Can You Harden a Saw Blade?

[@RoomiesGarage]

I found your video very informative....and inspirational, now I want to make a knife with a saw blade... cheers

[@danthemakerman]

That's great to hear! Good luck!

[@micahkairo2534]

sorry to be so offtopic but does any of you know of a tool to log back into an instagram account? I was dumb forgot the login password. I love any tricks you can give me.

[@aaronbryan6824]

@Micah Kairo instablaster =)

[@micahkairo2534]

@Aaron Bryan thanks so much for your reply. I found the site on google and Im waiting for the hacking stuff now. Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will get back to you later with my results.

[@micahkairo2534]

@Aaron Bryan It did the trick and I now got access to my account again. I am so happy:D Thank you so much, you saved my ass :D

[@robertcullity1695]

In my 30 yrs of wood working I have 6 to 7 inch stack of 12 saw blades and I've been really curious about the gardening question for a long time. Thanks Dan very clear and straight forward. This should be lots of fun.

[@danthemakerman]

Glad it was helpful. Its always best to do a test piece of on each blade to make sure it can be hardened.

[@mcboomsauce7922]

came here with 1 question and you answered the shit out of it thank you 💯

[@danthemakerman]

Glad it was helpful.

[@phila1714]

Nice very cool! Was gonna do this over the weekend after seeing several vids on saw blade knife vids but not one question about hardening the steel! Thanks you got another sub👍

[@danthemakerman]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Micro-Moo]

I wonder what protection you wear for the snap test. It's a pain to see. 🙂

[@danthemakerman]

Safety glasses.

[@Micro-Moo]

@@danthemakerman Good to hear that, thank you for answering. Now I feel better. 🙂

[@terroriststerminator]

You just taught me the lesson that I needed to know for a long time. Thank you very much!

[@danthemakerman]

That's great to hear thanks for the comment!

[@WorksbySolo]

Good job, Dan! That was seven minutes of valuable info. Thank You!

[@danthemakerman]

Thanks Bernie! Glad it was helpful.

[@Henkka0Bass]

thanks for sharing this with us, great job Sir

[@jamesonkruger6989]

What oil did you quench with?

[@danthemakerman]

I used peanut oil.

[@poopants3779]

I found this video rly helpful, thanks

[@danthemakerman]

Awesome that's always good to hear!

[@MarvinConman]

So I can make a good knife out of a modern saw blade, I just have to test a piece of said blade to see if it works. Thanks, this video answers a lot of my questions :)

[@danthemakerman]

Well, it depends on your definition of "good". If it's your first knife and you just want to give it try without spending any money on steel, then I say go for it. If you have an extra $25 you can buy 3 pcs of 12"x1.5"x3/16" 1095 steel off of Amazon and use that instead.

[@MarvinConman]

@@danthemakerman I made a few blades out of 6150 spring steel but I wanted to experiment a bit. As long as it doesn't snap from slightest pressure and somewhat holds an edge then I'm happy. PS is saw steel weldable? I want to make a Freddy Krueger glove from stainless and am wondering if the saw knife'll weld to stainless.

[@danthemakerman]

@@MarvinConman I don't know much about welding, I have only dabbled in it so I can't help you there.

[@boyarvalishin9565]

Thank you very much for clearing misinformation. Makes me want to make more knives!

[@danthemakerman]

Glad you found it helpful.

[@shopnwoods9901]

Great video. Answered the question.

[@danthemakerman]

Thanks glad you liked it.

[@LetsPrepTogether]

Very good demonstration, thanks for sharing!

[@danthemakerman]

Thanks bro!

[@joxannes]

Thanks

[@danthemakerman]

You are welcome.

[@AYOSTOHTV]

I'm learning how to make knives out onto saw blade. I hope you answer my questions. What kind of quenching oil you use and what is the temperature of the metal before quenching it?

