We will now interrupt the regularly scheduled program for this good old blogs micro podcast. Lasers and knife making. Uh two of my favorite things because who doesn't love lasers? And you know, obviously bias, but who doesn't love knife making as well, right? Um there are a plethora of uses for lasers in knife making, and a lot of those things are really just being discovered uh by uh small shops and artisan makers and things like that today, but lasers have been in use as early as the 60s, uh specifically uh diode and uh and CO2 uh style lasers. And now with the advent of uh fiber lasers, uh it's uh it's a little bit more obtainable to do certain types of engraving and cutting uh for a fairly nominal cost. So I'm not gonna say uh any laser is cheap, but let's kind of get into that. Now uh as I mentioned, there's there's really three uh laser types, diode, CO2, and fiber. And the the technology varies a little bit um in how the lasers are uh focused and how strong they are and thus how well they cut things, right? And uh diodes are probably some of the less expensive uh followed by CO2 depending on power, followed by uh fiber. And it's just because the uh the fiber technology, it's a a much stronger laser. Um, so you're gonna going to uh probably spend a little bit more uh because of the versatility. Now, if you're a gun um and and knife person, the fiber laser will get you very far because you can do both gun and knife engraving, as well as just engraving anything else under the sun. Um but specifically what uh like I have a diode laser, and the purposes that I got it for was to be able to cut out wood, um, so like uh thinner plywood. I believe mine can go up uh it's a 20 watt and can go up to like a quarter of an inch cutting you know plywood and other types of wood. I got it for cutting leather, and I got it for um engraving uh pattern profiles on steel so that way I can uh cut, you know, cut them out to the line or grind them to the line and uh and uh design things on CAD or on a two-dimensional CAD software in order to be able to play around with things. So um the thing that I really like about that is it's changed the way that I think about designing things, uh, where before I would uh take paper and I would draft everything out on paper, and then I would cut it out, and then I would feel it to see, you know, what does it look like in my hand, and then maybe I would uh transpose that onto wood or something, and then uh finally steel, and then I make my final prototypes on steel. Well, um what I can do um functionally is I can take uh I can take the I the concepts that I'm looking for in knives and and design everything out in uh several different types of software that as long as they're vector softwares that allow uh point-to-point, um basically uh you can create anything and you can scale it in indefinitely and there's no distortion on your lines or anything like that. So um one free software that's really good for that is Inkscape. Uh, there are some challenges to how you manipulate things in Inkscape, um, but it's free and it's there's a decent amount of documentation on it, and so uh you can use that. And you can you you know if you're using AutoCAD or any of these other uh fairly high-end uh from a uh feature and cost perspective uh softwares, you can you can design everything up into 3D models and imagery and everything, and you can pipe those uh through SVG files uh into your laser and and cut them out or engrave them or whatever. Uh but for the sake of most things inside of laser work, you're going to be making two-dimensional models, and that's uh uh primarily anything uh to do with engraving or cutting, um, or you know, that's pretty pretty much my focus. Uh, it's going to just be two-dimensional. So um one really good thing that uh lasers can do is etch makers marks or patterns or things like that, like designs on steel. Um you can do this with lower powered lasers, but you typically have to have some type of um some type of agent or coloration on the blade so that way the laser will absorb into the material itself. So there's there's some there's some things like acrylics and glasses, like opaque and and clear materials that don't um that don't laser very well. And if you apply like black sharpie, that's what I do for um all of my patterns. So I have a lower a lower power laser, and because of that, it doesn't really etch very well into steel. However, if I apply black sharpie uh to it, uh it will eat into the steel a little bit and leave lines, and it doesn't matter how hot I get that thing, those lines still remain because they're they're just you know below the surface, so it's that it is actually etching into the steel. Um there's other types of agents that you can use, but that's the one I use. So I mean it's cheap, and um I'd use it for scribing things as well when I'm doing patterns. So the other thing is I really like uh a laser for leather work because I I don't really feel like I was that great of a sheath maker before, mostly because cutting out or um you know mostly cutting out uh patterns uh for for leather, it just didn't look very great. Not super clean lines, and there is a learning curve to that when you're making sheaths. Well, a laser doesn't really care about that, as long as your power settings are correct. Uh you can go through and scale up or down as much as you need to. You