As a newbie knife maker, and one who does it as cheap as possible, I found that profiling a knife out out a blank pice of tool steel using a Zip Cut wheel on a angle grinder very effective! The wheel is very thin, maybe .0625" thick, and cuts D2, and 01 very well and fast! I keep a rag soaked in water, and cool it every few inches. Beats spending tons of elbow grease using a hacksaw!:thumbup:
Blade profiling!
- Thread starter sinawalli
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- Nov 29, 2005
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- 475
But you can't beat the workout you get from hacksawing a blade's shape out 
Ditto what trentu just said. Not only are you getting the metal dust, but the fiberglass and abrasive dust also. I would not worry about soaking the steel to cool it while cutting unless you had some work hardening issues. For the most part, you can get the steel pretty warm before HT and it really won't matter. I use my dremel a bunch and never do anything to cool the steel.