Hi. I saw a message posted to this group by someone saying that he
can cut 1 square inch of soft steel cross section in 60 seconds. That
sounded pretty fast to me, and I decided to give it a try. I was able
to cut about half a square inch of steel bar in about 30 minutes.
This is with a regular Craftsman hacksaw with a good blade. I am
using a large vise which holds the work steadily. I used a small
amount of gear oil in the kerf. The saw is cutting (I can feel it
bite on the cutting stroke), and filings are coming out. Actually, a
1/2 inch square cut is quite a bit of filings. But this is
approximately 1/60th the rate that the newsgroup post alluded to. I
thought that I should be at least within a factor of 10. The steel
that I am using is part of a bracket, and it cuts easily with a file
(no skate).

I know that an expert computer programmer can program 60 times faster
than a beginner, and get paid 10 times as much, but computer software
is a strange animal. I would think that I should be able to get
within a factor of 10. The blade wasn't buckling, so I think that a
high-tension hacksaw would not give all that much of a boost. It may
improve cutting speed by a factor of 3.

So, how does one cut a square inch of steel in 60 seconds? Inches do
matter!

Thanks,
Eric