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I got some old sawmill blades from my brother and decided to makes some knives out of them.
Made my own knife
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Grinding blade bevels, after heat treat and polish the blade and put on the handle and bolster.
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Some sanding to shape and polishing and my bird knife is done!
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Nice job that thing looks good
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I cut the knife blank out of the saw blade using an angle grinder with an abrasive cut off wheel. Rough shaped the blade on the bench grinder, then I sanded it to final shape with my 1" x 42" belt sander. I ground the blade bevels with my 4" x 52" belt sander. The blade was just soft enough that I could drill holes in the metal without having to anneal it first. I could tell that there was some hardness there, but the drill was just able to cut it. I used sand paper on a flat piece of wood to sand the blade bevels to clean up the grinding marks from the belt sander by draw sanding. That's sanding inline with the blade at 90 degrees to the marks left by the belt sander. I started at 80 grit and went to 400 grit before heat treat. I hardened the blade by heating it until it was red/orange hot in a home made paint can propane forge, then quenched it in vegetable oil. After that, I put it in the oven at 400 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. The steel in the saw blades is L-6 and according to heat treat data found online, a 400 degree draw or temper should yield a blade in the 58 - 59 RC hardness range. After tempering in the oven and letting the blade cool to ambient temperature, I finish sanded from 400 to 1000 grit, then buffed it out on a cloth wheel on my bench grinder.
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Very cool!!!
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Here's another one made from L-6 with a Phenolic and Deer Antler handle.
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Those look great! Thats awesome that you know how to complete this process.
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Very nice!!!
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