old hand saw blades as source for knives

4

48woody

Joined
Dec 28, 2012
Messages
3
Hello;

I am a rank beginner to the art of making knives. I though about trying to make thin blade knife for filleting fish. I was wondering if the steel in old hand saws would be a good choice. I would think it would need to be heated to temper so it can be worked , then heat treated to harden. Thankd for any opinions
 
Probably workable, but good known steel is cheap so most people on here are very against mystery steel.
I read a thread once that said to treat it like about like 1080. Never touched it myself. A little googling will land you on some threads about it from these forums though.
 
Thanks. Thought I would ask as old handsaws are reasonably cheap and easily available. Will try a google search.
 
I'm sure the count will be in soon-- take the time to read. While good known steel
is cheap, I often make tools and such out of the myriad of unknown junk steel that
people drop off thinking it will make a good knife-- usually NOT.
Not trying to discourage you, it is possible to make ok knives and tools with steel
that does'nt have an alphabet soup title. If I had to guess how many knives I've
made from unknown steel the number would probably be in the hundreds. Right or
wrong?- neither, it was a learning process. Good luck.
Ken.
 
For a beginner knifemaker I would say the experience alone is worth giving it a shot. Before you go and start grinding however, cut a small piece and heat treat it to see how much it hardens. As long as it hardens up and can be tempered it will still make a useable tool even if it is not ideal.
 
I can understand the desire to use hand saw steel. Known good steel, while cheap, isn't easy to find in thin sizes. I don't recall finding anything thinner than 1/16", which is pretty thick for a fillet knife, steak knife, etc.

You would be best to do a spark test on the individual saw blade to try to determine it's usefulness.
 
Just a weird fun fact, stuff that thin you can get up to temp over a gas stove top, maybe a grill. :) if you want to test it's harden ability.
 
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