Bread knife from bandsaw blade.

Calvin Robinson

Calvin Robinson

Moderator Christian Forum
I save all of my old portaband saw blades,knowing that someday I'll find a use for them.
I've had a storebought fiddle bow bread knife for several years and use it frequently because my wife bakes bread all the time. I've been wanting to make one of these knives but I refuse to buy one of the kits that are available. My biggest problem was how to make a blade that thin,.025", THEN IT DAWNED ON ME,use those old bandsaw blades.
I had to make a jig in order to grind the bevels in those 1/2" scallops,I ground the scallops on my HEG using a 3/4" wheel then using a 2" serrated wheel and a 400 grit Trizact belt (to keep from overheating the steel) I ground the bevels at 22 deg. to a zero edge. I made the frame/handle from a scrap of cypress left over from when I built my cabin 23 years ago.
This is a prototype and kind of rough looking right now,tomorrow I'll finish it up and take some better photos. I'll grind off the saw teeth and shine up the sides of the blade and put some kind of finish on the wood and replace the copper nails that hold the blade in place with some small brass screws.
The blade is 45Rc, I'm hoping this will be hard enough for a bread knife,I think it will.
I have a frozen loaf of bread thawing out right now and will do a real world test of this knife tomorrow morning when I slice some bread from my toast to go with my bacon and eggs.
 
Calvin,
Those bandsaw blades work fine for bread. I would leave as much of the teeth as possible from a metal cutting blade for this application but would take off the teeth that are there on the sides to get out the wood on a wood cutting blade.

Looks good! Keep us posted on your finished design.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
rhinoknives said:
Calvin,
Those bandsaw blades work fine for bread. I would leave as much of the teeth as possible from a metal cutting blade for this application but would take off the teeth that are there on the sides to get out the wood on a wood cutting blade.

Looks good! Keep us posted on your finished design.

Lawrence,
I don't think you understand,I'm not going to leave any of the saw teeth on here. I ground the scallops then sharpened them,that's the cutting edge for the bread. I used part of the old saw blade because it is so thin and already hard and readily available. You dig?:1:
Click to expand...
 
Calvin,
In the past I have seen and used a few of those wooden bow and bandsaw blade bread knives made by different hobbist's etc.

They still had the teeth from there use as a band saw blades and worked fine.
If you have made your own scallops and are happy with the results?
That's what count's

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
rhinoknives said:
Calvin,
In the past I have seen and used a few of those wooden bow and bandsaw blade bread knives made by different hobbist's etc.

They still had the teeth from there use as a band saw blades and worked fine.
If you have made your own scallops and are happy with the results?
That's what count's

Laurence


www.rhinoknives.com
Click to expand...

I ground the scallops on 1/2" centers because that's the way the storebought one that I have is made and it works better than any other I have ever used for slicing bread. I believe the 18 TPI saw blade that I used to make these blades from would clog up real quick cutting bread. One reason these knives work so well slicing bread is because the blades are so thin,these saw blades I'm using are .021" on the edge that I am making the cutting edge on.
 
Ok,that was the prototype. I made production model #1 today and promptly gave it away.
This one has a different handle shape. I have 3 more blades ready for tomorrow.
 
Man that looks nice. I like how you left the bandsaw teeth. Lets people know what it was in its former life. Plus you could use it to cut something harder that you did not want to use your scallops on.
CW
 
Lagrange said:
I'm confused Calvin. I thought you said you removed the teeth, but I see what appears to be the teeth on the back side of the blade.

Oh...and if you have any pictures of your cabin, send me some...I love cabins. e-mail - lagrangecustomknives@embarqmail.com
Click to expand...

I was going to remove the saw teeth but decided to leave them on there,you know,like folks who make knives out of files and leave evidence of the file on there as a novelty and I think the wavey set of the teeth make the blade stiffer.
 
cwilliams said:
Man that looks nice. I like how you left the bandsaw teeth. Lets people know what it was in its former life. Plus you could use it to cut something harder that you did not want to use your scallops on.
CW
Click to expand...
Thank you,I left the teeth as a novelty,I don't think they would cut much because they were worn out before I turned it into a knife blade.
 
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