# My first attempt



## Adam Fausch (Oct 18, 2017)

had an old 10” saw blade and wanted to try my hand at metal work.

Handle is rosewood.

Then I used a torch to bring the blade up to red hot and quenched in water.

Then put the whole knife in the oven at 500 for 1 hour.

Any tips for future knives?

Reactions: Like 3 | Way Cool 2


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## Lou Currier (Oct 18, 2017)

You did better than my first attempt ...has it been sharpened?

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Adam Fausch (Oct 18, 2017)

Lou Currier said:


> You did better than my first attempt ...has it been sharpened?



Yes somewhat it can cut a straight through paper but like through a T-shirt it is still kind of frayed.


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## Lou Currier (Oct 18, 2017)

For some reason I didn't see the last 2 pictures unless the post was edited and they were add..


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## Nature Man (Oct 18, 2017)

Tremendous first effort! Final product looks nice. Guess you need to make a few to perfect your talent! Chuck

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Adam Fausch (Oct 18, 2017)

Lou Currier said:


> For some reason I didn't see the last 2 pictures unless the post was edited and they were add..



I added one picture.


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## robert flynt (Oct 18, 2017)

It would be best to heat the blade until a magnet will no longer stick to the blade. It is extremely difficult to judge proper color because of surrounding light. Using water is extremely risky. Use peanut oil that has been warmed to 120 deg. to prevent stress cracks. Also 500 deg. is to hot a temp. to temper that steel. To prevent it from being to soft 375 to 425 deg. would be in the temp. range you should use.

Reactions: Like 1 | Thank You! 1 | Agree 2 | Informative 5


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## Adam Fausch (Oct 18, 2017)

robert flynt said:


> It would be best to heat the blade until a magnet will no longer stick to the blade. It is extremely difficult to judge proper color because of surrounding light. Using water is extremely risky. Use peanut oil that has been warmed to 120 deg. to prevent stress cracks. Also 500 deg. is to hot a temp. to temper that steel. To prevent it from being to soft 375 to 425 deg. would be in the temp. range you should use.




So while it’s red hot Try and stick a magnet on it? 

Interesting. Is there any good books on knife making?


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## Lou Currier (Oct 18, 2017)

YouTube


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## Wildthings (Oct 18, 2017)



Reactions: Agree 2


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## NYWoodturner (Oct 18, 2017)

Robert said it best. I would just add that using a torch to heat probably means that you did not heat it evenly. You probably just focused on the spine or the edge or at least ended up with the spine or the edge somewhat to temp. The rest would have just gotten softer. I would cut another piece off of the saw blade and replicate what you did on the knife, then test the edge by beating the snot out of the edge with everything you can think of. That will show you exactly how hard or soft your blade is. Its an exciting and heartbreaking process at the same time, but you learn a LOT.

Reactions: Like 1 | Thank You! 1 | Informative 3


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## robert flynt (Oct 19, 2017)

Adam Fausch said:


> So while it’s red hot Try and stick a magnet on it?
> 
> Interesting. Is there any good books on knife making?


There is a couple of books by Wayne Goddard. one is Wonders Of Knife Making and the other is The $50 Knife Shop. Both are very good and are written in layman's terms. Forget about color, there are to many variables. Heat the steel until the blade is non-magnetic and quench it in oil. After this, if a file skates on the edge and doesn't bit into the edge, your good to temper it.

Reactions: Like 1 | Thank You! 1 | Agree 1 | Informative 3


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## milkbaby (Oct 20, 2017)

One thing to note is that not all saw blades are good hardenable steel through and through. Most recent circular saw blades for home workshop saws are carbide tipped and mild steel in the central portion that isn't good for knifemaking. Google "steel identification spark testing" and you can guesstimate whether you have good steel or not based on the sparks it throws when you grind on it. If that's a recent saw blade that you used up and are recycling, chances are it's not very good for knifemaking due to the material it's made of. Big saw blades from lumber mills are more likely to be high carbon steel that you can heat treat. 

Otherwise like Robert said above you can test by heat treating: Cut a small piece, heat to non-magnetic and then just a teeny shade beyond (easier to tell when you do it at night or in the dark). Non-magnetic tends to be around 1415F, you want to get to austenitizing temperature around 1480F to 1550F which will work for 1075, L6, 15N20 which are probably the most likely steels in a good lumber saw blade. Quench in warmed canola oil about 120-130 F, the warmed oil has a lower viscosity, so when you pump the steel up and down convection and movement of the oil will carry the heat away better than cold oil. Then run a good metal file over it. You may need to run the file a bit to remove the outer decarb layer before you hit hardened steel. If the steel is good and your heat treat is successful, it will be as hard if not harder than the file. You can do an A/B comparison with a piece of the untreated metal to better feel the difference the first time, but it's unmistakeable the difference between a file that bites versus skates once you learn it.

Temperatures for tempering depend on what hardness you're looking for and the steel. 15N20 I'd start around 300 F which will be around Rockwell hardness of 62-63(ish) and test how chippy the blade edge is, then if too chippy walk it up 10-20 degrees at a time and retest. 

Actually, sometimes it's not a big deal if a knife isn't from very hard steel. A lot depends on the bevel angle, an axe like chopper can be softer but a very thin slicing edge needs the hardness to avoid rolling over or deforming too easily.

Good luck and have fun!

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 1 | Great Post 1 | Informative 1


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## robert flynt (Oct 23, 2017)

milkbaby said:


> One thing to note is that not all saw blades are good hardenable steel through and through. Most recent circular saw blades for home workshop saws are carbide tipped and mild steel in the central portion that isn't good for knifemaking. Google "steel identification spark testing" and you can guesstimate whether you have good steel or not based on the sparks it throws when you grind on it. If that's a recent saw blade that you used up and are recycling, chances are it's not very good for knifemaking due to the material it's made of. Big saw blades from lumber mills are more likely to be high carbon steel that you can heat treat.
> 
> Otherwise like Robert said above you can test by heat treating: Cut a small piece, heat to non-magnetic and then just a teeny shade beyond (easier to tell when you do it at night or in the dark). Non-magnetic tends to be around 1415F, you want to get to austenitizing temperature around 1480F to 1550F which will work for 1075, L6, 15N20 which are probably the most likely steels in a good lumber saw blade. Quench in warmed canola oil about 120-130 F, the warmed oil has a lower viscosity, so when you pump the steel up and down convection and movement of the oil will carry the heat away better than cold oil. Then run a good metal file over it. You may need to run the file a bit to remove the outer decarb layer before you hit hardened steel. If the steel is good and your heat treat is successful, it will be as hard if not harder than the file. You can do an A/B comparison with a piece of the untreated metal to better feel the difference the first time, but it's unmistakeable the difference between a file that bites versus skates once you learn it.
> 
> ...


Honestly it is better to buy one of those known steels. They are not that expensive, readily available and you have a known heat treating formula.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 2


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