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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 01-05-2014, 04:31 PM
loganb loganb is offline
 
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Location: fort Walton beach Florida
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saw blade

Hey everybody got a question about saw blades I got from my grand pa in law. Don't know how old they but judging from the package I would say they are from the 70s and all are craftsman and one has L2 stamped on the back. The ones still in the package are chrome nickel molybdenum steel if that helps. Are these knife worthy
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  #2  
Old 01-05-2014, 04:46 PM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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You neglected to say what type of saw blades they were. If they are Craftsman then I would assume they are table saw blades. Generally speaking, table saw blades are not really knife worthy. If they have carbide tips on their teeth they are especially unlikely to be blade worthy.

It is very easy to spend more money trying to get salvaged steel shaped into a knife blade of questionable quality than the cost of some 1084 (which is cheap although I understand shipping to Hawaii is expensive). I suggest you put those blades aside until you have enough experience with forging and heat treating good steel that you can then test the saw blades to see if they are good or not (if you still care at that point). It isn't likely that anybody, including Sears, can tell you with certainty what steels were used in those blades so using them is a crap shoot. But, if they say chrome nickel molybdenum on the package that isn't encouraging ....


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  #3  
Old 01-06-2014, 07:00 AM
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What Ray said.
Why make it hard on yourself as you try to learn? Just like most mower blades, due to liability issues, many manufactors went to lower grade carbon steels so the blades would tend to bend instead of blow apart from impact issues and cause injury. Once you get thermal cycling figured out, then cut a chunk out and experiment if you like. Just remember you will be guessing even then. Make some shop knives and try them out with serious use. They will tell on themselves in short order.


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  #4  
Old 01-06-2014, 10:22 AM
RJO RJO is offline
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I've seen it recommended a few times to make sacrificial test-monkey blades from unknown steels and then test them to death, but I haven't seen suggestions for test parameters. What would be some good testing methods to actually determine a material's viability? For instance, I can cut paper all day long with basically any knife, but I doubt there's a blade alive that could stay sharp after more than a few file strokes across its edge.

In other words, when you say "test it", what should a decent blade realistically hold up to?
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  #5  
Old 01-06-2014, 11:23 AM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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First, you would probably want to get your best knife and test that to get a base line. If your best knife is a commercial product the goal would be to exceed whatever it can do.

Slicing cardboard is a good test of edge holding ability because the clay content in the cardboard is very hard on edges. Make sure the entire test is done on the same kind of cardboard, count the slices of a given length that you can make before the cuts start getting ragged.

With a freshly sharpened blade the brass rod test is pretty good for determining if the steel is too hard or too soft. Roll the edge along a 1/4" brass rod and you should be able to see the edge flex around the rod and return to straight after it leaves the rod. If it stays flexed or if it chips out the heat treat isn't optimum. For salvaged steel the question is can you get it to be optimum, can the edge be made to perform like that.

Before you bother to make a blade you can take a test piece of the steel and attempt harden it. After the quench test it with a fresh file: does the file skate across it as if the steel were glass? If so, it may be blade worthy but if the files easily bites in you have crap.

Next, put that test piece in a vise and break it by bending it. It should be very brittle and snap under steady pressure (don't hit it!). Wear eye and face protection when you do this. The broken edges should be light gray in color and have a very fine texture. A lumpy texture means EITHER that your HT process is not correct or the steel is unsuitable.

These are general guidelines, the final test is making the knives and seeing how they do in the real world. But, even then, what do you have? If the knives are excellent you still won't have anything that you wouldn't have had if you just bought the steel except that it probably cost you more in time and materials to test and reclaim that steel than if you just bought some good blade steel. Finally, some users may like the idea that their knife was made from a leaf spring off a '68 Chevy but more serious users wouldn't see any reason to spend big bucks on something like that.

The absolute bottom line here is that no knife you make from salvaged steel will be better than the same knife made from purchased steel, it might be as good but not better, and there is a very real chance it will cost you more to make it.....


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  #6  
Old 01-06-2014, 06:34 PM
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In other words, when you say "test it", what should a decent blade realistically hold up to?

Simply stated - The task for which it was designed.


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  #7  
Old 01-06-2014, 08:26 PM
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I have several old, pre carbide tooth. Could those be ok?
May just try them to see. They've been laying around for years
just taking up space.
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  #8  
Old 01-06-2014, 08:34 PM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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They 'could' be OK but I know you just ordered some good steel so why bother? Either they will work out about as well as the good steel you just bought in which case you spent more time and effort and materials (belts, fuel, drills, and saws or grinder disks) just to get to the same place. Or, if they don't then you just wasted all the above. Just sayin' ....


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Old 01-06-2014, 09:01 PM
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Blue EagleBum Blue EagleBum is offline
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Completely understood and I agree. Just always brainstorming and looking ahead. Later on why buy more when I have material. And this all has my head swimming right now. Just can't wait to get started. New projects are exciting to me.
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  #10  
Old 01-07-2014, 05:32 PM
loganb loganb is offline
 
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Thanks for the input. Figured I'd ask before I toss them out. I'll stick to using 1084.
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