Grinding down an old brush-ax?

S

SnowmanBob01

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Feb 20, 2010
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I saw an old brush ax sitting at a flea mall, and had the darndnest idea. Is it feasible to grind down an old brush ax blade into a knife? It's wide, so there's alot to work with. But how's the steel? I think it'll be a good project. What do you guys figure?
 
Someone from the W&SS forum took the beak off a Gerber/Fiskars Brush Hook some years ago. Can't recall who it was, but it ended up looking pretty nice.

Personally, for a project like this I'd use an angle grinder and finish with a file. It doesn't heat up the steel too much, and cuts pretty fast.
 
Think about what a good brush hook is designed to do.

Now buy that sucker and get to hacksawing and filing! Just keep the steel cool, as the previous poster pointed out.

I can't tell you how many DIY choppers I made out of old brush hook blades when I was a kid. I can tell you this, they were thicker and performed better than the import machetes of the day (early '80s).

Just keep in mind you're not going to create an edge holding miracle equal to the latest wonder steel.

However, you're sure to make and entirely usable tool (that you can honestly claim to have made yourself! That's always cool!):D
 
Thats pretty good advice, thank ya much. I don't know alot about quenching and tempering other than the basics. Not sure if I'm a good enough artist with a nice enough setup to make some of these beauty knives. But, I know how to make something tough. So maybe I'll grind out a few blades and sell em or give em away ^_^
 
SnowmanBob01 said:
Thats pretty good advice, thank ya much. I don't know alot about quenching and tempering other than the basics. Not sure if I'm a good enough artist with a nice enough setup to make some of these beauty knives. But, I know how to make something tough. So maybe I'll grind out a few blades and sell em or give em away ^_^
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A good brush hook will already be heat treated. You don't have to re-do that whole process if you keep the steel cool when grinding. Just dip it in water when you feel it get warm.

If you're planning to re-do the heat treat anyway why not start out with a new piece of steel?
 
I think I'll stick with the temper given to the brush ax. Not ridiculously sharp, but durable and wont chip. Probably along the line of how my Cold Steel Bowie Machete is tempered. That's 1055, but I'm not to sure what steel the brush ax is. I'm sure its good, those engineers didn't get their degree in a lottery. What are some other sources of good, already tempered steel?
 
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