Blades Warping

Yes, I have built several from old ball peen hammers. I drill a 1/4" hole in the ball and insert a carbide rod. The carbide is very hard, but you can shape it on a ceramic belt.
 
Found one of those small button bits made of carbide on eBay for $5.99 we'll see if I can make it work in a ball peen hammer!
 
You can find 1/4" carbide rod blanks on eBay pretty cheap. I have also used broken carbide drill bits.
Cut them using a Dremel with an abrasive disc.
 
I made one from using the cheapest wood handle hammer I could find at Lowes. Removed the head and annealed it. Drilled a 1/4" hole in it. Using a dremel tool I cut a 1/4" masonry drill bit to shorten it. JB welded it in the hammer. Using Dremel again I rounded over the carbide end of the bit. Reinstalled wooden handle.

I flat out was amazed how well this works. You do have to grind out the small divots left. AEB-L seems to warp way more on thinner steels. I've not had much problem on hunting knife thickness.
 
52 Ford said:
If the blades are warped really bad, take a straight edge find the center of the bend, mark it, take a scribe, make sure you get a good line scratched into the surface.

Now, cut the blade in half along that line.

THEN clamp to blade to something flat.

Now, weld it back together :)

Fixed. You're welcome. I don't usually share this sort of advice. I don't feel many people are worthy of it.

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Well, I just tried your advise, and now instead of a U shaped blade, I have a W shaped blade. :rolleyes:
 
I've got a pile of 1/8" shank carbide endmills that I've broken one way or another. Last night I chucked one into my hand drill and rounded the end off with a ceramic belt. I then just press fit it into the end of a scrap piece of 9/16" diameter stainless round that I had laying around, and now I have a carbide tipped "center punch" that I can use instead of a similar carbide hammer. I just used it to pretty quickly take out a .020 to .030" warp in some 8670 I heat treated. Took almost no time to make, and worked like a charm!

I might do something similar with a 1/4" end mill one of these days, but for now, the 1/8" diameter works pretty well.
 
I haven't ever tried it, but I have read that you can sandblast a warped blade and straighten it. It is the same idea, and evidently the same stretching of the steel occurs with the blasting media on a much smaller scale.
Anyone ever tried that? You wouldn't have the divots to grind out at least.
 
Owl said:
I haven't ever tried it, but I have read that you can sandblast a warped blade and straighten it. It is the same idea, and evidently the same stretching of the steel occurs with the blasting media on a much smaller scale.
Anyone ever tried that? You wouldn't have the divots to grind out at least.
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Never tried it, but it makes sense.

Google "shot peening".

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Alden Cole said:
Wouldn't hitting the blade after heat treat with a carbide hammer introduce stresses into the steel?
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I guess trying it out for myself may tell. I'll keep the repaired blade and put it through some use testing.

If you have any ideas of tests that may be relevant please let me know.
 
CDHumiston said:
I guess trying it out for myself may tell. I'll keep the repaired blade and put it through some use testing.

If you have any ideas of tests that may be relevant please let me know.
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I really don't know how you would test that, except maybe bending the knife until it snaps and seeing whether it snaps sooner? Not sure if it would be a problem or not, but it makes sense that it would cause stresses, which can never be a good thing.
 
Alden Cole said:
I really don't know how you would test that, except maybe bending the knife until it snaps and seeing whether it snaps sooner? Not sure if it would be a problem or not, but it makes sense that it would cause stresses, which can never be a good thing.
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It does seem it would cause some type of stress. The knives I have that warped are kitchen knives. I'm not sure they would see that much stress. I'm willing to sacrifice a blade to the test gods...
 
I have used the hammer technique to straighten maybe 40-50 blades over the past several years, and I haven't seen any weakness or cracks in the blades. I asked the same question about possible cracking or stresses on the other forum and several people said they had not seen any problems.
Testing breaking strength of two similar blades would be interesting though.
I also ran across a more recent video demonstrating the technique. It only takes a couple of minutes to get the job done.
 
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