cutting steel

Frank Fusco

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Mountain Home, Arkansas
Slightly removed from discussing wood but close enough to be of interest. I think. :rolleyes:
I have an old sawmill blade, about 3 ft. in diameter, that I have long hoped to cut into knife blades. I have been advised that a regular welding torch will ruin the steel for this purpose. I have located a guy, several hours away, with one of those water jet things but he wants more than $30.00 per blade to cut.
Recently some one gave me a bunch of bandsaw blades that are metal cutting types. I'm wondering if these will work OK or if I would just cause myself a lot of grief trying.
What say the jury?
 
Lay out your blades and cut them 1/4 oversized. You can then slowly grind back to your pattern and get rid of the heat affected zone. Also, if you know any weld shops or are on good terms with somebody who has a plasma cutter it would go a lot faster. Again with plasma, cut big and grind back. If you can keep the heat affected zone ( the part that turns blue) outside your pattern line you should be ok. It creates more waste, but the blades will be better.
 
Do you have a metal cutting bandsaw? If your talking about using a woodcutting it's way to high blade speed for that. And if the saw is hardened..........

I would just go buy (if you don't have) an angle grinder and some cut off wheels. Makes a beautiful light show and it's very effective.
 
Frank,

Depending on how thick the metal is you could pick up one of these:

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00917589000P?vName=Tools

I don't know if it will work for you but I bought one a couple of years ago and it'll cut through aluminum, copper, stainless steel and cast iron up to 1/8" thick. Also, on a recent episode of CooL Tools (can't stand the host but there are some interesting tools featured) they showed a similar type of saw that might work. Probably not as cheap as the Sears one.
 
We cut up a bunch of hand saw blades into blanks for stair saws with my plasma cutter. As mentioned above, the heat affected area is very small. Even cutting 1/8" plate, it cools very fast. The plasma cutter heats a very small area, then quickly blows it away.

A few times we've made edge tools from oil hardened tool steel, O-1 I believe. You cut and grind it to shape easily, then heat it up until it becomes non magnetic and quency it oil (they guy instructing recommends peanut oil for safety, plus it smells good.) Then you temper it by baking in the oven. I'd bet you could buy tool steel cheaper than having someone cut up what you have.
 
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I think with a carborundum disk on a angle grinder you could lightly score the blade from both sides a little longer then you need & just bend it back and forth at the scored spot & it will break in half. Keep It Simple as the old saying goes.:D
 
Well...it seems the bandsaw is out of the question. So is the water jet. Maybe I'll just look around for someone with a plasma torch, that seems to be the ticky. As for forgetting it and just buying new steel blanks....that's no fun. I want to use the old saw mill blade....just 'cuz. Matt, yes I can buy new steel knife blanks, but there's no romance in that. ;) And as far as quenching in oil. I just happen to have about ten gallons of peanut oil on hand. Left over from a big catfish fry I did for my Shrine club.
 
Frank
I have a book about making knives and he just cut up old saw blades with a cutting torch. You are going to have to re-harden and temper the steel anyway. As others have said leave it a little oversize and grind to your template.

Garry
 
Frank, stop by your local NAPA or call your high school and see if they have a plasma torch. If you were close, would do it for you for a couple of the blanks. Cut it into strips and put a few layers of those old bandsaws and a couple of rasps/files and damascus it.
 
Slightly removed from discussing wood but close enough to be of interest. I think. :rolleyes:
I have an old sawmill blade, about 3 ft. in diameter, that I have long hoped to cut into knife blades. I have been advised that a regular welding torch will ruin the steel for this purpose. I have located a guy, several hours away, with one of those water jet things but he wants more than $30.00 per blade to cut.
Recently some one gave me a bunch of bandsaw blades that are metal cutting types. I'm wondering if these will work OK or if I would just cause myself a lot of grief trying.
What say the jury?
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Then there is always the old fashion way. The hacksaw. When you have completed the knife you'll appreciate it all the more and remember every stroke.
 
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Then there is always the old fashion way. The hacksaw. When you have completed the knife you'll appreciate it all the more and remember every stroke.

Funny you should mention it. I have tried that. The hacksaw teeth were gone in seconds. Then I tried one of those diamond grit round 'blades' in the hacksaw. After several minutes there was hardly a shiny spot on the steel.
Now I'm beginning to understand why the end life of these things is hanging in restaurants with flowers painted on them.
 
You can use a wood band saw with an old blade, one with as high a tooth count as you have. It is called friction cutting. You tighten the band saw blade just a little more than normal and you will use more pressure but it will work. The band saw blade will obviously be trash after, but this method is good for ferrous metals to about 1/8 inch. Still a bit of work but loads easier than a hack saw and easier than a grinder. Forgot to make mention to clean out the band saw real good first to avoid any chance of fire.
 
I think going on what Frank has said that the band-saw blade wouldn't do even 1/4 of what he wants to do. Even then he would have all that metal shavings in his saw & stuck in his saw tires. I did some metal cutting on one of my band-saws & didn't like the clean up job on the inside of the saw afterwards.
 
Must digress a bit.
I just noted Jeff's signature: "Those who keep an orderly shop will never know the joy of finding something that they thought was irretrievably lost."

Yesterday proved that very true for me. I am having a very special firearm built by a friend. It will have a 'new' made about 1850 Belgium Damascus barrel on it and will be a European flintlock fowler. It is being patterned after an original I had hoped to restore but which proved impossible because of too much deterioration of the original barrel. Enneyhow....I took off all the parts from the old gun with the intention of having them installed on the new built one. Then I couldn't find them. Tore apart the shop several times. Looked everywhere. Gave up and made a list and was about to order new made replacements.
Well, yesterday, while looking for something else on my workbench, I picked an item and found the plastic baggie with my parts under it. Yes, joy at finding the irretrievably lost. :D
 
Funny you should mention it. I have tried that. The hacksaw teeth were gone in seconds. Then I tried one of those diamond grit round 'blades' in the hacksaw. After several minutes there was hardly a shiny spot on the steel.
Now I'm beginning to understand why the end life of these things is hanging in restaurants with flowers painted on them.
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I guess after watching my father sharpen those saw blades with a file I just supposed they could be cut with a hack saw. Wrong again Vern.
 
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