can build prototypes by you know cutting them out on the laser and putting them together with glue or things like that, and you can get a really great idea of how that sheath is supposed to operate uh before you finalize your your pattern uh and uh you you go from there. So um I really like that. The only thing I will say is that there are certain things that you are uh it's not really easy to cut out on lasers, and uh there are some danger associated with it. So um in in leather work, I will cut out veg tan only. If you're doing any chrome tans or anything like that, sometimes it can cause uh gases and other um corrosives to get into your machinery, and you do not want that, although I'm sure that it can cut just fine. Your ventilation has to be really good, and you have to clean your laser, um, and that's not worth it to me. So, um, what I will typically do is if I'm if I'm doing any um inlays, I will cut those out by hand because they don't need to be like exactly perfect, and then for the profiles on everything with veg tan, I'll cut all that out because obviously it's a less expensive material to use as well. Um when you're getting into the initial uh process of lasers, you're going to have to choose which laser you're going to invest in. Um, you can get things for under $1,000. Um, I think mine is between the $1,000 and $2,000 range. And if you go into the fiber lasers, which is the highest end, uh, well, typically, depending on bed size, um, you're going to look into maybe the $2,000 to $6,000 range. Um, again, not cheap, but if you think about um how much you invest in all the tools and processes and things to do what a laser can help you with. So for instance, um, you know, instead of doing electro etching or engraving um by hand or a panograph, uh, you can uh you can pipe that into a laser and have it engrave your maker's marker patterns, um, you know, like designs or things like that that you want on a blade. Um if you're making sheaths or you have to parse them out, but it becomes a lot simpler for you to design in cat of some sort and get it all cut out. I mean, you could be saving quite a lot of money by you know removing the the things that you're not really great at, like you know, cutting things out or uh even engraving certain patterns on leather. You can do that with lasers. Um patterns. Um, it's one of those things where the the the prototyping process for me is fairly methodical. So I spend a lot of time doing it, and the laser has saved me a lot of time in being able to design everything, uh, check out dimensions and whatnot, and then just you know, laser it directly to steel, and then I just cut out the steel, and I'm I'm within a few thousandths typically of where I need to be versus a few hundred thousandths, and then I have to play with it and you know go through the process of lather rinse or pee. Now, I mean it's more important uh for that when you're doing uh folding mechanisms uh on knives versus fixed blades, but sometimes the parameters on fixed blades are even tight enough where you need to be in the thousandths range instead of the hundred thousandths, so um something to think about for sure. Um I definitely don't think it's for everyone. It is it is a an investment and uh and it does take time to learn everything, but once you get the hang of it, it is very beneficial uh for a time-saving perspective. And uh I think that you will find that over time, if you crunch the numbers, uh the the benefit to having lasers far outse uh outweighs the cost, at least, in my mind, because of everything that I've uh done with increasing accuracy and productivity uh in the knife shop. So it's something to think about. I hope that helps. Uh, there's lots of documentation out there on different uh laser types and everything, and I encourage you to go out there and read it because it's not uh it's not probably in your best interest that I explained those things or try to uh you know turn them into layman's terms because even me uh I don't understand all about the technology, but really the more expensive it is uh generally in this in laser technology, the better it is, and the um and the lower cost it is, usually you have a a weaker laser and a shorter bed size, so you'll the the distance that the uh laser can travel in a in a and an XY coordinates in order to be able to fit your work on it. So you want a fairly substantial bed size uh to be able to do certain types of things, especially if you're doing like longer buoys or things like that. Um, if you're cutting leather, for instance, uh if you're just doing logos, you can deal with a fairly small, um, a small size, but again, it's all in the what you need for uh what you're doing. Uh it takes a lot of research, and I don't regret the multiple months and many hours of research that I did on all of those before I uh I went ahead and purchased my laser. Um, I think that if I had uh uh maybe about double the amount, I would have gone with a fiber laser. But even still, I'm still really happy with the diode. I do a lot of things on it. So uh ask if there's any questions. Um, I'm more than happy to help uh and point you in the right direction of software or particular uh models of lasers. But the uh your own research will go a long way because if you're spending that kind of money, you really need to be sure that it's uh beneficial to you. Hope that helps.