Urgent info on hacksaw blades

[galadduin]

I've been searching for the alloy compositions of the basic hand hacksaw blades as I will use them tonight with 1075 to make some damascus billets for the first time. They easily rusts and dulls, I think they are L6 or plain carbon. Do you have any info about them? Please! I dont have any experience of making damascus and no any other resource available for now. What do you suggest? Do you use unknown sheets or hacksaws on your damascus and how?

contuniued from:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=339970

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Erme, The cheap hand hacksaw blades are made from almost any carbon steel. 5160,1095,etc. Better quality blades are made from alloy high speed steels like M2,D2,and a variety of tungsten steels.The blade in your picture is probably some sort of alloy steel by the look of the arc hardened line along the teeth. None of the normal hacksaw blades would be a good choice for learning to make damascus.Since you are learning,go ahead and try it.The worst that will happen is that it won't work.With the proper heat,enough flux,and a good hammering technique (don't try to smash it,just hit it firmly to set the weld),you can hammer weld a lot of different steels.Good luck.
Stacy
PS: For learning ,using two different carbon steels like 1030 and 1095 works fine. The simple water pattern can be quite nice.Save the more expensive steel until you have the failure rate under control.

 

[galadduin]

Thank you for quick reply stacy, thats what I needed. I am too anxious to hit the first hammer to forge-weld. I read and learned enough (for a year) and theoretically I'm supposed to accomplish this mission, I know a lot and have forging experience above 2 years, I have also 10 pounds of borax (a great weapon huh? ). In Turkey finding decent resource is a different struggle. I searched for months for these 1075 sheets. As for nickel or L6: they are available as bars not sheets :barf: . I have to try and find out how with these *amn hacksaws.

best wishes.
Working hard novice: Emre...