Thread: Cuttting 6mm mild steel for knife making

Howdy all .... I am new to metal work ... well, actually new to a lot of things. Got family in the wood working game, so am learning it all slowly.

Have been working on making a knife, and have cut out my first design by hand using a hack saw. Needless to say cutting agles and curves with a hand hack saw was not much fun.

So i'm looking for an easy (and relatively cheap) method for being able to cut 6mm mild steel. I tried the jigsaw with a metal cutting bit, and it wasn't real good. I may have been going to hard i guess, but ended up being a friction type of cut.

The thing is that i cannot heat the metal too much, and i want a clean edge. Any suggestions?

I have tried a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade, but i must confess it didn't cut like i had hoped. Mind you, some of that may come down to skill, or lack of.

gerday safadao,

I've had a lot of success with the ultra-thin cutting discs that they make in a range of sizes. I know that you need to cut shapes, and that discs aren't ideal, but you should maybe give them a try.

I use a high speed air driven angle grinder, but I'm sure they'd be OK with a 100mm electric grinder. These thin discs are so much better than the chunky ones: they last longer, fewer sparks, they cut better, and they feel safer.

As usual with discs, avoid the el-cheapo'sor you'll have shrapnel in your shed. Pferd and flexovit (dunno about that spelling) sell the thin ones for a range of metals.

Try cutting it out square with a hachsaw and get yourself a good 6" grinder (or bigger if the budget allows) and grind it into shape , use a Big bucket of water and cool it down often as you go

Rgds

The thin disks on a 4inch grinder are the go I reckon as Rossluck suggested, cut quick & cool.

Is this just for practice? I wouldn't have thought mild steel would be much good for a knife blade.


Cheers..................Sean

This is certainly not my field but I would think a bench grinder and files would also be good tools to have when shaping.

If you are serious about knifemaking, you will need to aquire a good metal cutting bandsaw, you can scratch around with other methods but a bandsaw is realy the only way to go

Hi safadao and welcome

I am certainly not an expert myself ,but can lay claim to making about 20 or so knives over my 50 plus years.

Some info for you first.
Mild steel is not a steel I would choose to make any knife at all , as it will not harden by heat treatment.It has less than 0.04% carbon, not enough to effect a change. Perhaps you are doing this as a practice and mild steel is easy to get.

Knives can be made in two ways.One by forging and the other by stock removal. There are some excellent books on the subject of amateur blade making and even an Australian based club.

I have made knives with gear ranging from hand tools to power tools.

Given that your desire to produce a knife or two is not a temporary one, may I recommend a linisher type belt sander.

I have found the Multi Tool type to be very handy bit of kit and use it for far more than its original intended purpose of knive making. It fits onto a 6 or 8 inch bench grinder.

Around $200, it is dearer than most power tools , but the cost is long forgotten, when you soon realise that this tool can chew of metal with the best of them, then with a belt change provide a satin finish and then,a razor edge on a blade.

It is worth ten angle grinders.

cheers Grahame

Originally Posted by Rossluck

gerday safadao,

I've had a lot of success with the ultra-thin cutting discs that they make in a range of sizes. I know that you need to cut shapes, and that discs aren't ideal, but you should maybe give them a try.

I use a high speed air driven angle grinder, but I'm sure they'd be OK with a 100mm electric grinder. These thin discs are so much better than the chunky ones: they last longer, fewer sparks, they cut better, and they feel safer.

As usual with discs, avoid the el-cheapo'sor you'll have shrapnel in your shed. Pferd and flexovit (dunno about that spelling) sell the thin ones for a range of metals.

+1 , but consider putting the thin cutting disc in an old or small table saw, you'll never look back.

If you must cut with a hack saw or jigsaw...... you can save yourself a lot of grief by using some lubricant on the blade.
proper cutting compound is better..... any oil is better than none.

cheers

I'm with Graeme on this one. Why mild steel? Unless it's 4140 or something of that nature that you can harden later, of course. Otherwise, I'd be getting my hands on a chunk of medium to high carbon and grinding it.

Check out this page for the usual materials;

http://www.knivesaustralia.com.au/Steel.html

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

I have found the Multi Tool type to be very handy bit of kit and use it for far more than its original intended purpose of knive making. It fits onto a 6 or 8 inch bench grinder.

Easily the most used tool in our shed. You can quickly change the belts for wood, metal and even a scotch-brite type belt to quickly remove rust or scale from metal. Well worth the cost, providing you have a decent bench grinder (an 8" runs it much better than a 6").