Question on old circular saw blade metal

Core Knife Co.

Core Knife Co.

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Apr 8, 2009
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I have a buddy who owns a antique shop close to the house. He was these very large saw blades and I was wondering if they were of any value not knowing the steel. I don't do my own heat treating yet as everything is sent off to Peters.

The smaller one is about 2'-6" across and the first in about 4' across. I like the idea of using it I just wanted to know if anyone has experience and if they were made from a known steel.

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He also has about 50 misery whip blades.
 
I like em!! Ive had good success, send a piece off for analysis..Heres a couple ive done, and the piece i got them from, i section it up and then anneal a batch now and then!
 

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I agree...it seems like you can get a bunch of knives from one of those blades so it would be worth it to you to send some out and get it analyzed. I dont think it is too expensive, maybe a hundred bucks or so, but it would be worth it to know what you are working with.
 
mmm, mystery steel... I like it...

if I were you call around to your local community college or high school metal shop/engineering dept or whatnot and see if they can determine what it is for you, most times they can outsource and have it analyzed free !!!

your tax dollars at work is what I'm talking about :D
 
If you can look at a saw blade in the store that you know is a known bimetallic, then you can see how the hard tips are attached & you can see the difference.

The photos don't show well, but there is a chance they are one solid steel & not bi metallic.
That is a good start.


The next thing I would try is cut small test pieces and test harden, first oil quench, then water quench.
If they harden and you can shatter the hard bits

- then I would try getting them analysed .
 
I'm really interested in picking them up but I'm just struggling tying to find out how to figure out this mystery steel. I've Googled just about every carbon steel analyzer combination I can think of. I live close to Washington University so calling them sounds like a good plan. It's a lot of steel. If I could get some water jetting close by I could yield a lot of blades.
 
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I once had a piece of a similar blade analyzed and it turned out to be 8670M. That's about like me saying I had a car once that drove nicely, and so yours should too :)
 
Have you checked out the 4" blade closely? Sometimes you will see the steel type indented near the hub. Frank
 
The 4' blade is made to have carbide inserts in the round holes during use. I have one like it, but will end up cutting a picture in it with my plasma cutter. I have many 14-16" saw mill blades (non carbide) I wish I knew their type of steel. Jess
 
Jesse Latham said:
The 4' blade is made to have carbide inserts in the round holes during use. I have one like it, but will end up cutting a picture in it with my plasma cutter. I have many 14-16" saw mill blades (non carbide) I wish I knew their type of steel. Jess
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A couple of test pieces one quenched in oil and one in water snapped in the vise should tell you from the grain size whether they are ok for quenching in that medium.
Heat to non magnetic and quench. (The saw blades aren't that thick that you'd need a long soak time.) Brass rod testing will let you know what the temper regime should be. Analysis is very expensive over here, so we tend to keep our saw blades for home HT. The non-carbide saw blades will always be good knife steel, but you have to experiment a bit to get the best out of the steel.
 
All the old ones Ive seen analyzed usually come back as something like 1080+2% Nickle or 8670M..Either way it makes fine knives..If its good steel you can get a whole bunch of knives out of a saw blade..
 
Ive used them a lot more mysterious than that one.(newer)Id jump all over those.
 
I have a big one like those that ended up decoration hanging on the wall. I liked the looks of it so much I couldn't bring myself to cutting it up. I believe Fastenal will do a steel analysis for pretty cheap.
 
Burton, I just contacted my local Fastenal store and they're looking into some lab services pricing for me. I appreciate it.
 
I would like to mention that aland here on the forum does a lot of misery whip blades. you might want to check with him.
 
I have a friend who works at a mill here who has been pulling the old blades out of the scrap for me. I tried "spark" testing but it did not really give me any solid answers.

The smaller ones 2-3' he has pulled out did not harden bringing them to 1500/ 5min soak / and quenching in Parks 50. They had carbide teeth and I assume that is why. I doubt water would give me much different results?

He just got me a 4' EXACTLY the 2nd one in this post. I cut off a piece to test harden but have not had the time yet. Will try it and report back next HT cycle.

A place I drive by near my house has a few old rusty 5-6' footers leaning outside the shop...those would be worth analyzing.

He also pulls out the old bandsaw sections - those are all 15N20 and marked as such so that makes it easy - its all 12" wide by 3/32" thick.

I am curious on the misery whip blade steel also as I see them here for a few dollars from time to time.
 
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