First timer needs help

S

schick

Joined
Dec 22, 2009
Messages
7
Hi everyone. I just found this forum after deciding I want to start making beautiful knives. I have already looked at the newbie stickies (lots of dead links :( ) and looked over piles of threads trying to educate myself. Of course I have a question or two. I can't search (too cheap?).

I have acquired a few 10" and 12" circular saw blades. Dewalts, and unkowns. I was hoping to use these, and have already etched out some designs ( I figured marker would not work). I was hoping to jump in and start cutting blanks, but recently realized after reading, that I may have to anneal the saw blades first.

Is that true? Maybe just the tips are carbide, and I can just start cutting shapes right away, as I won't be using the tips?

If possible, I'd like to cut half a dozen or so different blanks before I figure out how to build a gas (propane?) forge. It's cold up here in Saskatchewan, so nice forge running in a ventilated outdoor shop might be kinda fun.
 
YOu would be farther ahead to just purchase some inexpensive (not to be confused with cheap) knifemaking barstock like 1080 or 1084. Very inexpensive and comes annealed and ready to work. Plus it's a known steel and you don't have to do all that other messing around.:)
 
I don't even know if that sort of thing is available up here (Sasktchewan, Canada). Is this something a typical metal shop might carry?

I was told that old circular saw blades made good knives. Now I am confused.
 
Hello and welcome to the addiction :cool: :thumbup:
a couple of things, First if you read the stickies you had to see where it is written, USE KNOWN STEEL 98% of the commercial sawblades are regular 1018 with M2 tips. junk for knives. there are a couple of guys on the forums here like Aldo Bruno he has great steel to begin with. it's 1080 and is very forgiving in heattreat. try that. go to the hardware store and get a pice of "welding steel" to practice on, filing the bevels, shaping, and so on. your first knife will be light years ahead this way.

Jason
 
Thanks to both of you.

Should a guy still use these junk saw blades just to practice on. Seems like a cheap way to practice making blanks and grinding on.

I'll have to save a few bucks and go visit a metal supplier.
 
heres the deal circular saw blades are most lickly going to be made from a soft steel that cant be efectivly hardened. 180/1084/1090 are good steels. they don't have fancy alloy content, but they are easy to heat treat, and are good quality and cheap. $20 of 1084 will make quit a few knives depending on your source, and the length of your blades. these steels are also comonly available most machine shops should carry them.
also if you know what the steel is it is easier to heat treat especially if you have less than ideal equipment, or skills

heres Aldo's 1084 http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=684654
 
You can use saw blades, but there really is a lot of question about what kind of steel you'll be working and if it can make a serviceable blade. Unless you have a solid idea of the composition, you can spend a lot of time experimenting to get the heat treatment right. That means taking your hard-won first blade and heat treating with a guess, then breaking it to observe the grain, etc, etc.

Using known steel just takes some of the guess work out. It's still a good idea to break blades to observe the grain and test to destruction, but you'll have a starting point to work from in a known heat treatment (to harden the steel).

Remember, each steel type has a specific heat treating protocol, so you need to know the steel to nail the heat treatment (one of the most important steps in creating a quality knife).

Check out

www.knifemaker.ca

He's got about everything you need and is up in Canada.

--nathan
 
schick said:
Thanks to both of you.

Should a guy still use these junk saw blades just to practice on. Seems like a cheap way to practice making blanks and grinding on.

I'll have to save a few bucks and go visit a metal supplier.
Click to expand...

:thumbup::D
 
Thanks.

I guess I'll toss the saw blades. They were free after all.

Time to scratch up a few bucks and go shopping. I am under the impression that anything above 50% would be okay for general knife usage.

Time to buy a good book isn't it? :)
 
You can also search posts on here if you go to google and put this into the (Google's) search field site:bladeforums.com/forums/

Just make sure you use a space after the last "/" when searching what you're looking for.
 
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