On 2008-12-01, Wild_Bill wrote:

[ ... ]

To offer an answer to the question "wouldn't/can't the cracking be heard as
the blade is bent".. well yes, and that's because the tooth area is a strip
of high carbon steel mated to a flexible back material, but the tooth
strip/area is not likely to be HSS, because solid HSS doesn't bend.

O.K. I propose another experiment:

1) Take about a #1 drill bit, and drill into mild steel just
enough to make a cone almost the diameter of the drill bit.

2) Then replace it with a #50 known HSS drill bit, shift the
workpiece just enough so the drill bit's point comes down on the
sloped surface of the previous cone. (I'm assuming a drill
press with little or no perceptible slop in the bearings).

3) Turn on the drill press, and bring the bit down into contact,
watching it closely (with ey protection, of course). When the
bit contacts the cone, does the bit proceed to drill right below
its contact point, or does it bend towards the center of the
cone?

4) If it bends, are you going to say that the drill bit is not
HSS?

5) Now -- with a solid carbide bit of the same size, it will
almost certainly break, but even it will bend a little before
breaking.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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