wrote:
I'm wondering if a full hard power hacksaw blade might be a bit
too stiff to make a good fillet knife, I had my best results
using the spring steel body material of a bi-metal bandsaw
blade,, (the part you have left after grinding the high speed
steel teeth off) The 1 1/2 X .042 blades seemed to work the best
for me for full size fillet knives and the 1 1/4 X .035 blades
worked real good for making specialty blades for removing the Y
bones from nothern pike and muskies.
Bear in MN
James P Crombie wrote:
I'll second that, I had a couple of power hacksaw blades once apon
a time :-) After several hours and burnt fingers plus a worn out
grinding wheel, I didn't have much to show for it. I would go for
the spring steel.
I'm not here to play "gotcha" but doggonit I gotta tell you. :/
Steel, iron and stainless steel and high speed steel all have the
same stiffness. What you are feeling is its thickness -and/or-
its yield point (in the case of iron and mild steel).
No kidding. :/
If you can't see it, this thread is as good a place as any to get
that straightened out. 
Here is a page from a local knife firm and their fillet knives
http://www.grohmannknives.com/pages/fillet.html
Those pictures raise the questions I was planning to ask today.
Flat ground the best you suppose?
They look flat ground to me.
Do you see a hollow-ground blade being a problem?
What do you think?
Hollow ground blades are easier to maintain an acute angle to the
edge, but with the wear rate of HSS that's really not and issue here
(and I ain't kiddin''bout that neither get it right and it's good
for life (if you don't break it or lose it).
If you can make one, you can make another even better than the
first?
Re-reading Bear's post...
7/8" wide .050" thick full-hard (65hrc) power hacksaw blades are
avaiable along with .032" ones too but they are pretty stinkin
narrow, look almost like a hand hacksaw blade.
Del's working with a 1+1/8" wide .062" thick Simonds.
http://www.panix.com/~alvinj/hosting/Delsfirst1.jpg
http://www.panix.com/~alvinj/hosting/Delsfirst2.jpg
It's a used railroad rail saw blade, see where the base of the rail
scraped off the paint?
--------------
As far as metal removal... the answer is... "little hand grinder"
sportin' a Norton-NorZon wheel and to go along with that, a heavy
duty "mounted point dresser". Or a regular "star wheel" dresser
that held down somehow.
Clamp the blade to a board and grind it like you mean business.
http://www.panix.com/~alvinj/dresser.jpg
Those are 1/4-28 bolts and the front "wheels" are hard-1095 discs
from a paper shreader mounted on a slice of VW-36hp cam follower
(motorcycle wrist pin was my second choice
. They are still in
the "wonder if they'll work worth anything" stage.
When the NorZon wheel stops cutting aggressively, stop and dress it.
When the wheel is cutting aggressively it's easy since there is lots
of "feed back" to work with.
Little progress = little feed-back.
In that case you're lost and not knowing what to do.
----------
Edge angle, blade thickness, blade width, hollow ground versus flat
ground... those are the questions that only experience can answer.
Please post your experiences.
Alvin in AZ