# Newest projects



## Jack "Pappy" Lewis (Oct 16, 2017)

Ok...started on these two Meat Cleavers....made from a 36" sawmill circular saw blade my question is this? Has anyone made one from a saw blade before? How did you heat treat and temper them? These have 7" cutting edges with 15" OAL and are 4" deep...so they won't fit in my lil' forge?

Reactions: Like 3 | Way Cool 3


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## Foot Patrol (Oct 16, 2017)

I have not used a saw blade before but some of them are 15N20 steel.

If you have a small piece left over you could put it in your forge and try to harden it. Bring the piece up to non-magnetic, quench in 120 degree canola oil and see if it hardens. If it hardens, then temper in your kitchen oven. Since I don't know the material, it is hard to say how to temper it but 2 cycles at 375-400 degrees F for 2 hours may give you a good rockwell hardness. Just a thought but maybe the other knife makers will have some other thoughts.

As for getting it to fit into your forge "you may need a bigger boat" or you could sent it out for heat treating.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Jack "Pappy" Lewis (Oct 16, 2017)

thanks, I figure that I see a new forge in my future ...

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## robert flynt (Oct 16, 2017)

If you have oxy/act rig, with a rose bud tip, you can just heat the edge half of the cleaver to non magnetic. Then do your quench in oil. The top, spine, half of the cleaver doesn't have to be very hard. This differential heat treat will work fine. A charcoal grill and hair drier will probably work if you still want to do the whole blade. If you do the whole blade you can use the wife's oven or a torch. Using the torch heat the spine cutting edge up, what the the edge color and when it reaches the color of straw, stop heating, flip the blade over' edge down and if necessary immerse the blade in warm water to stop the color from going to brown.


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## Jack "Pappy" Lewis (Oct 17, 2017)

thanks, got it, I ended up being able to fit the cleaver in my forge after all. And as you stated above I did heat the cutting edge to about 2" up towards the spine and it worked out great. I used my oven in the shop to temper it. Now onto cleaver #2....

Reactions: Like 1


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