Carbide spade drill bit (metric)

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philipgalle

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Jan 3, 2015
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3
hello all

I'd like to make a couple of knives out of an old two man crosscut saw blade. For drilling the holes for the rivets I (think I) need a carbide spade drill bit, similar to the one they use here: http://www.blackburntools.com/blog/drilling-holes-in-saw-blades/ I've found a few suppliers in the USA but since I live in Europe I prefer not to order one overseas. Does anyone know where I can find these? Thank you.
 
Welcome to Shop Talk. The stickys have a lot of information you are going to need.

Just go to the hardware store and get a carbide masonry spade bit. That will drill the holes just fine. It takes a while, but they work. You want the holes in the tang a tad larger than the rivet stock. For a 5mm rivet, use a 6mm bit, etc.
An example - http://www.homedepot.com/p/Bosch-Fast-Spiral-1-4-in-x-2-in-x-4-in-Masonry-Bit-BM2005/203285091

You would be better off to anneal the saw blade steel and do all the work ( drill holes, cut to shape, file, sand, etc.) and then HT the blade once it is ready. Working a pre-hardened piece of steel into a knife is a usually a hard task with poor looking results.
 
Thanks for the replies. I had read in an old Foxfire book how the old timers made simple knives by making holes in old sawblades - I can't remember whether the drilled or punched them.
 
Have you tried to drill a scrap piece of this blade? In my experience these saws are not that hard, they file easily with a new file. (my father used to sharpen them for others all the time). I would try drilling a scrap with a good bit and see what happens. use proper feed and speed and some cutting oil.

on a side note if you are able to drill the hole then the saw blade is probably too soft to make a knife with good edge holding etc..
 
Spade drills are usually used for deep hole drilling like gun barrels. A standard HSS drill should be fine on a CC sawbalde. If you need carbide I'd recomend you try Brownells.com.
 
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