Jake_Makes

Very nice! Did you make that knife?

Love that mirror polish :)

Beats my duct tape tie to shreds!!!

First of all, that is a great first knife. It looks WAY better than my first. Great job.As the people in the other comments have said, and which you've probably realized by now, that sawblade is not made of hard enough steel to make a knife blade that will hold an edge (that is also probably the reason you are having trouble sharpening it). Not sure how much research you've done on knife making, so I'll overdo the explanation. Hopefully you catch a bug and want to do your own research to make a ton more knives :-) Knives depend on the hardness of the steel they are made of to hold an edge. There are many different kinds of steel, as I'm sure you know. Knives are made of many kinds, but they can be broken down to two main categories; stainless and high carbon steel. Your kitchen knives ...see more » First of all, that is a great first knife. It looks WAY better than my first. Great job.As the people in the other comments have said, and which you've probably realized by now, that sawblade is not made of hard enough steel to make a knife blade that will hold an edge (that is also probably the reason you are having trouble sharpening it). Not sure how much research you've done on knife making, so I'll overdo the explanation. Hopefully you catch a bug and want to do your own research to make a ton more knives :-) Knives depend on the hardness of the steel they are made of to hold an edge. There are many different kinds of steel, as I'm sure you know. Knives are made of many kinds, but they can be broken down to two main categories; stainless and high carbon steel. Your kitchen knives are made out of stainless steel. Great-grandpa's machete is high carbon steel. The difference is what the alloy contains. Steel by its simplest definition is highly purified iron, with certain added metals, depending on the type of steel and its intended use. High carbon steels are as simple as steel gets, consisting only of Iron and little bit of carbon (around 0.95%), and sometimes some manganese. Stainless steels are little bit more complicated, but put simply generally contain a bit of chromium, (which makes them resistant to rust), vanadium, manganese, and more stuff than I am going to go into know. Knife makers call those more complicated steels "super steels".Obviously, some steel is harder than others. Your hammer is harder than a piece of rebar, and a file is harder than the hammer. Steel can also be hardened. Most knife makers buy steels made for knife making from suppliers online, make their knives, and then harden them. The steel comes soft, so that it is easy to grind a drill, but it is too soft for a knife. They harden the steel by a process known as heat treating. (for lack of space i'll have to let you do your own research on specific methods) The heat treat method depends on the type of steel you are using, however. You cannot harden a stainless razor blade the same way you harden high carbon sword. Now, about that sawblade you used, certain sawblades can be turned into knives without much work, because the sawblade itself is already heat treated to cut through wood, and is hard enough to make a knife. Certain sawblades, not all sawblades. I can tell from the pictures that the sawblade you used is one with the carbide teeth. Unfortunately for knife makers, sawblades with carbide teeth are not heat treating to be hard enough for knives. Why? Because it is the carbide teeth that do all the cutting, not the steel blade itself. It is not necessary for the saw blade to be hardened. I don't know the steel used in that blade, (the guy below said L6), but I have a gut feeling its not one that could be HT-ed without expensive equipment. Bummer. Certain saw blades can be made into knives though. Older circular sawblades without the carbide teeth can be, as well as sawzall blades. (provided they don't have the carbide teeth) However, if you are trying to make a knife out of sawblade without heat treating, you need be sure to keep the blade cool as you are working on it. If it gets too hot, you will mess up the heat treat and the steel will get too soft to hold an edge. You can tell if the steel is getting too hot by the color of the metal. If it starts changing color it is getting too hot. I just dunk it water to cool it down when it gets hot to touch. Okay, better stop writing now. Hopefully I didn't just come across as a crazy knife nerd. (which i am)Hope that info will help if you ever make another knife. (which I hope you do!) Great work, and very nice ible. I'll be looking forward to more projects from you in the future.

Thanks back! (we seem to be caught in giving and returning complements a lot :)The idea sorta just came and smacked me upside the head, if you know what I mean. I haven't done much on Instructables lately. Well, I haven't really made much of anything lately. We (my Dad, me, and my brothers) are actually in the process of constructing a workshop. From the ground up (talk about a learning and skill building experience). While building the shop, the current one is a wreck, and I've been waiting on a ton of projects. Hopefully soon I'll be able to post some REALLY creative stuff :)

Very impressive. You are a really creative guy!

Oh yeah, there is nothing quite like chucking a few firecrackers in the swimming pool at night!

Except I did with more than one brother. I have a large abundance of bros :)

Ah, thanks.

Just curious, do you know exactly what temperature the glass melts at?Very nice, btw, I really like how those turned out.

Ok, those are just plain awesome! I can't believe I never thought of this before. After all, I couldn't even count how many times i've exploded firecrackers in mud :)

Just gotta know, how old are you?

I'm turning green...

(face slap) stupid question. Just saw you answered it in the instructable. You are lucky to get em for a dollar each. I bought mine at a flea market for 25$. Its over 60 years old.

Awesome! Great idea.I have one of those same plumb hatchets too. Where did you get them?

Thanks!Next you need to build yourself a simple heat treating setup, then you can make some really nice knives!

Looks great! Glad to find someone else around my age making cool stuff!

I'm following you.

That has got to be the silliest, laziest, most redneck thing on Instructables. Looks like something I would do :)

I made one of those. It attaches to my wrist. AWESOME!!!

Next time? :)