Found some steel packed away…

A

aslink

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Nov 29, 2014
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I was unpacking yet more stuff in my garage I had packed up from my “knife shop” years ago. I was given these large hacksaw blades. Is it worth while to turn these into knifes? At the time I was intrigued with turning saw blades into the knives. But never got to do the research and then forgot about them.

The larger blades are 1 7/8” x 23 1/2” x .101 the smaller blades are 1 3/4" 17" x .088

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I also had this piece of Starrett 496 oil hardening 3/16" x 1 1/4" x 18”. I tried looking it up the only thing that sounded worth while was it is an O1 steel. Other than that I don’t know much about it, did see much on it and again is it worth dealing with?

Thanks in advance,

Ken
 
Most hacksaw blades are bimetal which means it would have hard teeth but the rest being softer low carbon. You could do some testing with it. Heat a piece to 1500 degrees, quench in warm canola oil. Then when its cool, clamp it in a vice and give it a whack with a hammer. If it shatters across the entire width it may not be bimetal.

However, you still won't know exactly what the steel is. It may be a high speed steel, which also is not ideal for knife making.

It looks like you have a lot of those hacksaw blades. It might be worth getting one analyzed to see what elements are present in it. A local foundry might be willing to test it for you if you ask nicely...
 
The solid ( not bi-metal) power hacksaw blades are often M4. That is difficult to grind hardened, and difficult to anneal or HT without a HT oven and some skill. I would say they are not worth playing with. The O-1 makes a fine blade.
 
Thanks again guys. I'm just gonna toss them, to many questions.

I will mess around with the O1 some day.
 
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I wouldn't make knives with them, but I wouldn't toss them either. As was stated they could still be useful for making things around the shop.
 
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