How to cut a Hacksaw Blade for your metal Match?

[turd]

Heres a crappy video of how to grind off the teeth and to make a nice squared edge for scraping a ferro rod


eric

 

[TDahlgren]

...Lastly I drill a 1/8" hole in one end and attached a paracord loop.

I do this also.

But, unlike me, if you do this you really should secure the blade in something safe (a bench vise, vice grips, etc) so that your fingers are not in range should, by chance the drill bit grab and send that little thin strip of steel whirling at high RPMs into your exposed flesh.

Because that can be painful.

 

[SpookyPistolero]

Why grind off the teeth from the blade piece? You can always flatten the back/spine to give yourself a good scraping area. Then you've got some teeth that can be used to scrape off magnesium shavings, as a hyper-aggressive firesteel scraper if needed, and as an emergency blade/saw to make a small knife out of. Depending on storage, it's quite unlikely to scrape into anything enough to have to worry about it.

 

[Serrinon]

Why grind off the teeth from the blade piece? You can always flatten the back/spine to give yourself a good scraping area. Then you've got some teeth that can be used to scrape off magnesium shavings, as a hyper-aggressive firesteel scraper if needed, and as an emergency blade/saw to make a small knife out of. Depending on storage, it's quite unlikely to scrape into anything enough to have to worry about it.

Humm, have I been doing something wrong, I've been using the teeth to scrape the flint rod attached to the magnesium strip. Makes a MUCH better spark than the other side. Is there anything wrong with using the teeth?

 

[sodak]

There's nothing wrong with it, it really does spark better. It's hell on the rod, though. If you're ok with that, go for it!

 

[Serrinon]

Yeah, I just couldn't get a good spark consistently with the other end of the hacksaw blade. Is there a trick to the trade that I'm missing?

 

[SpookyPistolero]

Yeah, I just couldn't get a good spark consistently with the other end of the hacksaw blade. Is there a trick to the trade that I'm missing?

Ditto what he said about eating up your rod. Have you flattened off the spine of the piece? It's unlikely to give you good sparks unless you've got a good, crisp edge to scrape it with. Just take a file and grind it flat on that side.

 

[Serrinon]

Ditto what he said about eating up your rod. Have you flattened off the spine of the piece? It's unlikely to give you good sparks unless you've got a good, crisp edge to scrape it with. Just take a file and grind it flat on that side.

Sounds good, I'll try to gring the flat side of the hacksaw blade and see if that gets me a better spark. Thanks!

 

[lukus]

It's kinda been danced around but not called out outright. I've found that the really cheap blades, or if you have some really old blades, are the best. Most of the blades now have the teeth induction hardened or welded onto low carbon steel so the rest of the blade is soft. It makes the blades safer and harder to break when used for its intended purpose.

They used to harden the whole blade. I remember when I was little and would be trying to cut something with a hacksaw. Bind (or bend) the blade a little bit, and "BING", it would shatter into 3 or 4 pieces like glass. Those pieces would go everywhere. Several years ago, when needing a piece for a striker I crawled under my dad's old workbench and found an old piece in the spiderwebs. I ground off the teeth and rounded off the broken end. It made a great striker that's still on one of my flints. Good shower of sparks without having to tear up the flint with the teeth.

I know everybody knows this, but make sure you get all the paint off the striking edges. You'll get much better sparks if you're not dragging a painted surface across the flint.