Hacksaw blades?

[Stormstaff]

Why do people normally have what looks like a piece of hacksaw blade with their firesteel? I assume it's being used as a striker but why not use their knife? So the knife edge doesn't get dulled?

Thanks for entertaining this noob!

 

[myright]

Most people use the hacksaw blade so they don't have to use the knife. Also, some knives dont have a sharp enough spine to allow for striking.

Personally, I use a Light My Fire rod and the striker that comes with it.

 

[Big Mike]

A square edged hacksaw blade makes a great Firesteel scraper,

…plus I find it much safer then trying to use 5” of razor sharp steel to spark my steel.



PS – Most knives with a square edged spine will work as well, just be careful.




"If you're not living on the edge, …you're taking up too much space."

Big Mike

 

[Mentor]

While I am confident that my hiking knife or EDC can be used to strike sparks on a fire steel, I prefer to use them for cutting and chopping only. For starting fires, a cut-off piece of hacksaw blade can do just as good a job, but it is also (a) cheap and disposable - unlike my knives, (b) capable of quickly sawing filings off a magnesium block, and (c) smaller than my knives, which can come in handy when starting a fire in a confined space or during inclement weather.

That's about it, from my perspective.

All the best,

- Mike

 

[Stormstaff]

So, not to sound like an idiot but do you use the back of the saw blade to strike or the side with teeth?

I've got a few old blades laying around in the garage. What's the best way to get the "to size"? Bolt cutters?

 

[Raskolnikov]

I use the back, myself. Mentor already covered the reasons why fairly thoroughly, imo.

I use a pair of Knipex CoBolts (just b/c I already have them around for other work) to cut the blades down to size, they snip it like scissors on ribbon. I imagine that any similar miniature bolt cutters of nippers with good jaws would do the same.

 

[Stormstaff]

Thanks for the help folks!!

 

[dttomcat]

So, not to sound like an idiot but do you use the back of the saw blade to strike or the side with teeth?

I've got a few old blades laying around in the garage. What's the best way to get the "to size"? Bolt cutters?

Just guessing cause I've never done it but I've broken enough hacksaw blades to know that they are really brittle. I would think that all you need is a vise and a pair of pliers. You would only need to snap it once. That way you keep the end with the hole in it for a lanyard.

 

[Mentor]

So, not to sound like an idiot but do you use the back of the saw blade to strike or the side with teeth?

I've got a few old blades laying around in the garage. What's the best way to get the "to size"? Bolt cutters?

The key is to have an edge or sharp angle. I ground the end of my saw to produce a functional blade, and this works nicely. You could also use the spine, so long as it's square. The saw teeth will produce a spark, to be sure, but I like to reserve them for chewing up my mag block.

As for cutting it down, I recommend a dremel.

All the best,

- Mike

 

[siguy]

my experience is that hacksaw blades are very brittle, and simply grabbing them in a pair of pliers where you want the break to be, and then giving a quick twist of the wrist gives a nice clean break.

i have started using power hacksaw blades for a reciprocating saw. mine are bi-metal, meaning they have a hard strip of metal welded to the edge of a softer piece of metal. i simply ground the teeth off (but left the hard strip in place) on a bench grinder, then cleaned it up on a basic stone. this makes a slightly larger, stiffer scraper that i have much better luck using.

compared to one of the Corona machete sharpeners, i found that it threw the same size shower of sparks, but in a lighter and slightly less comfortable package. (i consider the Corona sharpener the standard for size of spark shower-since it works so great!)

 

[Sharp_newbie]

Personally, I use a Light My Fire rod and the striker that comes with it.

I bought one of these for my old ladies Psk, the strikers could be a lot better, i would recommend you try a piece of hacksaw blade, It sparks better.

 

[Rupestris]

As Big Mike said, a square edged hack saw blade is a great striker.

What I do is break off the hack saw blade then take the teeth to the bench grinder. Once the teeth are gone I use the bench belt sander to square off both edges and round over the broken end.

It makes for an extermely safe striker with no sharp edges that can cut you or through your gloves.

If the narrow hack saw blades aren't enough you can do the same with some of the wider saws-all blades. The only problem with them is that the hole is on a narow tang and isn't as snag free as a cheap hack saw striker.

 

[Hawkings]

At times I use spine of a knife my self, but Murphy says that you can't make jerking/strong motion that close to a sharp edge for ever with out getting hurt.