Knife building

[alex]

Are you talking about a bandsaw blade?

No, these are mechanical hacksaws - as far as i remember they look like a regular hacksaw mounted on a machine, but the blade is thicker and longer.

[Arrow Splitter]

Is spring steel close to tool steel?

No. Here's the definition from Wikipedia: Spring steel is a low alloy, medium carbon steel or high carbon steel with a very high yield strength. This allows objects made of spring steel to return to their original shape despite significant bending or twisting.

Knife blades need to be made out of Martensitic type steel(a hard steel), which is the same type of steel ES was talking about. This type of steel can be heat-treated, which makes a good blade.

[96xjclassic]

A.s. just looking at your signature gives me a headache!

[HawgEnvy]

alright,here's the start. found an old file and started grinding and shaping w my angle grinder. took about an hour to get it this far. The handle fits my hand pretty good as far as the curves go. The blade may change shape/size as I go. This is a first for me,but so far I like the feel of it. The weight seems to be real nice and seems to be well balanced. It hit point first from 5ft when I threw it at my cat. LOL.J/K...?

[Arrow Splitter]

Not bad at all Hawg... well, except the cat part.LOL A file is definitely hard enough. You probably already know this, but a file is also brittle, so I don't suggest dropping or banging it.

[Arrow Splitter]

A.s. just looking at your signature gives me a headache!

LOL That's not even some of the hard stuff. I'm glad that class is over.

[96xjclassic]

Lookin good hawg. Put any thought into your handle yet?

[alex]

So far so good, Hawg! The hard part will be the heat treating That's why i prefer to buy ready blades or reshape old ones. Just don't have the equipment to forge/heat the blade. By the way you'll have to drill somehow the handle before the heat treating- i think laser or water-jet cutting will do the job easy.

[HawgEnvy]

I'm going to use oak for the handle. I can fet a 1/4"x2"x12"L chunk at Menards for less than $5. The drilling part I can do w the neighbors drillpress. So far,I can't find anyone w a belt sander to get the blade all pretty. I found a couple tutorials on another sight for the heat treating and am confident I can do that. Still searching for a belt sander at the moment. Definately don't know anyone w a waterjet. LOL

[ElkSlayer]

see there ya go...got a good start on it.. Just watch the heat build up when grinding...do not quench in water...air cool only. water jet will do it all drill holes, shape blade , handle all but taper to knife edge.... and yes no using this knife as a prybar when its done....