What steel are power hacksaw blades made from

Hi everyone

While fetching some steel for my KMG grinder build last week, I saw a bunch of broken power hacksaw blades at the steel supplier. He said I was welcome to take them, so I did.

I have seen quite a few guys have used circular saw blades to make knives, i think that the steel in the power hacksaw blades should be good for some small blades, any ideas? Is it worth it?

These blades appear to be a single piece of steel rather than a hard edge bonded to a spring steel back.

Thanks
Rick

They are mystery steel.

You can make things that cut out of them, but buy some known steel.

I made a couple hundred while in the Niger Delta, and a few for some of your SA brothers.

They are good practice, but not worth an all out effort.

Hi Brian

Thanks for the info - I have been using some known steel (Bohler N690 ~ 440C), but I thought that these saw blades may be fun to mess around with. The steel is really only thick and wide enough to make smaller kitchen knives out of.

I was wondering about the steel type to figure out what sort of heat treat they require - ie: would it be as simple as the process described in the Absolute Cheapskate way to make knives tutorial (heat until non magnetic, quench and them temper 2x) or would it be something more exotic??

Thanks again
Rick

Do a test quench on a piece. Don't temper it. Put it on a hard surface an break a piece off. If it snaps like glass, it will make a knife if you get the temper right. It may not be the best knife in the box but it's good practice.

Carey

My very first knife I made under the supervision of a maker (I was twelve at the time) was made from a power hacksaw blade. We didn't HT it as he made me work it super slow so that I never over heated the steel. I'm not sure how well it will hold up, but my best friend loved the knife when I gave it to him for his b-day. He still has it to this day (23 years later) and I pray he never posts pics of it.

I have some,that I posted awhile back.I was told
if you can't drill them,they are probably L6.
You can grind them the way they are,just don't
get them to hot.
Hope that helps,

God bless,Keith

Hi Guys

Thanks for the all the feedback, I will try the quenching and see what I get, I will see if I am able to drill them too.
Will have to wait a week, as I am off to Italy this evening on business, so I won't be able to do any knife stuff for a week.

Thanks again
Rick

The power hack saw blades we use to get at work were the same material all the thru. The spine to the cutting teeth were all the same. The problem with these were when they broke they shattered and that was a safety hazzard. They were hardened all the way thru. The new ones have the teeth welded on. So we thought the new ones were not good for making knives, because we thought the teeth were the only part that was high carbon steel and the rest was something else. these break in two and do not shatter. One day we ground the teeth off, then heated the rest to non magnetic, quenched in water and they broke like glass. So they will make a good knife. What brand are they, one of my knife maker friends has worked out a heat treat and temper if they are Lenox. He liked the material very much.

Take care,
Doug
Jn. 3:16

Along the same lines of what others have said, much of it may depend on how old the blades are. Like someone else stated, a lot of older saw blades were made from L6 or another type of hi-carbon tool steel. The newer blades seem to be made out of "mystery steel" that isn't so good for knife making.

That being said, free steel is free steel, and if anything, it's great for practice.

Hi Guys

I was finally able to get back in the shop today after a couple of weeks away. I took a closer look at the blades and they definitely appear to be one type of steel throughout - there is no evidence of hard teeth welded to a softer spine. I don't think these are hacksaw blades, they appear to be very large bandsaw blades - they are way too long to be power hacksaw blades, and they appear to have a weld across the width of the blade - as seen on bandsaw blades. The pieces I have (4) are all about 2.6 m long bent in half in the middle, about 38mm wide and around 1.3mm thick.

I tried drilling one of the blades and I was able to drill it although it wasn't easy and the drill bit took some strain, I also tried grinding a piece of one of them and I was able to, unfortunately I don't have a forge yet, so trying a test heat / quench is a bit difficult.

I had a good look at all of the pieces and I cannot see any names or brands anywhere.