[@danthemakerman]

The quenching oil i use is old peanut cooking oil. I use a magnet to check the temperature of the metal when heat treating. Basically heat the metal up to a red color and then I use a magnet to see if it is still magnetic. I'd the magnet sticks it needs to get hotter. Once the magnet stops sticking I heat it a couple more minutes to make sure the metal is heated evenly. Once its nonmagnetic I quickly quench it in the oil. I leave the metal submerged in the oil for a couple of minutes until it cools enough to handle. Then I use a file to make sure the edge is hardened. If the metal has hardened then the file will not bite in to the metal it will just glide off. If the file removes material from the quenched metal then it did not harden.

[@whiteshadow6925]

Thank you for the information

[@danthemakerman]

My pleasure

[@whiteshadow6925]

thank u for the information

[@danthemakerman]

No problem.

[@ianbedwell4871]

Is there anything special about the oil you quench with? Does it need to be warm prior to quench?

[@danthemakerman]

Ideally if you can afford it buying actual quench oil is preferred, something like Parks 50 Quench oil. But the cheap route is to use cooking oil or even used motor oil. I use old peanut oil. It's a good idea to heat it slightly, I never do and have never had any problems but my quench oil never gets below 70 degrees in my garage. If you want to heat treat properly there "heat treating schedules" online you can Google. They are specific to the steel you are using. This saw blade is a mystery steel, as I don't know the actual carbon content so usually it's best to quench in oil. There are some steels you can water quench but I have zero experience with any of those.

[@ragtie6177]

Excellent & very informative video!

[@danthemakerman]

Thanks brother.

[@MrGeoffreySmith]

Nice video, Dan. I was suprised by the differences.

[@danthemakerman]

Glad you found it helpful.

[@Evadingmoto]

Good video Dan the Maker Man!!! Is there a a fire risk when quenching using veg oil or motor oil?

[@danthemakerman]

Thanks, yeah there is always a risk when dealing with fire and especially oil. I've never had any flare ups but that's mostly due to me not lifting the blade out of the oil until its cooled way down. With that said I do always have a fire extinguisher at the ready just in case.

[@Evadingmoto]

@@danthemakerman thank you for the fast reply!

[@hadhnd1654]

Good info

[@danthemakerman]

Thanks!

[@Bowdock]

Very helpful video and I thank you very much. Would like to see you harden and temper saw blade to a spring temper and then to somehow test for longevity. May or not be as good as annealed spring stock but who knows!

[@vahntalur7273]

Do the test again by 2 times heat treating & quenching each piece, then bake in oven at 375 degrees for 2 hours, allow to naturally cool. If I understand all the different videos of hardening by furnace & quenching and then strengthening by baking, you get a tougher cookie that should not break as easy or hopefully not at all. Just do not eat the metal cookie! LOL ( I don't have the heat treat set up you do right now due to low income otherwise I would try it.)

[@rudamchu]

After hardening and quenching, the baking part is called "tempering" which is actually softening to something in the middle between hard and soft steel so it can be sharpened and still hold an edge well without chipping easily. Too hard - difficult to sharpen and easy to chip. Too soft - dulls easily.

[@ShayanGivehchian]

Excellent video very informative demonstration. I have a broken saw blade I've been keeping to make some knives from. This answered my questions so I'm gonna go ahead and make some cool knives. Thanks alot

[@danthemakerman]

That's great to hear good luck with your project!

[@urifacas]

thank you

[@joeltower5964]

Thank you!!! Finally! And very well done video!

[@danthemakerman]

I appreciate the comment thanks!

[@ManCrafting]

Good info Dan! I like the fact that you didn't heat treat the whole part so you could see the difference in the areas. Also it's good to know an old blade can be upcycled.

[@danthemakerman]

Thanks, I've been meaning to make this video for a while now.

[@kennethpickens4084]

Good stuff dude

[@danthemakerman]

Thanks for the comment!

[@MGMakes]

Thanks for explaining that Dan, making a knife is on my "Maker bucket list". 👊👊👊

[@danthemakerman]

Glad I could help. Making a knife or any tool really is extremely satisfying.

[@Thunkworks]

Good informative video Dan. From my own research carbide tipped saw blades and made from 1075 carbon steel. Maybe not all but id imagine most are or similar steel.

[@jonwills4670]

Thanks for sharing this info! 👊🏻

[@danthemakerman]

My pleasure thanks for watching!

