Making a Knife from an Old Saw Blade

[GoingMyWay]

Not sure if this interests anyone, but I just watched this video of George Vondriska and Jimmy DiResta making a knives out of old table saw blades.  It seems like a good use of a saw blade that can't be sharpened anymore.

 

[Ron B]

I remember my Dad telling me that the old butcher knives we had on the farm were made from Buzzsaw blades.
Another source of good knife steel back in the day were old wooden wagon seat springs. 

 

[Cheese]

Not really in the same vein of this particular subject matter, but if you like knives, the original Bo Randall knives are some of the best amongst the best. Even 40 years ago, the wait list was 2-5 years long and that was for "ordinary" knives.

Everything on the knife was custom and you were responsible for specifying exactly what your knife was to become. Nothing was assumed and you needed to sign off on the design before it was entered into the system for manufacturing.

The Randall "Survival" knife was a favorite for special op's during the Vietnam war.
https://www.randallknives.com/randall-history/

 

[Packard]

As a high school shop project some 60 years ago, I made a knife from an old metal working file.  I annealed it in the shop oven, sawed the shape, ground it and then hardened it.

The heat treating was not exactly right and the tip broke off and the teacher would not let me take home a knife with an 8” blade. 

It could also be because it was not forged.  Forging aligns the grain structure to improve strength.  The knife made from the saw blade will be similarly left unforced.
So, not an unmitigated success.

(I also made a crossbow from a car leaf spring, that was so powerful that it pulverized a cinder block.  That was the second project that year that I was not allowed to take home.  But it worked perfectly and looked great.  It was modified from plans from Popular Mechanics.  The plans called for mounting a conventional bow to the gun stock.  The leaf spring option was my brilliant idea.)

 

[Vtshopdog]

As a high school shop project some 60 years ago, I made a knife from an old metal working file.  I annealed it in the shop oven, sawed the shape, ground it and then hardened it.

The heat treating was not exactly right and the tip broke off and the teacher would not let me take home a knife with an 8” blade. 

It could also be because it was not forged.  Forging aligns the grain structure to improve strength.  The knife made from the saw blade will be similarly left unforced.
So, not an unmitigated success.

(I also made a crossbow from a car leaf spring, that was so powerful that it pulverized a cinder block.  That was the second project that year that I was not allowed to take home.  But it worked perfectly and looked great.  It was modified from plans from Popular Mechanics.  The plans called for mounting a conventional bow to the gun stock.  The leaf spring option was my brilliant idea.)

A kid in my middle school metal shop class made a spot welded suit of sheet metal armor. Have recollection of him wearing in in the hallway when he finished it, so assume he got to take it home.
Leland, he was an odd duck….