Annealing L6 to be or not to be?? that is the question...

Battle Creek Knives

Battle Creek Knives

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Feb 23, 2010
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I have various L6 that I want to anneal... one of which is some saw blades

I have a group coming up that I want to make some slicers for, in question, band saw blade... is it necessary to anneal before profile??

thanks,

rob
 
I aquired a large saw mill blade that im using for high carbon stock, i did some research on the net and could only agrre with the characteristics describing L-6, so i would love to know a definite way to test other than sending it somewhere? would be a great idea to anneal!!
 
i didn't anneal it before i profiled it. it grinds just fine as is. i also used a sawblade and it's not bad at all. it does need to be heat treated though, it won't take an edge without it.
 
It really is unlikely that you have L-6. I scored a 5 1/2 foot diameter blade from a mill that turned out to be 8620. Forget making a knife with that.

If you want to make a good knife, bite the bullet and have it tested. Some of the bigger scrap yards have a cool tool that looks like a radar gun and will give you a complete readout of the steel. That might be cheapest.

Why invest time and materials in a knife that is questionable to start with? The only way you can begin to properly heat treat it by knowing what it is. I encourage you to make that leap.

Gene
 
Russ Andrews said:
Are you certain they're L6..? Most aren't.
Click to expand...

got me there... I have about 16' of 1 1/2" wide band saw blade..

guess I can either have it tested or simply try one out for size... I started to cut the profile on a piece earlier and I'm under the impression it should be annealed.

but I'll try one without it, I'll ht it and see how the edge holds...

tell you this, it seems like quality steel.....
 
Band saw blades are never L6, it might be 15N20, or something similar to 1075. Large circular saw blades are usually not L6 either.

No need to anneal, just normalize it. I've made 1000s of knives from old saw blade steel, most of it is very good stuff. Gotta test it though.
 
I worked a series of knives out of my saw blade normalized, shaped, heat treated, tempered twice, and these knives hold a serious edge they pass rod deflection, antler strikes, all the basic tests, i counted 55 hard pulls across an antler before i could detect some edge ware, passed the blade over my thumb nail and couldnt feel any distortions either, im gonna take a piece to my local scrap yard for i.d.
 
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