Ever made a saw blade??

[CBrann]

Got to thinking, I can forge hammers, chisels, axes, knives, etc lots of wood working tools. No idea how to approach a saw blade.

Thinking about forging a had saw blade, must be forged thin and flexible,evenly ground/scraped/filed, cut the teeth with a file, set the teeth, harden, temper, polish and handle.

if it were that easy why haven't I heard/read more about it? Anybody ever try to make a saw?

Suggestions for temper color? Steel stock? Reference books, any resources...
ideas... laughter is ok too... tell me I'm foolish ..its ok too...

I work mostly with scrap, leaf springs coil springs etc, but could get high alloy steel if i needed it.

[Dave Budd]

Yes I've made a couple, but it is definately an excercise for the sake of having a go!

You can go about it two ways: conventional modern hand saw with the thin balde and set teeth. OR wedge shaped blade that has the teeth on the thick side (like a pruning saw)

the first one is easiest to do if you buy thin steel and cut it to shape, then cut the teeth. But if you really want to forge it then go ahead, rather you than me Older hand saws actually change thickness across the width and length of the blade, especially the panel, rip and cross cut saws. That would be tweaked with scrapers or grinding rather than forging I would think as the variation is fracions of a mm.

the second is a case of forging a long thin knife blade and then cutting the teeth on what would normally be the back. The tricky bit with this is getting everything straight and the thin edge in the centre of the saw blade. Mind you, if you are going to FORGE rather than grind a blade then this is the easier type to make I would think.

cutting the teeth is not too hard. If you have ever sharpened a saw then you just do that, only with more filing! To get the teeth equidistant make a punch that has two cutters (file 3 Vs in the end of a bar and grind off all but the tips f the outside Vs). Then strike once to make a mark for your first two teeth (well the space between the teeth), then move teh punch along keeping one tooth in the previous mark.

I would suggest cutting the teeth post heat treat to avoid the posibility of not getting them hard. The correct temper depends on what it is for cutting, but something in the warmer side of brown should be right. I used cs70 (plain 0.7% carbon steel) for the mini and an old coil spring for the Roman one. Don't go too high alloy or you may not get teh toughness, don't forget that the finished object will have some work hardneing applied ot the teeth during setting each time (simpler steels tolerate it better)

mine so far:
a roman saw

and a mini based on a 50 year old diston philly rip saw:

32 tpi all hand cut and set

I made it up as I went along, but for the cutting and sharpening of the teeth I found an old book on engineering and woodworking, it had good descriptions and diagrams

Edited May 29, 2009 by Dave Budd