Cutting Blanks?

[pete28]

Hi folks long time no see. Hopefully this is an easy question. So many folks on here make a lot of knives and I was wondering how you cut the blanks out so fast? I recently came into a good bit of used metal people were tossing. Bandsaw blades, circular saw blades, farrier rasps, and some other pieces people were gonna toss. So far I have mainly been making my knives using an angle grinder and dremel tool as that is what is at my disposal. I've been cutting and cooling so as not to lose the heat treatment on the hardened metals as I don't have a way to heat treat at the house. The farrier rasps are the toughest to work with so far. I'm working on a small froe out of one of them and its going well just a lot of grinding. The tough part is gonna be the handle but I can get away with a full tang as its only gonna be a beater for splitting spoon blanks. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. On a side note the bandsaw blades are roughly 1/2" tall with a thickness of 1/8". I believe they are 36 inches long but I can get more exact measurements. Long story short if anyone would like some I'd be more than happy to cut some pieces and mail them to folks. I don't mind parting with a couple of the farrier rasps either, free to a good home. Thanks folks.

[sgtmcboom]

 Well I just got a bandsaw but yeah before it was angle grinder and 24 grit belt on a 2x42 belt grinder will take things down fast. On the other hand if you are getting bigger scale then waterjet or plasma cutter.

[crashdive123]

All of my "blanks" are cut and ground by hand.  4" angle grinder, portaband band saw and belt sander.  Even if you are doing larger quantities it works....just takes time.

[Unknown]

Welcome back Pete. On the froe, you could go  the "hacking knife" route, rather than the eye and perpendicular handle on a froe. It sounds like that's what you're saying already. Best luck with all of it.

[pete28]

Thanks for the help and great advice folks! I have been looking at some band saws and that would help out quite a bit. I like to use the flapper discs for some of the work. Gonna be in my shed/workshop today hopefully and start working on some knives. I think I am going to cut out a few blanks. I figure if I spend a while cutting a bunch of blanks in one shot it will save me some time later on.

[Sarge]

Hey Pete, good to see you post.

I still use an angle grinder. I keep saying I'll get a band saw one of these days....

The angle grinder is messy and my wife says it stinks up the house if I use it in the basement so I usually use it outside. I do batches like you mentioned and profile several at a time.

Good luck!