what to do with used bandsaw blade?

[Gregg Feldstone]

I was about to throw out a used bandsaw blade which won't cut anymore when I thought to post this question.
Has anyone thought of any creative or functional use for old bandsaw blades?

[Jesse Cloud]

Here's a few....

1. If you route your mortises, you end up with round ends. If you do tenons on a tablesaw, you wind up with square ends. To round off those square tenons, cut off an inch of old bandsaw blade, drill the appropriate width hole (say 3/8 if thats your mortise width). Cut through the middle of that hole and sharpen a little with a round file. Make a holder with a scrap of wood with a bandsaw kerf, and you have a tenon rounder.

2. A length of bandsaw blade makes a great cutter for a roll of brown paper to cover that bench or table before a glue up or finishing process.

3. similar to #1, you can fancy up your aprons or other pieces with a scratch stick. Use a drill, grinder, etc. to work the image of a bead or other molding. Make a holder with a fence and run it along your apron, taking shallow cuts... soon you will have a decorative edge!

Only problem is that one old bandsaw blade would probably do you for years to come.....:p;)

[Norman Hitt]

Cut a short piece and clamp it with two or three machine screws & nuts between two strips of scrap, and it and it makes a good scraper.

[Rod Sheridan]

Larger bandsaw blades make great narrow kerf parting tools for turning.

Cut an 8 inch long piece of a 1" blade, remove the teeth, sandwich it in a nice handle with 2 inches or blade projecting, and sharpen to a parting tool shape.

These are great for times when you want a narrow kerf, such as making lidded boxes.

Regards, Rod.

[David G Baker]

When I was a kid we used the small blades to clean radiator tubes, back when car radiators were made from metal.
In a shop I worked at years ago, metal cutting bandsaw blades with the teeth burned off by someone not using lubricant and slow speed, were used to cut (burn through) stainless steel thin sheet material.

[John Shuk]

Some people make chatter tools for the lathe with them.

[Jason Beam]

Chatter tool, marking knives, scrapers, scratch stock, narrow parting tools, custom shaped turning scrapers (dovetail, bullnose, etc), custom blades for moulding plane scraper blades....

Or you could sharpen it (if it's worthwhile) and use it as a bandsaw blade again!

Or ... sharpen a length of it and make a very nice Bowsaw. Very handy saws, them.

[harry strasil]

2 of my ideas, finger board and radius marker.

[Dave MacArthur]

Ok, that's awesome-- actual photos of ideas in use! I love it!

[Micah Carter]

marking knives! use a white aluminum oxide griding wheel to take what's left of the teeth off, then hollow-grind a profile you can hone.

beats paying $30 apiece for marking knives from Lee Valley, and in an hour or two you can have a couple of these laying next to every machine in your shop.

[Steve Wargo]

I use old bandsaw blade to make profiles for my scratch stock. Obviously this works better and is easier to handle with wider blades, but the narrow ones work great for making stringing cutters.

[Bill White]

Cut the blade into several 12" pcs., stack the pieces tooth up, tape the ends (about 2" each end), and you have a tool to "fluff" up polishing wheels on the old grinder/buffer.
Bill