saw teeth on a knife spine

curtisk

curtisk

Well-Known Member
I have had repeated inquiries about creating a knife with saw teeth on the spine. I really like the design of the teeth on the red scorpion knife. They look to be sharp and effective for cutting through bone. Have any of you gents ever done this?
 
From a maker's POV, the thing to remember about sawteeth is that they're a pain to cut out by hand, and keep them evenly-spaced, same depth, etc.

I recently bid on a job with sawteeth, and found that having the profile cut by water-jet (see Dave's GLWJ forum here on KD for info) was worthwhile, just in the labor-savings. He does really good work and can keep that sort of thing nice and even.
 
I did some on a huge blade for a guy the other day, it was a pain in the a$$. I dont have a mill so I took my 4.5" grinder and cucked up a cuttoff wheel in it, then I clamped it into my vice horizontaly.
IMG_1967.jpg

I then cut each tooth at about a 10-15 deg angle. after I got done with that I used a file and on every other tooth on both sides i cut a 15-20 deg angle on the side of the theeth.
IMG_1970.jpg

Then on the top of the theeth I cut a shallow angle to get a cutting edge.
It took about 1.5 hours to get about 20-25 teeth done.
IMG_2086.jpg
 
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Outstanding, kungfumo! I'm not a huge fan of sawteeth on a knife, but by golly if you're gonna do it, that's the way to go. Thanks for the pics.

I notice a round "bottom" between each tooth, to reduce stress risers, staggered-height teeth to rake out chips, and opposing "set" to each tooth to help prevent binding. I think that's about as good as a knife-blade "saw" is going to get.

I got that bid I mentioned earlier (yay!), and will employ similar techniques. Just cheating by lettin' Dave do the heavy cutting :biggrin:
 
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I like how they turned out, it was allot of work though. I have a few saws laying around that I looked at and figured if I made the tines like a saw then it should work like a saw. Usually you have a problem with a knife having a saw back, in that it will only cut to the depth of the tines and then start to bind on the blade because it is the same thickness as the saw. I over came that issue by doing a flat grind to the bottom of the tines. Normally a saw will have the tines bent outward to have a relieve for the cut, but its kinda hard to do that with a knife that needs to be heat treated since it would likely warp since it is CPM154CM and it needs to be plate quenched. All in all I don’t find the saw very useful in a knife I would make for myself for the woods, but it sure looks cool!!!

The guy who ordered it said he wanted something that would scare old ladies to death, I just hope it was figuratively speaking!!!
 
kungfumo said:
Usually you have a problem with a knife having a saw back, in that it will only cut to the depth of the tines and then start to bind on the blade because it is the same thickness as the saw. I over came that issue by doing a flat grind to the bottom of the tines. Normally a saw will have the tines bent outward to have a relieve for the cut...
Click to expand...

You're absolutely right, in a proper saw that's called the kerf, if I remember high-school shop class right :p

As for scaring lil ol ladies... yup, that'll do it!
 
James Terrio said:
Outstanding, kungfumo! I'm not a huge fan of sawteeth on a knife, but by golly if you're gonna do it, that's the way to go. Thanks for the pics.

I notice a round "bottom" between each tooth, to reduce stress risers, staggered-height teeth to rake out chips, and opposing "set" to each tooth to help prevent binding. I think that's about as good as a knife-blade "saw" is going to get.

I got that bid I mentioned earlier (yay!), and will employ similar techniques. Just cheating by lettin' Dave do the heavy cutting :biggrin:
Click to expand...

Thats not cheating , thats just being smart. Scott
 
A super way to handlt a tough job particularly because of the alignment wanted on the teeth. Great job and great knife for what was wanted !!! . Frank
 
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