plane blade from sawblade?

[Lewis Ehrhardt]

I'm thinking of making a back-up plane blade as a second blade with a different angle using an old saw blade. My concern is how well this steel would hold an edge? Maybe this isn't practical.

I'm sure I could buy an extra blade cheaper. Just wanting to make one if it's possible and practical. Thanks for any input. Lewis

[Jim Koepke]

Such a thin blade would likely sound like a cat looking for love.

If you are looking for a 2" blade check out the Buck Brothers branded blades at Home Depot. They have been on the shelf at $3 for a while. They aren't a Hock or LV, but they do a good job.

For bigger or smaller blades there are other sources including Stanley.

For my needs a lot of extra blades have been purchased.

jtk

[David Weaver]

What kind of plane is this for? If it's a 2" bench plane, I agree on the iron at HD. Who knows how long they'll be any good, might as well get one while they are decent and $3. If they source them from somewhere else or make them somewhere else, they could be crap in a flash.

Other than that, i don't know of any saw blades that would make a good iron, though I've seen some bushcraft knife makers using sawmill plates to make knives, and maybe bandmill bands. I think the steel in them is L6 or something.

I have made various irons when needed, including making a slotted O1 iron for a bench plane. I think if I'm honest with myself, it was a waste of time (it took about 3 hours to make it from plate stock, to drilling and filing, to heat treating and lapping - you could do it in less if you have a faster sander than me and more tolerance for slop in the slot - which I had to drill out and then hand file - a mill would do that fast.

In the end, I got a good iron that can be used, but if it's better than the buck brothers iron at HD, it isn't by a whole lot.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Chances are if you post a "looking for" thread in the classifieds, somebody's got something extra kicking around they'd give you. Maybe not the nicest blade, but nicer than what could be easily jury rigged. Heck, if I haven't given it away all ready, I've probably got an old #7 blade and breaker kicking around you could have if that fits your sizing needs. (2 3/8" width - I think it'd also fit a 4 1/2 and a 5 1/2 or a 6?)

[Prashun Patel]

In plane blades, I believe the thicker the better. I would save the saw blade for either a cabinet or card scraper blade, or to make a few scratch stocks.

[Zach England]

If you're that hard up for a spare plane blade I probably have one you can have. Tell me the size and I will check my drawer-o-crap.

[David Weaver]

Follow up to the above - if the question is about a saw plate, like a hand saw, the answer will be no. They are usually too low in carbon to make a good blade (the older saws), and tempered too soft. The plate that would be hard enough to hold a decent edge would qualify as the oddball that didn't get tempered properly, and about half as thick as you'll need.

[Mark Wyatt]

I'm in no way recommending this, but what about an old table saw/circular saw blade?

[Paul Incognito]

That's the way I read his question, Mark.
The problem with most circular saw blades anymore is that they have holes and slots cut all over them. I save anything with some useable steel in it, but have yet to make anything.
Paul

[Brian Kent]

I'm thinking of making a back-up plane blade as a second blade with a different angle using an old saw blade. My concern is how well this steel would hold an edge? Maybe this isn't practical.

I'm sure I could buy an extra blade cheaper. Just wanting to make one if it's possible and practical. Thanks for any input. Lewis

Are you talking about a hand-saw blade or a table saw blade? Making one from a table saw blade sounds kind of interesting.

[Lewis Ehrhardt]

Sorry, wasn't thinking about a hand saw at all. I've got a few older 10-inch table saw blades. My thoughts were rough cut with plasma, then, grind some, finishing with perhaps files. Haven't measured them, but the blades I've got are fairly thick. Block plane to start.

[Zach England]

I doubt the steel in those blades would be worth using as plane blades. Remember that it is not the steel in the table saw blade that does the cutting--it is the carbide teeth. If you're going to go to that much effort spend a few dollars for a piece of tool steel.


Sorry, wasn't thinking about a hand saw at all. I've got a few older 10-inch table saw blades. My thoughts were rough cut with plasma, then, grind some, finishing with perhaps files. Haven't measured them, but the blades I've got are fairly thick. Block plane to start.

[Zach England]

http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?pid=11808&step=4&showunits=inches&id=246&top_cat=1354

At that price you could make a nice iron for about $6.

[Roy Lindberry]

I'm thinking of making a back-up plane blade as a second blade with a different angle using an old saw blade. My concern is how well this steel would hold an edge? Maybe this isn't practical.

I'm sure I could buy an extra blade cheaper. Just wanting to make one if it's possible and practical. Thanks for any input. Lewis


A while back, i had a book from the library on making your own tools. It recommended salvaging steel from all over the place. Circular saw blades were one of the recommended sources, provided that they were the old style of sharpened steel. If it has carbide teeth, then apparently the steel is not as good at the old blades. But if it is one without carbide teeth, this book said that it would work just fine.

[Zach England]

I have never seen a circular saw blade without carbide teeth. Is this because I am young and have not been around vintage power tools?

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I feel like you could still get straigt steel (no carbide) saw blades not that long ago. I know the first circ. saw I bought came with one.

[David Weaver]

I think the requirements for a small saw plate that would be made of steel would be a lot different than those for a plane iron, and I'd want to know that whatever was in the plate was somewhere around 1% carbon and not a whole lot else so you'd know that you could try oil quenching it, and then if that didn't work, water quenching.

It's probably likely that fairly early on in the single material blades, that extra stuff was added so that they could be heat treated and tempered in a way that wouldn't warp their plates like plainer carbon would, and even if they a more plain carbon steel, you might find out they're not what you want in terms of carbon content.

It's a wild goose chase when there are a lot of inexpensive alternatives around. The question to have a separate blade would give you a greater chance of success if it was asked as how to get the results you want without spending a lot (of course, your question could be tempered by the fact that you have saw plates around that are not being used for anything).

[James Taglienti]

I have never seen a circular saw blade without carbide teeth. Is this because I am young and have not been around vintage power tools?

Zach,
Oldham still makes them, some are marked "plywood" and have very small teeth like a crosscut hand saw ... I think they still make all steel ones for lumber as well

[Ryan Mooney]

I have a pile of HSS circular saw blades that I've been slowly cutting into other tools. They're pretty cheap so I use them in the circ saw when I don't need the carbide and then re-use the steel for other stuff once they get to dull (yeah yeah you could also sharpen them...). Are they the best steel ever? No not really... but it works well enough for marking knives, and small stuff like that.

If you had a big old sawmill blade plate it would probably work pretty well for a plane blade but you'd still want to re-temper it (and therein lies another rub), the smaller circ saw blades are all still pretty thin for a plane blade imho (~1/8" is about what I'm seeing in the pile - you may have different ones :D).

The other challenge I can see is that I have no idea what kind of tool steel it is, so have no real idea on how to properly harden it (go ahead and experiment but don't expect that it will always be the same between vendors, models, or perhaps even different batches... it might be, just wouldn't count on it). The blades I've messed with seem to have a harder "edge" and a softer "core" so I usually try to just cut out what I want to use with the edge as the edge (if that makes sense :rolleyes:) so I don't have to worry about that.

So, reuse old saw blades for tool makine? sure why not. Use them as plane blades? unconvinced its worth the hassle.