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 replies from readers:
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).
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.
Working knives, will serve their purpose well I think.
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!
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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