Thread: saw blanks

Dont know about new stuff. but on www.norsewoodsmith.com he cuts some metal out of some old saw blades and makes some new saws. interesting reading

Originally Posted by spoinky

I was wondering if anyone knows where I could get some saw blanks/steel
I want to make a 22"-28" back saw about 5" depth with a 0.7mm blade, and
a 8" back saw about 3" depth with a 0.4mm blade.
A bit hard to find anything readily avaliable to modify.:confused:

It's going to be difficult to find that size of material even in vintage saws. Only large backed saws had 5" depths right across their length and if you could get one of those it could make more sense to restore it rather than remaking it.

You might be able to find a large unbacked 28" saw that is 5" wide at the 22" mark but it would still be tapered and may flex more than a normal backed saw.

As for small saw material, you could try looking at scraper blades in hardware stores. Axis Blue Steel Scaper blades available at some older bunnys are 0.8mm thick (there appear to be 2 sizes 14" and 8"). I used one of these to make a 14" tenon saw (see http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...d.php?t=34755). I measured the Blue Steel RC hardness in the lab at work to be RC53 compared to a Disston #4 which was RC54.

Depending on how often you want to sharpen them you should also look in the paint scraper section for suitable material. I found one in Bunnys recently that is 8" x 3" x 0.42mm which I measured to be RC48 which just scrapes inside the acceptable boundary for saw blades. Being a small saw form it should be OK.

Cheers

http://www.mcmaster.com/

Go to metals, steel, shim stock.

0.028" x 6" x 25" is US$21.14

Just over 0.7mm thick, and at the right temper already. Just make sure it says blue and 1095 in it somewhere.

For the thinner one, same place can sell it to you as well.


If that's too much hassle, just ask for blue temper spring steel shim stock in the right size at a decent engineering supply.

Made a dovetail saw from 0.3mm spring steel. As it was a regular project that all students did, it just came from a coil - not sure how much it would have cost. I suspect Schtoo is on the money.