shortcut Posted September 27, 2015 Report Share Posted September 27, 2015 My mate built himself a table for his plasma cutter, he downloaded heaps of knife blade shapes and can now cut them out automatically. He has been cutting out of old circular saw blades. The steel seems pretty good but we have only put an edge on one so far. Has anyone had any experience with this? Are new circular saw blades likely to be a different steel? if so, better or worse? Are steel cold saw blades going to be any different? We already knocked off all the old saw blades from work and am looking to try other blades, ta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
optic Posted September 27, 2015 Report Share Posted September 27, 2015 The edge wont last mate unless you heat treat the blade. You will need to do a bit of a google upon it. It can be done at home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pristine_koala Posted September 27, 2015 Report Share Posted September 27, 2015 (edited) nope, unless you know what steel it is, and its been properly heat treated for that type of steel you will be just waisting your time. If you genuine about making knives use proper blade steel, look at 1084 or 1075 steel for beginning, its easy to heat treat and makes a dam fine blade. When i was into knife making i ordered all mine from the states from the NJ steel baron, very high quality steel, will get back into it one day i loved making knives. I will add though use those old saw blades to practice with, how do you plan on shaping your knives ect? this is the sort of knife sanding machine i used to run, most expensive part of it all are those wheels Edited September 27, 2015 by pristine_koala Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AltonaHunter Posted September 27, 2015 Report Share Posted September 27, 2015 Old lumber mill bandsaw blades and the old circilar lumber mill saws are the go for cheap steel. The new saws use tipped blades to do the cutting and the rest of it is rubbish. Better off buying one of the cheaper steels from gameco.com.au and make a blade that will work for you instead of wasting your time. Old saws like youve got are good for making blanks if you like a shape and want to make more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortcut Posted September 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2015 cheers fellas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jindydiver Posted October 3, 2015 Report Share Posted October 3, 2015 (edited) any saw blade over 18 inches in circumference will make decent knives, you just need to test your heat treating recipe to make sure you get it right. I have made hundreds using the same recipe as L6 and have had a bunch of them tested (they all came up between 59 and 61). The cold saw blades are shit, they are HSS and are near impossible to heat treat at home. Edited October 4, 2015 by jindydiver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joog Posted November 4, 2015 Report Share Posted November 4, 2015 (edited) I made a skinning knife out of an old shovel years ago and it held an edge better than any knife I've ever used, then I lost it. (cut it out with an oxy and I think this might have heat treated the steel a bit) never used saw blades before but I've heard they work. power hacksaw blades are also good apparently. Edited November 4, 2015 by Joog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waza Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 Just buy your steel from Sandvik, best quality steel, grades and HT info all available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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