Does anyone know the best way to drill into a circular saw blade?

i am making a folding knife and i am using a cut part of a circular saw blade as the blade and i have tried using quite a few drill bits and some other things but it still isn't working, i also really don't want to spend a lot on a new drill bit, but i might spend mabye $10 on one but that would be the most

Comments

[rickharris]

Yep anneal it - or the part you want to drill. You could try a diamond drill slow and remember to lube it.

[zipzapper859]

the problem with that is i don't want to anneal it and don't really have the right tools to. but i will see if i can find a dimond drill

[steveastrouk]

Diamond isn't appropriate on steel - and hideously expensive anyway. A carbide drill will work, and a cobalt steel drill MAY work, but like Aeray said, its surprising that the body of the blade is that hard.

[zipzapper859]

yeah that is what i thought, i saw an instructable that uses a saw blade as the knife so i did and i thought it would be easy to drill through it because it is so easy to work with it on a bench grinder and easy to cut through, it just doesn't want to drill through but i will try agan to drill with different bits

[steveastrouk]

Keep the drill sharpened, keep it lubricated, and run it slowly - assuming you're drilling ~1/8" (3mm), about 500RPM.

Steve

[zipzapper859]

ok thank you

[steveastrouk]

If you can fidn out what steel was used, you can get a better idea of a procedure, but the way to do it is basically:

Anneal the blade, heat it to dull red, then bury it in DRY sand until it cools down.

Drill.

Reharden. Heat red hot, quench in ice-cold water, stirring vigorously to stop steam forming against the steel.

Heat to ~180 C - this is steel dependent, and also depends how hard/tough you want the steel afterwards

Steve

[zipzapper859]

i right now can't exctatly do that be cause one:i don't have much time, and 2: it is snowy out but i will try to do that this summer with other knifes

[rickharris]

Alternative if your outsourcing the hole making is to find somewhere that does EMS

[steveastrouk]

EDM ?

[rickharris]

sorry typing issues today! your right EDM

[caarntedd]

Go to a workshop or factory that does metalwork and ask them if they have a plasma cutter, and if they can chop a hole in it for you. While you're at it, measure up the blade and get them to cut as many holes as you need in the right spots to make multiple knife blades from the saw blade to save you coming back in the future. It would take all of about 2 minutes and they may do it for nothing. Maybe you can make the guy a knife in exchange for a few minutes of his time.

[aeray]

A metal shop MIGHT even be able to punch it, for a cleaner hole. I'm actually surprised that a (I'm assuming carbide-tipped) blade would be that hard, out in the "field".