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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need.

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  #1  
Old 03-13-2013, 03:16 PM
Devin Devin is offline
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Saw Blade for knife material

Would love some advice (and my apologies if this is a duplicate message, I think I deleted the last one before I posted it). A friend gave me a couple of big old saw blades (about 3ft diameter). "Free is good" I thought, so I cut out about 10 blanks and started to form one of them. After an hour or so I decided to try to drill a hole through the metal. THREE bits later I had barely made a dent in the metal.

Is there any way to drill through metal this hard or should I cut my losses and hang the blade on my wall for a decoration?

Appreciate any advice,

Devin
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Old 03-13-2013, 04:11 PM
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Eli Jensen Eli Jensen is offline
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Might be easier to hang it on your wall if you get that hole drilled
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Old 03-13-2013, 04:29 PM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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Straight flute carbide drills will drill through it. That said, I'd recommend Eli's approach - hang it on the wall and buy some good blade steel. The blade steel will cost less than the carbide drills....


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Old 03-13-2013, 08:33 PM
Doug Lester Doug Lester is offline
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Slow speed, around 300 rpm, and drilling fluid might help too.

If it is that hard it can be heat treated but you will have to arrive at the proper formula by experimentation. Yes, it will have to be heat treated even though it's hard now. 1)Cutting out your blank and grinding it can generate heat that will change the temper. 2)The temper may not be right for a knife blade to start with.

Sometimes free steel, like a free puppy, can run into money. It's better to start out with a known steel.

Doug


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Old 03-13-2013, 08:37 PM
Devin Devin is offline
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Good advice, thank you all for your recommendations. Looks like I've got a nice new piece of artwork for the wall in my shop.
Much appreciated,
Devin
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Old 03-14-2013, 06:19 AM
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Crex Crex is offline
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Lot of folks will tell you that the old big circ's are all L6. Don't fall for that one....some are some aren't. Newer stuff more likely not and "old" is very relative.
To use the mystery steel successfully takes a lot of experience and willingness to test thngs to the max.
Way too much "needed" information to do it well for the beginner.
However, at this point, if you want to proceed with the ones you have cut out, you can often soften the tang area enough to drill through for pins/rivets. Clamp the blade area in a big vise with aluminum angle over the jaws and heat the tang area to red and let cool to touch. Should be able to pop the holes with sharp bits. Be careful on grinding the blade and don't let it over heat while grinding. You'll probably find hand filing out of the question if you are dulling drill bits from the git-go.
Good luck.

ps - Fill out your profile, you might be closer to walk-in help than you realize.

Didn't see your picture posted in the second thread until now. That blade is a secondary gang blade with carbide tips. Makes it even less likely that you'll be able to really determine it's alloy or a good heattreating procedure for it.


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Last edited by Crex; 03-14-2013 at 06:24 AM.
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  #7  
Old 03-14-2013, 07:21 PM
Devin Devin is offline
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Thank you Carl!
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advice, angle, art, blade, blades, drill, grinding, hand, heat, knife, made, material, pins, rivets, saw blade, sharp, steel, tang, temper, vise


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