band saw blades

K

Keith Willis

Joined
Oct 24, 2007
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812
I am new at this knifemaking and wanting to forge a knife i am trying to learn all i can.I have access to woodcutting bandsaw blades.They are about 1.250 wide without the teeth and .040 thick.Can i,and if so how, use this material to forge a blade.
Thanks
 
You could make a blade by stock removal, but forging is hard when the metal is that thin. You should use known metal and fill out your profile. Unknown metal is fine for practice but with the huge amount of time put into a good knife the cost of steel is almost neglect-able.
 
I am sorry i was not clear as to what i wanted to do,i know it may be difficult starting out,but i would like to make a damascus blade.
Thanks,
 
I have been forging on and off for about two years and I'm just starting to be able to forge weld without difficulty. I suggest you avoid damascus for now, trying to weld as a beginner just causes head aches and frustration. Also the thinner the metal your trying to weld the harder it will be.
 
Thanks for the advice E'. I thought it would be frustrating,but i just wondered if several layers of just bandsaw would work,or if i would need mix with something else.
Thanks again,
 
Well it is possible just use the band saw but it would be easier to use the band saw and steel bars. You could call the company that produces the saw blades to find what type of steel is used in their blades. Then you could select what type of steel to use for the bars.

What fuel will you be running in your forge? Propane will be easiest for welding but charcoal and coal will work fine if you run the forge correctly. With coal and charcoal its easy to either under soak the steel or melt it when your starting out.

I suggest you make a few mono-steel blades before trying damascus.
 
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