I looked for the answer, but google was not much help.

I just replaced the blade in my japanese saw and want to use the old blade
for making a few kitchen knives (nothing fancy, just want to give it a try).
I'm really impressed with these saw blades and I think they would make fine
knives. The blade is a 250mm Bakuma from Woodcraft ($8.50). The metal is too
hard for a file to cut and the little dremel cut-off wheels disappear
quickly. The website says that the steel is "impulse hardened" to RC63. The
blade is about .020 thick so it is about right for a paring knife or maybe a
steak knife, it is flexible enough to make a nice fillet knife.

I would like to cut the knife blade profile without annealing the steel (to
preserve the current temper). I'm not sure how to do this - the cut-off
wheels are slow and I'm not very accurate cutting with them, plus it would
"eat a lot of wheels". If I anneal the steel, I'm not sure I can properly
harden and temper the knife blades.

Anyone have some guidance?


Thanks

Bruce

"Beecrofter" wrote in message
om...
"Bruce C." wrote in message
. net...
I looked for the answer, but google was not much help.

I just replaced the blade in my japanese saw and want to use the old
blade
for making a few kitchen knives (nothing fancy, just want to give it a
try).
I'm really impressed with these saw blades and I think they would make
fine
knives. The blade is a 250mm Bakuma from Woodcraft ($8.50). The metal is
too
hard for a file to cut and the little dremel cut-off wheels disappear
quickly. The website says that the steel is "impulse hardened" to RC63.
The
blade is about .020 thick so it is about right for a paring knife or
maybe a
steak knife, it is flexible enough to make a nice fillet knife.

I would like to cut the knife blade profile without annealing the steel
(to
preserve the current temper). I'm not sure how to do this - the cut-off
wheels are slow and I'm not very accurate cutting with them, plus it
would
"eat a lot of wheels". If I anneal the steel, I'm not sure I can
properly
harden and temper the knife blades.

Anyone have some guidance?

What I do with my collection of Sandvik HSS power hacksaw blades is to cut
the shape out with the silicon-carbide cutoff wheels on a Dremel, or with
larger wheels of the same type on my old B&D die grinder.

Either way, it's a very slow go. But, when you're dealing with heat
treatments that you don't want to or can't replicate, it's the only way I
can think of to do it in my home shop. If I had a wirecut EDM machine, life
would be a lot easier. g

I don't think I'd take the time to do it for a paring knife. I have done it
for a left-and-right pair of Murphy knives (straight cuts; very simple) and
for a skinning knife (all curves, not so simple). The latter took me about
half a day, between cutting it out and grinding it SLOWLY into shape.

If you have time in your life to do things like whittling chains and
balls-in-cages, it's no big deal. If you have a real life, it may not be
worth it.

--
Ed Huntress
(remove "3" from email address for email reply)

On Thu, 11 Sep 2003 14:15:03 GMT, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


Either way, it's a very slow go. But, when you're dealing with heat
treatments that you don't want to or can't replicate, it's the only way I
can think of to do it in my home shop. If I had a wirecut EDM machine, life
would be a lot easier. g

Want one? I just happen to know of one.....

Gunner

--
The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that
English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words;
on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.
--James D. Nicoll

"Gunner" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 11 Sep 2003 14:15:03 GMT, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


Either way, it's a very slow go. But, when you're dealing with heat
treatments that you don't want to or can't replicate, it's the only way I
can think of to do it in my home shop. If I had a wirecut EDM machine,
life
would be a lot easier. g

Want one? I just happen to know of one.....

No thanks. g I have enough junk in my basement already.

Ed Huntress

The saw blade is too hard. Tin snips don't even leave a mark. I tried a file
to test the hardness and it burnished the teeth on the file. This is why I
think the steel is too good to just pitch into the dumpster and I think it
would hold a nice knife edge. Another thing, I like the flexability of the
blade - this is the part that supprised me. I was expecting anything that
hard would be very brittle.

After thinking about it some more, I'm going to cut off a test chunk and
experiment with annealing and rehardening. If I'm successful with that, it
sure would make the knife making go quicker.

I don't especially need another paring knife but the steel is only about
..020" thick. Probably the best use for it would be a filet knife considering
the flexability.

Bruce

"Beecrofter" wrote in message
om...
"Bruce C." wrote in message
. net...
I looked for the answer, but google was not much help.

I just replaced the blade in my japanese saw and want to use the old
blade
for making a few kitchen knives (nothing fancy, just want to give it a
try).
I'm really impressed with these saw blades and I think they would make
fine
knives. The blade is a 250mm Bakuma from Woodcraft ($8.50). The metal is
too
hard for a file to cut and the little dremel cut-off wheels disappear
quickly. The website says that the steel is "impulse hardened" to RC63.
The
blade is about .020 thick so it is about right for a paring knife or
maybe a
steak knife, it is flexible enough to make a nice fillet knife.

I would like to cut the knife blade profile without annealing the steel
(to
preserve the current temper). I'm not sure how to do this - the cut-off
wheels are slow and I'm not very accurate cutting with them, plus it
would
"eat a lot of wheels". If I anneal the steel, I'm not sure I can
properly
harden and temper the knife blades.

Anyone have some guidance?

Before you get all fancy try a pair of tin snips.


Thanks

Bruce

Follow-up:

I cut a small chunk off the saw for a test piece. I was able to anneal the
steel with no problem. I could file it and cut it with my jewelers saw. So
now I hardened it - quenched in ice water (I figured if it was going to
shatter on the quench, I wanted it to happen with the test piece). Still
working great, the metal is brittle enough to snap with my fingers and the
file wont touch this stuff. Time to temper (and here is where the problem
starts), I polished one side with emory cloth and put it in the toaster oven
on a scrap of aluminum foil. After about 12 min, I see colors dancing on the
steel. When I pulled it out it was mostly blue (almost a neon purple) and
some dark straw colors scattered around. Well the temper must have not gone
very deep or been incomplete because I could still snap the steel with my
fingers.

It looks like I could use some guidance with the tempering - anybody have
any ideas?

Bruce

"Bruce C." wrote in message
news:ju48b.416482$YN5.280582@sccrnsc01...
The saw blade is too hard. Tin snips don't even leave a mark. I tried a
file
to test the hardness and it burnished the teeth on the file. This is why I
think the steel is too good to just pitch into the dumpster and I think it
would hold a nice knife edge. Another thing, I like the flexability of the
blade - this is the part that supprised me. I was expecting anything that
hard would be very brittle.

After thinking about it some more, I'm going to cut off a test chunk and
experiment with annealing and rehardening. If I'm successful with that, it
sure would make the knife making go quicker.

I don't especially need another paring knife but the steel is only about
.020" thick. Probably the best use for it would be a filet knife
considering
the flexability.

Bruce