"Not all those who wander are lost."

J R R Tolkien

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19 August 2011

Two knives from a lawnmower blade

My daughter's boyfriend gave me an old lawnmower blade the other day, so I got to work  to see what I could come up with.

The steel from lawn mower blades is a bit of an unknown, could be good or not for knives. I cut off a small bit of the steel and heat treated it. It came up trumps, which I was pleased about. The blades are forged, I tried to give a nice smooth forge finish to them. Only the cutting edge is ground. After heat treat, I soaked them into some vinegar overnight to remove the forge scale.
The handles are wrapped with thick cotton thread and I used brown shellac to soak and stick the threads together, which worked quite well. They are not the best looking handes, but for what they are, it's fine.



5 comments:

  1. I like mower blades as they are. They have to be hard enough to hold up and soft enough not to shatter on impact, so they work fine for me. I prefer a Rockwell in the high 30's for an everyday work knife and that's what most mower blades are. So are Old Hickory knives (some of my favorite work knives).

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  2. Nice work. I like knives that keep the forged look. Cleaning off the scale with the vinegar soak has given them a clean look but preserved the rustic appeal of the forging.

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  3. Working knives, will serve their purpose well I think.

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  4. Great ones....and I very much like the idea with t5he shellac, have to try that myself....!!!!

    Come to think of it, I still got some mower blade lying around.... uuuummmmmm;-) too many projects altogether!

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  5. Very nice job Joel,I really like the look of those knives.

    I have used lawn mower blades in the past and the steel was just fine for knivs.

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