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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need.

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  #1  
Old 04-12-2007, 08:01 AM
rizaydog rizaydog is offline
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Recycled Blade for Blade

I have read articles that talked about using old sawzall, bandsaw, and tablesaw blades for a knife. Has anyone here done this? Will this yeld a decent quality knife blade?
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Old 04-12-2007, 08:11 AM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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As a matter of fact, there was a thread on this very recently. It is in the newbies Forum and should still be on the front page somewhere. If not, use the Search key to help locate it.

Bottom line: saw blades work - some times (not all of them are suitable steel) - but will make an inferior blade unless you re-heat treat the steel. For Newbies, it is usually far cheaper and easier to buy a small piece of blade steel from a knife suppy house....


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Old 04-12-2007, 08:28 AM
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DaveRuhlig DaveRuhlig is offline
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I second Ray's opinion. I love using recycled materials, but it's a crap shoot. If you are interested in making a decent blade you will be much better off in the long run by purchasing a small piece of steel from Texas Knife Supply, Jantz, etc. It's cheap and you know what you have.
-Dave


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Old 04-12-2007, 08:39 AM
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NJStricker NJStricker is offline
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The modern saw blades are usually of cheaper steel with better steel on the edges where the cutting takes place. Manufacturers figured out that they don't need to use good steel in the center of the blade where it will never cut.

So, you can make a blade, but it will probably not hold an edge.

If you can find sawmill blades, or antique buzz saw blades (the kind run off of a belt from your tractor) then those might be good steel. But by the time you go through the effort and find out that it isn't, then you might as well have just started with known steel in the first place.
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Old 04-12-2007, 06:08 PM
Suicycle Suicycle is offline
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I have cut up several large crosscut saw blades and something that looked similar to a 20" circular saw. Both times the guy suppling the steel knew what it was by analysis. I think it was L6. I also got a bunch of band saw blades at one time and the thought was super high layer count damascus w/o folding several times. The carbon content is really low though, and we haven't figured out what to do. Sometimes free or scrap steel is not worth the effort to make it usable, or it isn't what you had hoped it to be. It is like vegas.......only take what you can afford to lose. Don't put more labor in a knife than you'd want to scrap out if you can't harden it.
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Old 04-12-2007, 06:23 PM
horseman1 horseman1 is offline
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I think Ray was talking about my sawsall blade knife thread, just a little ways down the list. You can read it for yourself and get a better idea. I made a decent knife for the kitchen, but not like a high quality blade. I think it was great for a little practice on grinding, building, testing and such but the resulting knife itself isnt really worth the amount of time required to make it. However, the entertainment value for me was worth it. A fun learning experience yes, but a top shelf knife? No.

I just bought some O1 so we'll see what happens next!

letsee if I can post a link to the sawsall knife thread here.....

http://www.knifenetwork.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=41161

Kurt
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Old 04-13-2007, 05:54 PM
EdgarFigaro EdgarFigaro is offline
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"Don't put more labor in a knife than you'd want to scrap out if you can't harden it."

Try hardening a piece first =P


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