I hope that you guys will humor a newbie/wannabe knife maker. I have been toying with the idea of making my own blade for a few years now. I plan on making a fixed blade skinner 1st. I have most of the tools required for beginning work at my disposal.

Where I get caught up the most is where to start with steel. I have some Planer blades (industrial so about 2inches by 3/16" Or there abouts)that I have considered annealing then shaping and rehardening. Problem is I haven't found a reference to using old planer blades in any of my searches on the different knife making forums and sites.

I'm not sure what type of steel these old blades are made of but am quite sure that they are high carbon and are quite hard. Will annealing and then retempering generally make a good reliable blade when using this type steel?

Much thanks, LC

Typically planer blades are D2. D2 is a wear resistant alloy steel that is generally considered to make blades that take a "fair edge and hold it a long time."

It is also a bit on the difficult side to polish as it tends to "orange peel."

You may also have a high carbon simple steel.

Either way it will make a good material to play with for a beginner.

Generally a maker will not use an unknown material for a knife to be sold. To get consistently reliable properties at heat treat you need to know exactly what the material really is. The starting material is a significant but relatively small part of the cost of making a blade.

It is highly desirable to anneal the material before working it. Makes life MUCH easier.

The problem is that if you don't know what it is you don't know how to reharden it !!

Thanks for the feedback. This is what I had hoped for.

I guess my next question would be is there a fairly simple way of ID'ing metal to know how it will work?

While I have power tools at my disposal, I have not had experience working with metal so I'm working on a thing margin of knowledge here. One thing is for sure, I want to keep the 1st one simple.

LC

For the beginner dealing with a "mystery " steel just adds to your problems !! Much better to buy a known , simple steel and work with that .Someone like www.texasknife.com sells various components for knives .Good beginner steels are 5160 and 1080 .These can be heat treated with the simplest equipment .Planer blades are likely to be M2 which is hard to grind and hard to heat treat. Check into www.bladeforums.com and you'll get lots of helpful info.

I would start with 1095 High Carbon. It's easy to work with, heat treat and temper, plus it will hold a good edge.

Of course it will rust if not taken care of.

Have fun, I still like working with 1095.

Thanks for the recommendations guys.

I've signed up on bladeforums and will do some more research.

Sounds like I need to save the steel I have for a later dates.