Stainless steel

S

Sharpe5097

Joined
Mar 2, 2017
Messages
316
I have a bunch of old knives and want to use them to make new knives. How do i drill the hardened stainless. Or am I fighting the wrong fight
 
Whether you go the cheap route trying to use masonry bits, or buying proper carbide bits from a machinists supply house, the bits will work best in a drill press. Secure the blade carefully while drilling, both to avoid the "spinning helicopter of death" effect and because the least shift in the work-piece can snap the carbide bit. YMMV but I've had much better success with proper carbide bits for drilling hardened steel than with I have had with masonry bits. In my experience the brazing material holding the carbide in a cheap bit often melts before the steel is spot annealed and the shape of the tip does not cut the steel well. But good bits are not cheap. If you are drilling holes to put a handle on, you can also consider grinding a hole or slot, or just roughing up the tang and using good epoxy, depending on the purpose of the knife and the level of finish you are after.
 
Mahoney said:
Whether you go the cheap route trying to use masonry bits, or buying proper carbide bits from a machinists supply house, the bits will work best in a drill press. Secure the blade carefully while drilling, both to avoid the "spinning helicopter of death" effect and because the least shift in the work-piece can snap the carbide bit. YMMV but I've had much better success with proper carbide bits for drilling hardened steel than with I have had with masonry bits. In my experience the brazing material holding the carbide in a cheap bit often melts before the steel is spot annealed and the shape of the tip does not cut the steel well. But good bits are not cheap. If you are drilling holes to put a handle on, you can also consider grinding a hole or slot, or just roughing up the tang and using good epoxy, depending on the purpose of the knife and the level of finish you are after.
Click to expand...
Awesome. Thank you. It is for pinning the handles. I tried to do a hidden tang but can't drill the holes that small.
 
You should ask yourself why you are working with these old knives instead of new material. Is there some nostalgic reason the knives you would like to restore them? If so maybe you should develop your skills first. Do you want to start learning to make knives? Maybe you should start with fresh materials instead.
 
I just thought I could practice making knives with the old knives. Cutting the big knives and making small knives
 
You can regrind old knives into new ones, but the process isn't much like making a knife from new material, unless of course you plan to anneal the blades and heat treat when you are done. If you are going to work the material hard, and try to preserve the hardness; cutting will most likely have to be done with an abrasive cutting wheel or plasma cutter, which will ruin the temper of the material to some distance on either side of the cut. You will have to remove material slowly and carefully when grinding, with lots of dipping to avoid drawing the temper of the blade. If starting with new material that will be heat treated later, you can grind very aggressively. Drilling the holes in the tang will be a challenge with the hardened material, but not in new annealed material..

You mentioned these blades were old stainless, some of those alloys are not very satisfactory as blade steel. Making such a knife into a new shape is unlikely to make the steel perform better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top