Anyone Make a Knife From Old Hacksaw Blades?

M

me2

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Oct 11, 2003
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I just ground a knife from a broken hacksaw blade, and was wondering if anyone else has tried. Its gonna be a paring knife if I can drill it and put a handle on it. The blade didnt appear to be bi-metal when it broke, so I assume it was 1095 or something similar. It appears about the same hardness as my Old Timer pocket knife. Its maybe 1/32" thick. I'm working on one from an old file right now too, but this one took hardly any time. I'm gonna try tomorrow with the other piece as well.
 
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Draw the temper a little more after you are done shaping it (be careful not to get it too hot while grinding,too). Temper it at 425-450 for a couple of hours.Hacksaw blades are too hardened for paring knives.It would break easily.
 
Some of those blades are a bit inclined to chip if your grinding them while still hard. If your talking about the power hach saw blade about 20 t0 25mm wide my old tradesman made a beauty out of one. As an apprentice I thought it was fantastic. I managed to get it into the scrap box and into the large skip type rubbish bin. I just about crapped my dacks when I realize hwere it must have been after a clean up. You gessed it I went bin swimming. I found it before the tradesman knew it was missing. It was probably one more reason i started to make knives.

The smaller domestic style about 12mm wide I have also made into damascus.

I know I have made one from the larger one but don't remember what happened to it. I also use them for cutting weeds out of the brick paving.

I use all sorts for that kind of job you know it is just going to wreck the blade. Some times just a bit of tape around teeth as a handle. Use it once and loose it before the weeds grow back (loose or thtow away) It is always fun making something new.

If your knife is the thin domestic style be real carefull about sideway force some of thos blades are real britle osme a bit more flex. Go ahead and make one you will be glade you did.
 
My original plan was for a paring knife, but I think I'll use them for cutting fireproofing off steel beams. That will wreck a good knife real quick, or at least dull it beyond recognition. I tested the hardness at work, and it was 47 Rc. Either I ground off the really hard part with the teeth, or I have an explanation for why the blade was free w/ a $10 saw frame. Anyway, both are in the freezer after reheating and water quenching w/ very little if any warpage. They were acceptable for their purpose at 47, but were slightly beaten in edge holding by my Rada Cutlery paring knife. I'm aiming for 66 if its the right steel. Who knows, since all the markings were worn off by the one attempt I made to actually cut steel with it. We'll see tomorrow I suppose.
 
I knew a guy that ground filet knives out of old used lennox sawzall blades, he used a wet grinder so they never got hot and he said they made a great knives. You better watch it, your walking a dangerous road with no end in site, one slip and you'll be hooked on knife making forever. ;)

Bill
 
I've made a few from bandsaw blades TBlade gave to I.G.. I annealed them first, then profiled them, heat treated, and then put the edge on them. They are pretty thin, so you have to be careful grinding. I made small half tang knives, slotted out antler tines and pinned them in. Gave one to a farmer friend for a truck /beater knife, he abuses the hell out of it and its held up great. Thye take a scary edge, and should make fine paring knives. Good luck and have fun!
 
Off to hardness test them. Bill, its too late. I made a hunting knife from O1 earlier this year, and it cut so good that I had a hard time letting go of it. Full flat on 1/8" stock 1" wide, and about 15 degrees on the edge. MAPP Gas and a fire brick w/ a hole in it. These last two I just heated w/ the torch directly.
 
Hacksaw blades are nomally made of HSS. M2 I think.
They are normally only hardened on the teeth and a little above. The main spine section is kept "soft" or it would be too brittle. Makes an amazing knife, I needed a knife about 8 years ago at work to slice a tomato for my sandwich and in desperation grabbed a broken saw blade from the scrap bin and ground the teeth off on a bench grinder and put an edge on it the same way.
The whole job took about 5 minutes and it still cuts like a banshee. Plus it has a handy little hole on the end where the hacksaw pin fits into the blade to hold it so I can hang it up.
Ah well, plumbers never fix their plumbing at home so I guess I can have a handleless piece of hacksaw blade knife. :D

Mike
 
This one didnt act like HSS, but I ground all the teeth off then sharpened on the bench grinder. I tested 3 places across the flat and it was 46-47 HRC all the way across. Like I said, it was really cheap, so maybe it was just case hardened teeth on a softer body. I'll see later after I sharpen them after hardening.
 
I made a lot of good knives using Sterratt power hacksaw blades, years ago. They are the big yellow painted blades, and are not bi-metal. The thicknesses of the blades are .088 and another thickness they sell is .100 . I mirror polished the finished blades using diamond paste compound. I used worn out hacksaw blades and some new ones, and like I said, they made great knive blades. My new hacksaw blades were ordered from DoAll.
 
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