[@FeralBoyKnives]

I always thought sawblades might be good for kitchen knives since they are so thin. Great video. I was wondering the same about new sawblades.

[@TjBerry-d6s]

Do a spark test high carbon steel sparks a lot when ground mold steel has little spark

[@FoxyCAMTV]

So if I just make a knife from saw blade without tempering process it,will it hold the edge?

[@danthemakerman]

Potentially, the problem though is that you will have to cut, shape and sharpen it without causing it to overheat and ruin the temper. Once you heat an already hardened and tempered blade past a certain point you can ruin the temper and make it soft. Also working on a hardened steel, it a lot more work because it is already hardened. Cutting it with a hacksaw will be a lot of work and will probably require several hacksaw blades as they will go dull a lot faster since the metal is already hardened, that is if a hacksaw blade will even cut it. Using an angle grinder to cut the metal will be tricky without overheating the material while you cut it.

[@mikec2173]

Thank you for an informative, straightforward, and interesting video. Can you comment on "tempering" the piece of hardened saw-blade after quenching?. I want to make some wood carving knives from an old circular saw blade and read that the "proper" 1095 steel (once quenched) must be "tempered" by heating it to a straw-brown colour (about 400degrees Celsius) and then letting it cool in order to make woodcraving knives. That would give them some flexibility.

[@danthemakerman]

400 degrees is kind of the rule of thumb. As you said getting that straw brown color is what you are after. If you have spare pieces I would do a test in the oven. Set it to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and leave it in the for an hour and see if you get a straw color. If its too dark then turn down the temp 15-20 degrees and try again. Or if you have a laser thermometer or a reliable oven thermometer you can put a piece of the steel in the oven at 400 degrees and then check the temp to confirm your oven is reliable.

[@steveperkins1776]

7/25/2020 And you have answered the Question I have been having. thank you

[@danthemakerman]

Glad it was helpful!

[@grace31411]

What type of oil did you use

[@danthemakerman]

Peanut oil.

[@michaelbernardo1295]

Thanks Dan it helps a lot👍👍👍

[@danthemakerman]

No problem 👍

[@rodneymiddleton1044]

Thanks for this video it answers the question :-)

[@danthemakerman]

Glad it was helpful.👍

[@kennethrutledge9222]

Thank you for your time on this video it was very helpful I’m going to presume that to draw back the sawblade after heat treat would be done the same as 1095 high carbon steel which is Heating it to 400° and soaking it for a couple hours and then repeating the process except only soaking it for one hour thank you

[@tomrobertson4983]

Great video. So why can't the medium steel be hardened?

[@danthemakerman]

There isn't enough carbon content in the mild steel.

[@kasimabataeno9672]

Id tried before same procedure my saw blade got britle and bend after quenching.id tried to re heat again and back to normal shape.

[@danthemakerman]

Yeah that's why it is a good idea to always do a test piece before committing to making a knife, especially with mystery steel. Good luck next time.

[@Micro-Moo]

It would be useful to see the tests before and after hardening. It would be interesting to know how hard the saw blade and teeth tips are. I've recently cut a used blade into two knife parts and will reuse the hard tip at the tip of the knives.

[@litaliano870]

Yeah that make sense , saw blade are of course hardened from the factory , what you can do instead , is maybe a heat treatment . You put the final product , knife or else , out of a saw blade , in your hoven . 240 C° for about an hour . If you can clay the entire knife exept for the cutting edge , its also better . Sorry for my bad english guys .

[@danthemakerman]

Thanks for the information.

[@litaliano870]

I made industrial blades , for cutting paper by exemple , in my job , this a common heat treatment . It works with all kind of tempered steel . Making the blade slightly harder .

[@shootinnscootin5545]

Just made a blade from an old saw blade and was wondering if I'd need to harden or temper it. It threw good sparks on the grinder so I'm pretty sure it has a high carbon content. Should I heat treat it or just temper it in my oven like I do with knives I make out of old files?

