So as mentioned in a previous post where I was asking if old hand saw blade would make good steel for filleting knives, because of its properties,.....very flexible and great memory. I decided to sacrifice a few old handsaws that I had in the basement and cut out a few blanks....turns out that one of the saw was so rusted that even after hours of sanding the blade was pitted by the rust. the second saw was not as bad and I was able to make a knife out of it. Naturally all first attempt at a new knife I gift to my dad. his field testing being not as expected and unusual he invited my wife and I for diner and used the knife to carve a chicken.... Well turned out that it sliced true the meat like a hot knife thru butter. He spend a few minutes flexing it on the cutting board and finally said its the most amazing knife he has. Dint have the heart to tell him his knife was made with a old hand saw So here it is Steel...? old hand saw bolster brass scales Bloodwood pins brass
That's pretty slick. I don't see any taper on the blade. Just where you sharpened it? Did you do anything to heat treat it after or just try not to draw out any hardness while you were grinding\shaping?
thank ahley.. ..the metal is so thin that it' s hard to see the edge. I'll post a picture of the thicness as a reference later today. As for the heat treat...while grinding it I constanty threw water on the steel to keep it cool and did short grinding bursts.
Are there any specific types of hand saws to look for? Older ones? I guess I'm not sure how to tell if they'll be good steel or not. I have been thinking of a fillet knife too and even thought about a saw blade but i didn't trust that the steel would harden. Thanks for being the pioneer on this one Peter. Also, is there any bevel at all or do you basically shape it and then sharpen the edge?
Well that's a honor! being the pioneer...here I thought that's how these guys made fillet knives. well from what I notices so far regarding new or old hand saw, the older hand saw have really thin blades, witch in this case makes it a great metal for fillet knives, the steel I have is 0.03 in or 1/32 in fractions... I haven't went out yet to by a new modern hand saw, but I am planning on it. the down side of old blades, in particular the ones that I have, is years of rust...I have spend hours trying to sand them but because the rust was so deep some of them have pit marks I cant get out. I haven't heat treated any of them, because being hand saws they already are...I just keep that in mind when I cut out the blanks and do the shaping....lots of cooling off time and water . there is hardly any bevel to these ones because of the thickness of the steel.
