alright, here we go. Another dumb question from a new guy. I've searched as best I could for the answer, but the results are saturated with Tig welding razor blades or Damascus straight razors.

Is it worth a try to forge weld all of these used utility knife blades to make a billet? Soak them in acetone, tie them with wire, heat them up and beat them till stuck.

I don't really want to buy known steel. I like making things out of trash. Are the blades too thin? Are they even carbon steel? Any opinions?

I have forge welded a lot of junk steel together while trying to learn.  Never tried razor/utility knife blades, so can't offer much advice of those, except to say, I have bought stainless blades before.  Might want to check that out before starting.  Also, if they are from the same maker, hence the same steel, you won't get much pattern to show, so you might want to layer it up with something else to help show some contrast.  As with any unknown steel, you run the risk of winding up with something that won't make a very good knife, but what else have you got to lose but time and the cost of a little forge fuel?

You could always pick up some powdered steel from Kelly Cupples and try a canister weld, if you can't get them to weld on their own.

I'm curious to know how it goes. 

I think you'll be a lot more successful incorporating them in billets rather than trying to make a billet entirely from a stack of utility blades.

Frosty The Lucky.

Thanks guys. That's good enough for me. I'll save all of these blades and do some experimenting. They are just normal razor blades. I hate throwing used blades into the garbage bags (I'm paranoid), so I put them back in the carrier and forget to toss the carriers. I probably have about 200 blades in my mess.

A canister weld is on my want-to-try list, so that sounds fun. I'm shooting to have a shop built and start playing early this fall. I will post all of the pics of failed razor blade welds.

 

 

In your process I'd add "flux the billet" as that can help with oddball stuff...

If you put liquid white out in the canister let it dry before you add your metals. It will prevent the billed for welding to the canister. So peeling off the canister will much easier. 

keep in mind that commercial grade razor blades contain a lot of crud in terms of coating and alloying. It may make forge welding difficult or cause HT problems later on.