[@danthemakerman]

Let me preface this by saying I am by no means an expert. Ultimately it comes down to how you shaped the blade or what tools you used and if in doing so you ended up altering the original temper. What I mean is if you used an angle grinder to cut the steel and if got hot enough to ruin the temper then the blade would have to be re-heat treated. If you were careful and kept the steel cool, as in no color change on the steel while you worked it, then you shouldn't have to do anything to it, it should still be hard. If it were my blade I would just heat treat the blade again, and by that I mean I would heat it up to non-magnetic and then quench it. Then check it with a file to make sure its hardened then temper it in the oven. This way I would be 100% sure the blade had a good heat treat.

[@shootinnscootin5545]

Dan The Maker Man Thanks for the advice. I made sure I kept the steel from getting too hot during the whole process but I may just fire up the Forge and heat treated for good measure.

[@sdmcustoms]

Very interesting man ...dumb question but does the same apply with chisels ? Are cheap chisels just not heat treated enough ? Can you make a cheap chisel better by heat treating it ?

[@danthemakerman]

That's tricky because it depends one what kind of steel they are made from, some tool steels need to be quenched in water instead of oil. Some steels only in oil. If they are cheap, find your least favorite one and give it a shot. Not sure how you sharpen them, by hand or with a machine, but if the cutting tip turns blue then you have 'ruined' the temper and now the area that turned blue is softer than before.

[@AnnasWorkshop]

Awesome! Thank you for sharing

[@danthemakerman]

Anna B Workshop Glad you liked it.

[@Sepp2009]

thank you so much for this video, my first saw blade knife is in the making ;)

[@danthemakerman]

Great to hear good luck with your project.

[@Sepp2009]

@@danthemakerman okay first problem, I can't drill holes in the saw blade steel. HSS Drill bits is all I got, they don't work obviously? Is there a way to soften the material? I don't want to buy fancy new drill bits just for 3 holes

[@danthemakerman]

T Erha You need to anneal the steel. Basically you heat the steel up until it’s no longer magnetic then set aside on some bricks or something that won’t burn, to cool down slowly to room temperature. This should remove some of the hardness.

[@plakor6133]

This is a nicely edited video! Thanks for posting. Can dull chain saw files be turned into anything?

[@danthemakerman]

Thanks for watching! Files are usually harden, those you have to anneal otherwise they are too brittle. Chainsaw files are round right? That might limit what you can make with them. Anyhow here is a knife I made from a broken file. kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYPFpH6wo7Z5l80

[@Dyshof]

Thanks, appreciated

[@danthemakerman]

Thank you for watching.

[@MrAllan9]

Great video, now we know.

[@danthemakerman]

Yup!

[@sonofgod2405]

Thx

[@whatsgrowingon]

How long did you heat the saw blade in the furnace so it could become non magnetic?? And how many times?? Did you also bake it??

[@danthemakerman]

I didn't time I just get it to were it looks reddish in color then check it with a magnet. If the magnet sticks to the metal then it goes back in the heat until the magnet doesn't stick anymore. I only quench it once. I did not bake it, the point of this video was to see if the saw blade was hardenable. If I had planned to use the steel to make a knife then I would of tempered it in the oven which would have made it more bendable/flexible.

[@whatsgrowingon]

@@danthemakerman how long would you put It in the oven? And would you only quench once if making a knife? Or twice

[@danthemakerman]

@@whatsgrowingon only quench once then use a file, like I did in the video to make sure it hardened. Then put it in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour. When it comes out of the oven you are looking for it to have a dark straw color almost like bronze but not quite. For more info look at my video of marking a knife from a saw blade with limited tools.

[@whatsgrowingon]

@@danthemakerman link the video

[@danthemakerman]

@@whatsgrowingon Here you go. kzbin.info/www/bejne/lWLdqnWHaZKcfdk

[@bumstudios8817]

I have a bunch of old saw blades from a friend.. and have made knives from them, but almost all of them the ones that list information steel have different ingredients from chromium, magnedium, ect i probably spelling that wrong so i don't think anyone really says you can't more that they mean it is hard to get consistent results for a good knife

[@danthemakerman]

When I first started doing research on this the general consensus was that new or rather modern saw blades were constructed from cheap un-hardenable metal. Many stated that only the carbide tips on the edges where hard and that the metal itself was worthless. I was doubtful so I did my own testing. Which is actually the point when ever dealing with mystery steel. Always test it. Store bought steel is the best steel but if you are just starting off and want to try making a knife then a sawblade will probably work just fine.

