Lawnmower blades to Knives

B

Billy The Blade

Joined
Jul 30, 2014
Messages
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I just read C Cattaraugus225 's thread inquiring about Lawn mower blades and I thought he was going to ask if anyone here has made a knife or machete out of an old lawnmower blade.
So, I thought to ask the question.
(I did not do a prior search...😏)
B.T.B.

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Lawn mower blade generally has lower carbon than most cutlery steels, usually hardened to 40 HRC if not lower, tough but not ideal for chopping. They are made to cut grass and small brands after all. Even 420 grade will make better blade.
 
I have. I forgot the maker but it was used to skin and gut a pig before it was sent to me. Maybe not all lawnmower blades are the same. Perhaps they can be hardened further.
 
No it was one of the custom knife makers on this forum. He made a lot of knives out of lawnmower blades if I recall correctly. Could I be mistaken ?
 
This thread states lawn mower blades are 1045 steel and the conclusion was they were not appropriate for knives. That is not to say there might be medium to high carbon steel lawn mower blades, but how the heck can anyone take a random lawn mower blade and test it for carbon content?.

How about some nice car leaf springs? Or, coil springs?

cdGef9F.jpg
 
Billy The Blade said:
I just read C Cattaraugus225 's thread inquiring about Lawn mower blades and I thought he was going to ask if anyone here has made a knife or machete out of an old lawnmower blade.
So, I thought to ask the question.
(I did not do a prior search...😏)
B.T.B.

​

Click to expand...

the issue is, honestly, mass machete factories do such a great job with such low prices why bother salvaging lawn blades?
honestly, I paid $20 for my ontario 1075 machete, super heat treatment, tough & heavy duty....
the thinner stock southern factories (in south & latin america) charge less than that, and also usually use 1070 or other good choices

...
having said that, I use a husqvarna big 64" 5 blade manual push mower - no gas, no cords, no batteries, no stink.... just muscle & 5 big blades
easily the most fun using 5 blades at the same time... pretty sure they use 1060 on those, great all around
 
helobite said:
This thread states lawn mower blades are 1045 steel and the conclusion was they were not appropriate for knives. That is not to say there might be medium to high carbon steel lawn mower blades, but how the heck can anyone take a random lawn mower blade and test it for carbon content?.

How about some nice car leaf springs? Or, coil springs?

cdGef9F.jpg
Click to expand...
Thanks for the old thread...good read.
dirc said:
the issue is, honestly, mass machete factories do such a great job with such low prices why bother salvaging lawn blades?
honestly, I paid $20 for my ontario 1075 machete, super heat treatment, tough & heavy duty....
Click to expand...
Agreed. 👍
 
Saying all mower blades are xxxx steel is like saying all carbon steel knives are 1095. Just plain not true...
 
Several years ago I had a link to a John Deere webpage where they said the John Deere lawn mower blades were 5160, but darn I can't find it now. I agree with Keith above, the steel used in lawn mower blades is going to be all over the spectrum. I think they would be good for throwing knives where a high grade steel isn't needed.
 
I remember that JD PTO drive shafts were a very clean 5160 steel. I heard the blades were much better steel than normal lawn mower blades, but never saw direct proof.
 
I did some research on hickory wood mop sticks. The grade of hickory on some were fantastic and other handles were made of run of the mill average quality woods. The reason was the mop factories would buy whatever wood was plentiful and/or economic. They did not particularly care whether it was top notch hickory or not. It was because the hickory just happened to be the most convenient and/or profitable material on hand.

I would not be surprised if it's the same with the steel types used in lawn mower blades.

With car springs, from what I read on a Kukri making website, the quality of steel varies, the best bets being from German made cars with Japanese cars being the second best bet. The blade smiths have ways to quickly test samples of the steel to determine if it's a likely candidate for making a good blade.
 
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I don't know for a FACT if this is true or not, I have no reason to doubt it, but I'll throw it out there since it sort of goes with the thread. A handful of years back, a well known steel supplier acquired a bunch of Hitachi Blue 2. And as we know, the Hitachi steels really aren't available for purchase here by anyone who isn't tied into the Japanese makers, like Murray Carter for example. Because he studied over there for years, he can purchase Hitachi steels, and I think any of his students can purchase from him. I ordered a few bars (not from Murray, from the steel supplier) and it came with the Hitachi paperwork that showed the steel chemistry, recommended heat treatment, among other info. The top of the paper was in Japanese and I had no clue what it said. I asked a fellow maker who comes around here every now and again and he had a friend who was fluent in Japanese. He showed him the top of the letter and said that this particular batch of Hitachi Blue 2 was originally to be delivered to a company that made lawn mower blades. Now I'm not making any claims about why a US steel supplier wound up with a batch of Hitachi Blue 2, but a lot of that steel had carbide banding out the bunghole. One guy who posted a photo on British Blades had a knife in this Blue 2 that looked like some crazy wootz steel, the carbide banding was just massive.

So your lawn mower blade might be Hitachi Ao # 2!!!! Ha ha!
 
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