how do you make a knife out of a hacksaw blade?

[A_Swope]

ive been reading about making knives out of hacksaw blades and i would like to try. i have a blade but i dont know how to shape the blade like a carving knife. do you use the rigid side or the smooth side?? wat tools do you use to shape the blade??

[Thomp]

it has to be a power hacksaw blade , not a flimsy thin hand hacksaw blade first of all,

then use a dremel with a fiber wheel to cut the blade out,
dont allow the steel to get hot at anytime or you will have to retemper it...

search the forum for "knife, hacksaw" there is a page of threads that are on this subject.
good luck

[Robert Cahill]

For a really good carving knife I would agree with Thomas however I have shaped a regular quality type hacksaw blade with a grinder and put it in a dowel or even made a handle out of wood and glued it in for a detail knife. I grind off the teeth and then use a cut off wheel on the dremel to shape it. I grind an edge to it and finish sharpening with sandpaper. I only leave about an inch outside the handle to carve with or it is too flimsy. It is not real pretty but works for me

[Just Carving]

Try using a Dewalt reciprocating saw blade. Worked for me. I think the most important things to remember is (1)take it very slow when grinding and use water to cool, i.e. grind for a bit, cool, grind for a bit, cool, etc. and (2) take great effort, time and patience to get a good sharp edge on the blade.

Bob L

[Tom Ellis]

Part of the problem with hacksaw blades is that they are only tempered right along the edge where the teeth are, and the back part of the blade is not, so it might not hold the good edge that you are after. You could learn how to temper the rest of the blade, and then may be ok.
Good luck, Tom

[Nomad]

They are also typically "bi-metal" blades which I don't think would make a good knife blade. Maybe the plain jane carbon steel blades would work. I've made knives from handsaw blades and I have a collection of knives and ulus made from handsaw and crosscut saw blades as well, made by Maynard Linder of Homer Alaska. They work well but I have not made a carving blade yet. The power hacksaw blade might be a bit thick for carving, although it might make a good rough out blade. Those power hacksaw blades are hard to find anymore and you pay a premium for new ones. Very tough steel though and hard to work. Probably mostly M2 tool steel.

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

I used a quality jig saw balde and it worked real good. The grinding took a long time as I made one pass then dipped into water, but it holds a nice edge.

Dave

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Hard to beat a knife made from an old straight razor!

[bill#1]

yes the german steel (solgen) will make a good knife,bill#1

[Dicky]

This evening, I made a copy of the Allan Goodman upswept knife from an old power hacksaw blade. I couldn't get anything to cut it. Then I saw Thomp's suggestion to use a fibre disc. Out came Foredom and we are honing now.