gone out of business by now and not be making any knives at all! Or it possibly might have remained a hobby forever which might have been ok. I really enjoy how I make knives now, so for me it's mainly about making the best knives I possibly can, and enjoying the process as much as I can!

@@GoughCustom it is ok. thanks for the answer

Haha someone has been listening to the podcast I see! :)

Hey Jason! I'm happy to talk about making a set of knives for sure! Worth noting at the moment I'm not taking any 'full custom' orders, so the knives would either look like my Resolute knife or my new Kitchen knife. You could customize all the colors and details though. If you're still interested shoot me an email: aaron@goughcustom.com

I totally understand Chris! Honestly I don't but knives in this price range either! Seems every craftsman I know is unable to afford their own work, curse of the industry!

Nope! Though honestly I probably should raise prices... I'm trying to simply make more knives instead.

@@GoughCustom I wouldn't raise prices. It wouldn't be fair to the customers. It's a very beautiful knife and made with precision but it's only A2 steel. Honestly before doing anything else I'd switch to a bettet steel. CPM 3V. Way more durable and has a way bettet rust resistance, even with that dlc you still have to watch. 3v is just a god steel. I don't think people could justify the cost to buy the knife at any higher of a price. I've been saving up for your knife but I won't be able to buy it if the price goes up and the steel while decent is mid range. No offense

@@sirsir9665 The idea of an individual steel not being good is a bit of a myth. So saying 'It's only A2' is a generalization that does not apply to my knives, or really any knives. Any steel can have drastically different performance based on how it's heat-treated... You can take a 'super steel' like S30V and heat-treat it poorly and it will have low toughness and terrible edge retention. I have worked very hard on my heat-treatment for A2 and in my testing it happily out-performs S30V and S35VN from other companies in terms of edge retention and toughness. I have tried/tested 3V in the past and while it is very tough, I found it tended to dent and roll at the edge much more easily than A2, which had large negative effects on edge retention. Additionally the lower maximum hardness of 3V works against it. My A2 at 62.5HRC is very tough and holds a great edge, I have had LOTS of positive feedback from customers who own knives made in many other steels including 3V saying that the edge retention of my knives is better than any other knife they own. With that said I am not content to rest on my laurels. I am currently investigating a stainless steel as my potential main steel going forward. It's not a fancy powder steel, but it is extremely tough (tougher than any other stainless steel) and with careful heat-treat I can get it up to 64HRC which gives it excellent edge retention while still being tougher than A2 at a lower hardness, and also being stainless.... All of the above examples are meant to illustrate the point that saying a particular steel is 'good' or 'bad' is not really valid unless you have a lot of information on how that steel was heat-treated, as heat-treatment plays a vital role in how a steel performs. Regarding fairness to customers: If my knives cost so much to make that I don't make any money off them and then I go out of business, then that is a worse outcome for my customers than raising my prices! I am doing everything in my power to not raise my prices, but a business has to be able to continue to exist in order to look after its customers! I appreciate that you've been saving up, and as I said I do not have any short-term plans to raise my prices. I think once you get one of my knives you will be very impressed with what A2 can do! I'm looking forward to making you a knife! -Aaron

Hey mate! I wasn't worried about distortion as the welds are so small, however that could be blissful ignorance rather than knowledge lol! It seems to have worked out well, no issues with the fixture that I have found so far!

I wish that was a thing! I come from a software background so it's pretty normal to push out updates... I wish that I could do the same thing for knives!

Would you recommend just running a propane torch over it for a while? What kind of temperature would you be looking for when preheating a part like this? And I'm curious what the largest benefit is? Less distortion? Thanks!

@@GoughCustom aluminum fixture right? You get better weld quality if welding aluminum. Not a welder myself but a manufacturing engineer.

@@p38pilotdk01 The base is aluminum but the part I was welding is actually just 1018 steel!

Bingo!

Hey Yan! The pin holes are actually blind (ie not through-holes), so they couldn't be pushed down further...

Hey Joseph! No, sorry mate I don't use twitter. You can find me on Instagram though @aaron.gough