Beginner need advice on chainsaw bar knife

S

SvperbeasT

Joined
Jan 9, 2015
Messages
9
Hello everyone,

I am new to making my own knives but I do have some basic skills. Currently I'm working on making a machete/knife from a old (10-12 years) solid stihl chainsaw bar. So far I have cut out the shape, that's it.

Now I'm not quite sure what to do next, I tried to sharpen the edge with a flat file but the steel is way to hard, so from what I have heard you can heat it up to a certain temperature and time then let it cool down room temp. At this point it should be soft enough to detail and sharpen the knife I guess...? Then if that worked I'm susposed to do a heat treatment which I have very little skill In doing. All I know is heat it till it's yellow then dip it in oil.

I read that the bar is a high carbon steel.

If anyone could point me in the right direction I would really appreciate it, I'm really excited about doing this project and hope it turns out good!

I have a picture but not sure how to post it.
 
Picture of the blade here
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It's very top heavy, I think I'm going to take a little more off the blade side.
 
Kidding aside the link the Count posted has all the info you are looking for. Fill out your profile, maybe there is a knifemaker in your neighborhood willing to help you out. You don't want to heat the steel to yellow - that's too hot. That is an awfully big blade to hand file bevels on.

Be careful knifemaking can be addictive!
 
So what's the best way to treat it? Right now it's very hard in the edge the file slides like glass over the edge. If use my hand grinding wheel to get the edge will the heat change the metal composition and soften it? If it stays as hard as it is now after grinding the edge I'll be fine with that.
 
What did you cut it out with, an abrasive wheel? If so, it's likely that you have over-tempered the edges all around from the friction heat. At any rate, if I was you I'd do the job with an angle grinder. New, course wheels, probably flap wheels but you'll need a lot of them. I'd clamp it down to a bench, keep a big can of water on hand, and slop it over the blade every few passes, or however much needed to keep it no hotter than your hands can stand. When it gets thinner, it will need to be cooled more frequently, of course.

I've made knives in the past out of old Oregon chainsaw bars, which were supposed to be O1 tool steel. I don't know what Stihl bars are made of, although I do have a pile of old ones in my scrap metal...

When you're done shaping, I'd put it in the oven at 450F for an hour, then cool it, and back in for an hour, cool again. Then do some edge flexes (find out what that is) and if it's too hard, bump your temp up 25 degrees and try it again.

There is so much to working with unknown steel that I sure can't type it all in one post. Did you exhaustively try to find out what the alloy may be?
 
With my old files I'd bury it in sand after heating it to non magnetic. Let it cool slowly on it's own. Grind and drills with ease after that. However you'll have to redo the heat treating.its a chore to do with files, let alone a big piece like what you're doing.
 
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