how to heat treat mystery steel (saw blade).

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bronyblacksmith

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Nov 6, 2012
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I have made a small swept point knife from a saw blade that is all one piece of steel from a lumber mill but I am not sure what type of steel it is.
what type of steel do yall think it is i have heard that I could be L6, 15N20 or something that I cant remember right now.
 
its an unknown high carbon steel so if your using an oven to h.t. then i have no idea, but if your using a forge i'd just bring it up to demag hold 10 -15 min. and quench. i'd treat it like 1095 for tempering too. just test it out after to see if you got the results you were looking for. good luck. leif
 
yeah I am using a forge and that sounds like a good idea to start with and as i make more blades out of it hopefully i can narrow it down to one or two steels.
yhanks.
 
From doing alot of searching on the subject I would guess its something similar to 15N20. L6 was kind of a rummor mill thing that started because of the nickel in some of the blades. I have only done one out of old logging saw blades and treated it like above and it got nice and sharp with good grain structure. It was a pretty good garage pal until I started using it like a screwdriver/prybar and broke the little guy.
 
Most like something like 1070+2% nickle, could be 8670M..Most likely not L6..Heat treat it like your heat treating 1080..If you can bring it to about 1475° for 5 minutes then quench in fast oil..If your using a forge bring it up just a shade past non-magnetic and quench in the fastest oil you have..Canola oil will work well..
 
Just make sure to test a piece first. Cut a chunk off, heat a little past non magnetic and quench in oil. No sense in wasting time on making knives if the steel won't harden.
 
Rick is right on target as always.
Take some strips of the steel and try heat treating it different ways, the experience and knowledge is priceless and so worth the time.
I've made a lot of knives from saw blade just for fun and practice, a lot of them are in daily use years on.
Costco has gallons of Canola oil for next to no cost.
 
you right Rick I have some small pieces lying around that I will heat treat first should I temper it or just break it to check harden ability and grain size?
 
Personally I would just see if it snaps after hardening. If it snaps quickly from being very hard and has nice grain structure then your on to the next step of tempering and seeing how good of an edge it holds.
 
nope no carbides its mono steel its raining to day and don't want to fire up the forge so im going to heat treat in a few days.
 
I just did an unknown steel (crosscut saw blade) yesterday from a project I abandoned to use a known steel with. I had the forge running at 1500f continuously, and threw this one in just to see how it would harden. The last one I did came out softer than I wanted, so I used a brine quench. It was a chef's knife. It came out with a moderate warp. Reflexively I gave it a gentle push without thinking and TINK!!! Three piece chef's knife now!!!! I'll post pics when I get off work. I have a few more pieces of this steel, so I'll try again with warm canola oil instead of brine and see what happens. If it is 1070 or the like, I'll try a differential harden and see what happens.
 
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