This topic began in the "what did you do in your shop today?" thread and I think we should continue it here. I received some great feedback from Joshua States and Jaon Volkert already. The question is, what tools are useful to increase your output? To expand on that, what strategies or processes do you have in place to maintain consistent workflow? I'm working towards a goal of consistently completing three knives per month by the end of this year. Currently I'm averaging 1.75/month. After that, I want to increase it to 5 and so on. I'm spending about 16-20 hours a week in the shop because i have a full time office job and need all the efficiencies i can get. Obviously i have to get gooder at making knives, but also need to work towards an increased output and hoping for some understanding of what keeps the production line moving for all of you.
I have all the basic tools (grinder, kiln, forge, files, surface plate, height scribe, abrasives, calipers, small anvil, wood and metal band saws, drill press, file guide, 123blocks) and will be getting a disc grinder soon. so it's probably more a matter of understanding the order of operations and where things can be batched to maintain workflow. Just wondering what the pros do to stay consistent!
Two things to compliment your, already basic, list of tools. These things speed up my work and are a regular part of my knife making.
1: A rotary platen for my grinder. I have the KMG but this can be adapted for other grinders as well or you can make one. I like the one by Beaumont Metals because it gives you access to both sides pretty well equally. I've seen some where the construction is limited to one side.
2: Cratex(or equivalent) wheels are very helpful in speeding up the finishing and polishing operation on fittings. These can be bought to fit bench mounted motors and arbor shafts, even drill presses.
Note that both of the above tools are related to the fittings and handle portion of knife making. Our blades are usually flat ground and finished so kept to standard finishing procedures.
From what I've learned so far. It doesn't matter how much money you throw at it. It takes hours upon hours of working experience to get faster. I'm not where I want to be but improving every year.
