Rich Hale

The website does not say alot. However alot of those that say they are for metal and wood are mostly for non ferrous metals. The fpi speed of the blade is too fast for steel. i have a band saw that is slow enough..and use the same blade for steel and handle materials. It is really slow for hard woods and the metal blade is not correct for that. I use it anyway...Wotever it has for a blade will need to change to a really good quality bimetalic. I would research the fpi speed of bandsaws for steel and then contact the maker of this and see wot the slowest it will run.

May be new but not lost,,you found the right place for help..Welcome,

If you make knves with similiar sized tangs..It is not hard to make a filing jig. Take a few inches of a steel that will harden and is annealed..drill /file a slot in it...or you can slit and drift. Clean it up and leave it a little undersized for your tangs. Harden it,,,I would not temper. To use clamp it in place on your guard material. and drill through,,Like Thomas suggested you can drill at and angle to remove more stock between the holes...then file with guide in place...the file will only cut the guard material...then remove jig and fit to your tang with a file...I have done a whole bunch like this and if the hard steel wears the file at all I have not noticed.

I use a jewelers saw quite often....and think if you tried to cut out the irreguler shapes between holes you would break a lot of blades.I have not tried it for this. Ivan did you break blades when you tried this?

Cut a piece off of that steel and see if it will harden and how.

Forging skills as well as fire management and use are basics that you will need to get down pat...Then you can make blades that will benefit from heat treat...Spend the time forging leaf or coil spring steels and maybe get some help from others including local smithing groups.

This brings us to appleseed grinds vs flat or hollow ground. For woodhacking i would use an appleseed,,,For most kitchen slicing..a flat grind. .I prefer a fine edge on a hollow ground blade for skinning and cleaning game... The beauty of handcrafted knives is we can determine the use..and taylor materials, shapes, heat treat and how we shape the sides of the blade and cuttng edge to get the most from it when complete. I mentioned destructive testing in this thread as i suspect that aRR spike that will hold and edge will be brittle....but then again it is a short blade,,...I hate to take that chance of it breaking in use.

A recent post in a thread on here warned of the lack of carbon int he steel that RR spikes are made from. Great information. There is a lot data on this site to fill in more details. However if you are just beginning and want to pound out a blade...And if you want that too work as a knife then you should have an idea of how much Carbon does it take to allow you to propery heat treat a blade that will do the things we expect a knife to do, wot we think a knife should do. I like mine to cut well for a long time and not snap off if stress bends the blade a bit.. I like the shape to fit the need. and for me..I want the fit and finish to be as good aws I can make it. :; back to carbon content. anything less then .50 AKA 50 pts....is not enough for a knife blade. And you can heat treat a RR spike knife blade so it holds an edge pretty well...However you may want to do some destructive testing and see how brittle it is. As mentioned on here many times..some leaf springs are made from 5160...60 pts of carbon and there are legions of makers that use this steel,,sourced scrap,,or to really know wot you are using purchased new. Not that pricey as it can be from many places, Knife suppliers or maybe a local spring making shop as left overs,,or drops/rems....Cheap. This may help as a start for new makers. But it is the tip of iceberg. More information is on this site..both in the heat treat stickies, and in the knife making lessons.

Swing by here for an afternoon this august and you will likely not have that bother at home again.....Phx area.

Xpyker it is your shop....your rules..make wotever you wish! Spend whatever amount of time as you want or need. In the past, and likely near future I have made gunstocks for my self. I could have made them from pine or balsa...But just incase I really liked it when finished I used the fanciest figured walnut I could afford. My thought was I would take extra care in the crafting and fit. Im so glad I followed that plan. When I hunt now I enjoy the pleasure of carrying my work with me. The same with knives: I will not sell wot I will not carry. And I hunt with whichever one captures my fancy when I pack. You have some room to grow in knife making. Keep in mind that steel suitable for knives does notwork like poor steel. You will have to relearn skills when you step up to a better steel. The knife making lessons on this site may be of value.

Speed controllers that I know about use a coil of wire that electricity passes through..as it does that the coil heats up and that lessens the amount of current it will flow. i do not know if that is the kind you have..also you did not mention wot kind of blower you use. I think they have to match each other and the motor has to be able to be used with the kind of one you have. So with all of that It almost seems like i would not be happy with a controller as hot as youi say yours is..And if it is to hot it likely will not last long...I would take both pieces to a electric motor rebuilding shop and have then check it out.

Lenaghans offer is tops..For a new sord maker that is an ultimate experience..I can only wonder if Man on fire took him up on it.........

Vineger is an acid...baking soda is alkaline..adding alkaline to acid neutralizes the acid.....of coiurse depending on the proportions added.

When we did the knife making lessons I had hoped that by posting pictures and text would have let folks know how I do things needed and helpful to make a knife,,and stretched that to include several styles of knives and handles. It is sad that so many folks did not see the value in that ..the posts in this thread are an example of that.

Spruce I just sent you a pm...let me me know if you got it when you can.

Fyi......Two holes in most anvils,,but not all. One is a hardy hole,,all of them I have seen are square and the other smaller round hole is a pritchel hole...They each have different purposes,,,or not depending on how they are used. A pritchel as I know it is a tool farriers use to create or clean out the bottom of a nail hole in a horseshoe. And when they do that it is over the pritchel hole. Hardy tools are placed in the larger sq hole and used as,,mostly bottom dies. like a hot cut etc. I do not know wot your tool is in the pic..but if I had it I woul put it in the vise and use as a bottom die when forming a compound curve in metal...hot or cold as needed..... In the last pic..it almost seems like a grease zerk....Which would make the large part turn on the small part...

i just looked at home depot web site,,they list a vermont american drill saw bit in 1/4 "...

I have a catalog in hand and it is on page 40,,,,it I think is latest catalog,,20102011,,,did you call and ask?,,,they have this same catalog i spoke with them yesterday

None of my three have guages that are anywheree near accurate...however they did when neew or buiilt and I learned to use them then..not crank up or down to get wot I want

Would your regulator be one for a turkey frier? is so problem found....most of them do not flow enough,,or have a guage...

With the thought that anyone clicking this link may find something in the lessons they may want... It is in lesson five,,handles,,,It will nto allow me to link it here.

In the right light... :)

i do not temper the tools i outlined the ht above..and for a logical reason..Both of these steels are hot work steels..They deform little at all even when the get to a dull red heat...that would take away efforts to temper them as the red would be higher temp than tempering heat.. I do use these as hot punch tools and at times they get to the dull red...

Actually thosse dremel and rotozip bits..the ones I have seen are not quarter inch in diameter linke wot I use. I get mine from Home Depot or K and G knfe supplies. In K and Gs catalog I have next to me ,,2010-2011 it is on page 40 and they call it a drill router. I m mput a bit of side load on it in drillpress. and they do well..it is also long enough to do wot I want..I drillpart way through a handle and finish from other side if needed. Interesting how many folks posting about this may have missed the pics of mine in use in the knfe making lessons.

Really well done..it has all the style, fit and finish a knife should have...and it is shown in really well taken pictures.