Saw blade steel?

S

stax

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Jan 6, 2009
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I was given a large saw blade the other day to cut up and make blades from. Does anyone know know what kind of steel saw blades are usually made from? It is about 3 ft in diameter and the teeth are square with what looks like carbide if that tells you anything. It's about 3/16" thick and seems to be pretty hard right now. Thanks for any info..:confused:
 
Could be good or bad for knives. You'll need to cut a piece off, heat treat and test it.

And before someone says so, it's likely not L6 :)
 
That sounds like a concrete/asphalt blade...and if it is, its not much good for knives. The bodies of those blades are generally made of 4140 for toughness, with the carbide "teeth" there to do cutting.

4140 is a great steel for impact/toughness type applications, but it simply will not harden enough for a knife blade application.
 
I just spoke to the guy that gave it to me. He said a lot of the time it is made of 12L14 which has lead in it. I guess the teeth are daimond, not carbide and it was used for cutting glass. I'll try to heat treat a piece tonite and see where I get. I get the feeling though that I have lugged this thing around for no good reason.
 
Try a piece and see what happens when you test. If it does get hard cut a piece off and send it in to be anaylized. Then you know exactly what you have and what to do with it. Good luck.
 
12L14 has almost no carbon...something like .15%...it won't make knife blades
Stacy
 
I heat treated a piece of this last night. Although I don't have a good way to test it, files won't grab on it after hardening. It must be something different then the 12l14. I'll make something out of it and see what happens. Thanks
 
I tried filing this piece again and wrecked part of my new file. I was filing with some force and still couldn't get it to bite. I still have no idea what the steel is but it looks like it will be good for knives.
 
You can make ten beautiful blades and heat treat them ten different ways. Rockwell test them all. Take them all to a cutting competition. Bend each one 90 degrees. Use each one in the field with multiple sharpenings. Cut them up for charpy test samples. Then you might say the steel is good for knives. But it's much less trouble to start with a known steel with known properties and defined heat treat.
 
The saw blade I had tested was 8670M. Know what that means about your blade? Absolutely nothing. If you've got the whole 36" blade, it would be worth getting it tested.
 
I have a 36" saw blade with carbide inserts. I used a torch to cut out a piece to make a spring with and a few days later I noticed a large crack in the saw blade where I was using the torch. I have to assume that the blade had air hardened in the cut area and the stresses caused the crack. I have several of these blades and intend to get the steel tested at fastenall. BTW the spring worked great.
 
Years ago, I had cut up a few large saw blades with carbide inserts. Made very good blades. Cut up a few other small ones that would not harden. Must test, one way or another.
 
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