Knife makers! could you make one of these?..

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Frothgar
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Knife makers! could you make one of these?..

Post by Frothgar »

http://www.instructables.com/id/Baby-Be ... o-nothing/


love the look of these little blades. looking for a commission. i do some leather working so if you are willing i could defray some of the cost in barter.

Frothgar
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Eric C
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Re: Knife makers! could you make one of these?..

Post by Eric C »

I'm very tempted but I am pretty far behind on several projects at the moment. I suppose I should ask if anyone has already contacted you about these. They would be pretty easy to make, I would think. Anyway, if you don't mind possibly being put on a waiting list, PM me and we'll talk.
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Ringulf
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Re: Knife makers! could you make one of these?..

Post by Ringulf »

The fact that they could be made from a circular saw blade is very inspiring! I have enough of those hanging around! I am sure I will end up trying it out eventually. I am also up to my neck till after april due to the Moot.
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I throw axes, seaxes, and pointy sticks, And I fire my bow through the day.
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Re: Knife makers! could you make one of these?..

Post by hesinraca »

While I am aware that this is an old thread, if you haven't found a knife maker yet, I'm here! Hah.

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Re: Knife makers! could you make one of these?..

Post by sgainbrachta »

I could make it- what you really need to do is to get a piece of card board and be sure of the sizing, to fit your hand- and especially finger!

Also, note any changes you may want to the shape.

Finally-play with MS paint or whatnot, and create a baseline drawing for it- and I can whack 'er out for you.

A quick note- circular saw blades, at least the kind we have in our homes- are NOT good steel for knives. Most are mild steel, only high-end ones, like Freud and Forrest use steel with enough carbon to hold a good edge. BIG circular saw blades are usually wonderful steel, but they are like 3/16" thick, too... and somewhat harder to find as well.

Small blades do a great deal better in cutting if they are thinner, so for something like this wee beasty, I'd go 1/8, 3/32, or 1/16. I have all 3 thicknesses in various shapes here, so we'd be good there!

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Re: Knife makers! could you make one of these?..

Post by Eric C »

sgainbrachta wrote:I could make it- what you really need to do is to get a piece of card board and be sure of the sizing, to fit your hand- and especially finger!

Also, note any changes you may want to the shape.

Finally-play with MS paint or whatnot, and create a baseline drawing for it- and I can whack 'er out for you.

A quick note- circular saw blades, at least the kind we have in our homes- are NOT good steel for knives. Most are mild steel, only high-end ones, like Freud and Forrest use steel with enough carbon to hold a good edge. BIG circular saw blades are usually wonderful steel, but they are like 3/16" thick, too... and somewhat harder to find as well.

Small blades do a great deal better in cutting if they are thinner, so for something like this wee beasty, I'd go 1/8, 3/32, or 1/16. I have all 3 thicknesses in various shapes here, so we'd be good there!

-Robert/Eadylferth
I work in a saw mill and you are right about the big blades except MAYBE on one point. Mills today are all about "recovery". The less sawdust the better. Thick saw blades make a lot of dust. Because of this, circular saw blades have gone from 1/4" down to 3/16" to smaller these days. The blades I've scavenged - and that's quite a few - are as thick as .200" at the most to .100". I've been arguing for its goodness as a knife steel for years. As for the smaller tablesaw blades and such, I can't speak to their quality.
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Re: Knife makers! could you make one of these?..

Post by sgainbrachta »

Most modern blades are either l-6 or something in the range of 1095, so great stuff there! I prefer the lighter steel, generally, but have several thicker ones on-hand, for just such emergencies as may require one.

I also used to get the giant band saw blades, too- those were form of steel close, but not L-6, and OMG it was wonderful!

Getting hard to find, anymore...
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Re: Knife makers! could you make one of these?..

Post by Eric C »

15N20. Uddeholm is the best! I was having some serious problems with the bandsaw blades cracking, not performing like they should (lot of technical things there- I'm the saw filer), not holding up like they should. Then I found out that my supplier was selling me an inferior steel. If you get your chance to get bandsaw steel. look on the inside of the blade all the way around. If you don't see the Uddeholm etching there, it may be best to leave it where you found it. But then again, it may be good for knives, just lousy for sawmills.

Edit: the 15N20 is only the bandsaws, not the circular saws.
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Re: Knife makers! could you make one of these?..

Post by sgainbrachta »

Awesome! Thanks for the info! I never knew what the heck it was. Now the bandsaws I was getting were all Sandvik (sp?), and were specified as L-6; however, when I had an opportunity to have it tested it was most certainly NOT L-6...

Whatever it was was red-short, and hated moving under the hammer, but ground like a dream- and you could tie it in a knot, and it would return straight! It even took a rather good edge. Not like a straight razor, and full hard it was about @ 68RC, but that's as much testing as I ever bothered with.
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Re: Knife makers! could you make one of these?..

Post by Eric C »

Yeah, Sandvic is the company that put out the steel for the blades that failed. They have gotten out of the bandsaw steel business in the past year, but my "former" supplier bought up enough of their steel to make saw blades for 2 years out of it.
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Re: Knife makers! could you make one of these?..

Post by Greg »

Pretty much every source I've come across that claims such-and-so is made of L6 seems to be misinformed or a flat our liar. It seems to be rare in any tool form other than from suppliers of specialty raw metals...which usually means expensive.
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Re: Knife makers! could you make one of these?..

Post by sgainbrachta »

The blades I was getting were from Cecil at Kris Cutler- many, many, years ago. The last couple of pieces I got were from a sawmill in Oregon, near Portland that had closed something like 30 years past. They were selling equipment and such, garage-sale style, and had a stack of 3/16"x@9"x@48" torch cut from the big blade. I bought each piece for about $3...

I'm betting your blade supplier just doesn't know how to properly heat-treat that steel. (Or is just lazy about it?) If it's still brittle after heat-treat, it was probably over-heated and held there too long before quench. It got "chunky" in the structure. I know there's a correct word for the crystal migration and the resultant type of structure, but I'm too brain-fried to remember it now. After all, even a poor steel with the exact right heat-treat can do some pretty amazing things!

And Sandvik is still making steels and such in Europe, in fact if you buy a ready-made blade from Mora/Frosts , Wood Flower or Karaseundo (Sp?) (and several other makers, too) you are buying Sandvik steel, under other "propriatary" names~
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Re: Knife makers! could you make one of these?..

Post by Eric C »

Oh, I'm sure Sandvic puts out other good steels. It's just that there is a lot more to a bandsaw blade than sharpening to make it run. There is the ability to hold the proper tension, tire line and back in the sawblade. If any of these should pull out while the saw blade is on the wheels, it won't cut a straight line for the life of you. Sandvic sawblade steel is prone to cracking also. NOT a good thing for a filer who is trying to keep costs down and keep good quality sawblades running. Sandvic bandsaw steel just doesn't react to the work a filer puts into it like Uddeholm. I've noted this problem from more than one supplier. To top it off, I have four new resaw blades sitting in my floor now. I specifically requested Uddeholm steel. When I started working on the first blade, I noticed the same characteristics as in Sandvic steel. Guess what. Upon closer inspection, they sent me Sandvic. I'm gonna have a loooong talk with that salesman because his supplier that shall remain nameless has just cost him sawblade sales for a while until they can sell me what I ask for.
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