[@beltaiefdhiaeddine607]

Can you give me the dimention of the knife

[@danthemakerman]

What knife? I didn't make a knife in this video.

[@wmwalkerco]

Did you ever see my marking knife video? I made it from a saw blade, spark tested, file skated, and shattered with a hammer from a cheap blade. I didn't want anyone to refute that the steel had a high carbon content. I had a similar experience searching online. Let's bring the knowledge to the people!

[@danthemakerman]

Wm. Walker Co. I did watch it and at the time thought it was smart on your part to make sure you covered all those points.

[@randallmarsh446]

that saw blade is made out of some good steel..look at the sparks it was throwing out when you were cutting it with the grinder.

[@colbyrencher8515]

I feel you would have maybe had a different outcome with the saw blade if you would have cut out an even square leaving the teeth out. Looked as though it broke in the grove of the tooth with gave it less of an advantage

[@danthemakerman]

The point is that it snapped and didn't bend like the mild steel. If the saw blade was not harden-able it would have bent and not snapped in two. The point of this video was to show that you can indeed harden a saw blade in this case a inexpensive one which is what the test shows. The file test also confirms that the saw blade was indeed hardened.

[@citylotgardening6171]

👍

[@ozarked2363]

I called the saw blade manufacturer to find out what steel they used. A quality saw blade, mine were 14" 100 tooth, uses type L steel which is low alloy tool steel. My blades cost $170 each. Once the carbide tips on the teeth wear down enough they cannot be sharpened.

[@danthemakerman]

Ok

[@oldbloke135]

I think the obvious problem with that blade is not how hard it is but how thin it is. Apart from as a filleting knife, it would be pretty useless and decent filleting knives aren't expensive.

[@danthemakerman]

A saw blade is way too thick for a fillet knife.

[@Danielson1818]

People aren't usually making knives to save money. It's for the accomplishment of making your own tools. Also, you should do a quick search of all the saw blade knives on KZbin. Some of them are pretty thin, and others come from much bigger saw blades that are thicker. It's all just info to show what's possible.

[@jamesdavid7099]

Only knife snobs in knife forums say you can't or shouldn't use a say blade. It's BS. A knife is a tool, period. Of course you can, and should use it, and why not? If I can make a knife from a saw blade, skin a deer with it, butcher the whole thing with it, is that not proof of something? Get your saw blade and get to making knives! Files are good too.

[@danthemakerman]

My feelings exactly. Thanks for the comment.

[@blueberry766]

20 dollars per saw blade? That is expensive in my area, inexpensive saw blades here are from 3 to 10 dollars But i will test them and see

[@danthemakerman]

I use old worn out saw blades.

[@Surtac100]

Now we all know the truth, no more speculations. Thanks.

[@danthemakerman]

Thanks for the comment.

[@domr1660]

Ben shapiro if he went thru puberty

[@nikolajc7617]

Who says a sawblade isnt hardened in the first place??

[@danthemakerman]

A lot of people on Reddit.

[@nikolajc7617]

@@danthemakerman It is tempered so its a waste of time to start over to harden and temper again.

[@danthemakerman]

@@nikolajc7617 Ok

[@yankeedoodledandeefirecrac7518]

Jyst Temper the high Carbon steel Just right it will take some punishment!!

[@jazzmaskguy5290]

I didn’t know Ben Shapiro made knives

[@danthemakerman]

Hahahjahahahahahaha!!!

[@huntingkc1]

Now is the perfect opportunity lol

[@Juneipurr]

"Let's say, hypothetically, we could harden a sawblade"

[@FeralBoyKnives]

I always thought sawblades might be good for kitchen knives since they are so thin. Great video. I was wondering the same about new sawblades.

[@danthemakerman]

I think so too I just need to get way better at grinding in bevels.