Anyone know what xacto blades are made of?

[Leon Husock]

A friend gave me 6 lbs of used xacto knife blades. I was thinking of making canister damascus with them, but if they're stainless that might be a pain (though I suppose not impossible). Anyone have any insight?

 

[Sharpoholic]

If I had to guess, theyre made with a Sandvik steel designed to be mass produced and easily heat treated. Something like 13c23, which is used in many disposable shaving razors and box cutter blades.

 

[ea42]

Possibly?....

"Razor blade steel is a martensitic stainless steel with a composition of chromium between 12 and 14.5%, a carbon content of approximately 0.6%, and the remainder iron and trace elements."

Eric

 

[Leon Husock]

If I had to guess, theyre made with a Sandvik steel designed to be mass produced and easily heat treated. Something like 13c23, which is used in many disposable shaving razors and box cutter blades.

Any idea whether something like that would be usable in canister damascus? I don't have a digital heat treating oven which would make heat treating anything stainless difficult, but I can cross that bridge when I come to it.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

According to many sources, X-acto blades are mid-range carbon steel. It would likely work in canister damascus.

 

[Leon Husock]

Follow-up question, it seems like at least the small #11 x-acto blades are coated with zirconium nitride. Does anyone have any idea whether this will be a problem in a canister, or if there's any good way to remove it? I suppose I can always just try a canister weld and see what happens, but I hate to waste the powdered steel.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I've seen the coated blades, but don't use them. I use #11 scalpel blades in a scalpel handle. I get them in 100 packs for $9
I have not seen the coated X-acto blades offered in bulk but haven't really looked.

Out of curiosity, what is your source of enough X-acto blades to do a canister?

I would suspect the coating won't make a lot of difference in the canister, but suggest you try a mini-cannister make out of 1" square tubing.

 

[Leon Husock]

A friend of mine works in the art department at her company, and mentioned a while ago that they had a whole coffee can of used up X-acto blades. I mentioned I could use them for canisters, and so she gave it to me for Christmas as a joke. It's some #11 X-acto blades and some Olfa 05 utility knife blades, the whole can weighs about 6 lbs. A test canister is a good idea, I'll try that. I just have to make some 3/4" squaring dies for my press since the only ones I have are 1.5".

 

[donnord]

About the coating, as an experiment, maybe you could put the blades in a rock tumbler with grit to get rid if it. Do one canister with and one without.