I would like to make a small 1" groove on a knife blade, using a free hand approach.
In other words, I would like to (a) get the spindle going and (b) use a joystick or keyboard to slowly run the cut manually.
search forums how to unlock spindle, learn to operate spindle, unlock spindle, set up cutter, set spindle rpm, jog to workpeice, immediately decimate your endmill because you aren’t cutting hardened knifesteel on a hobby CNC with any amount of skill unless it’s made of none steel.
The S5Pro screams even trying to cut a36 mild steel hotroll.
As noted, the problem here is the knife steel is probably in a hardened state — in order to work with it you would want to anneal it, which would then allow machining it more easily, then re-temper the blade, restoring the hardness. This would require knowing the steel alloy so that one would know the correct temperatures and times, as well as an oven/kiln able to reach the requisite temperatures.
Folks have been successful w/ steel alloys which are suited to machining on a small-scale:
It’s not possible to just take a very shallow pass because that would result in the tool rubbing rather than taking a chip and steel work-hardens.
If you really want to do this, my recommendation would be to make a jig which you could clamp the knife in, then use a small hand-held grinder w/ a suitable shape — you’ll need to work slowly, and apply water (search term on why is HAZ (Heat-affected Zone) to keep from changing the colour and drawing the temper.
Get yourself a Dremel and save yourself and your S5Pro…… Get a bur tool that fits your profile for the cut you desire.
I’d even be worried with a carbide burr if it’s not annealed, I did a bit of work with CPM Magnacut, D2, S30V etc and it just isn’t worth it to mess around with anything more aggressive than diamond or other abraisive types. Simply put the microcarbide content (anything other than chromium carbides) are far to impact resistant and hard for a typical carbide burr.
Agree, diamond bit would be better as well as annealing. The OP doesn’t give much more than the need to make a small groove on the blade. No mention of blade material, perhaps we should asked more questions.
Actually, that’s a good idea and probably what I’ll do!