Worn Japanese saw blades

[Mark Karacsonyi]

I hope I put this in the apt thread.

Has anyone any ideas to put to worn blades, from a Japanese saw.

I have a number of old Hassunme blades. The steel is of a different quality to Western steel.

have considered giving them to a knife maker, thought I would query this forum first.

 

[Rorschach]

I made mine into card scrapers.

 

[Mark Karacsonyi]

I made mine into card scrapers.

May I ask how, angle grinder to rough out?

Drilling the stuff I find impossible.

 

[Rorschach]

Angle grinder would be fine. I couldn't be bothered with the mess and dragging it all out for just two cuts so used a vice and a cold chisel, old school style. It worked pretty well. The finish wasn't the best but I was going to have to tidy everything up on the belt grinder anyway.

 

[Mark Karacsonyi]

Cool, thanks. I suspect myself and others underestimate, of can’t be assed with a cold chisel.

I will experiment on the weekend.

 

[Sean Hellman]

Ever thought about sharpening them yourself? If they are too hard to sharpen with a file you could use a diamond feather edge file. I bought a cheap one off eBay which seems to be holding up surprisingly well for the price. The file works well on induction hardened teeth so there is no saw that cannot be sharpened.

 

[Bm101]

Angle grinder would be fine. I couldn't be bothered with the mess and dragging it all out for just two cuts so used a vice and a cold chisel, old school style. It worked pretty well. The finish wasn't the best but I was going to have to tidy everything up on the belt grinder anyway.

How do you find turning an edge on it? I recall Custard in a few posts mentioning that card scrapers are generally getting harder. Not sure I'd fancy trying to prep modern Japanese saw blade steel!

 

[Rorschach]

How do you find turning an edge on it? I recall Custard in a few posts mentioning that card scrapers are generally getting harder. Not sure I'd fancy trying to prep modern Japanese saw blade steel!

It's fine, I don't think it's too hard or too soft, it's probably a little on the thin side though which limits the size of the burr. For my needs it's ok though.

 

[Bm101]

Good to know it's approachable. I have a couple of those little lidll aldi 'japanese' small saw blades that I'll transfer from The Box Of Doom to The Box Of Sh*te To Get Round To on the strength of that.

 

[dannyr]

anyone know the composition of the steel - plain carbon, what %, does it vary or do they all use the same (for the hard tooth replaceable)?

 

[D_W]

Yellow steel is common in hand made Japanese saws. It's probably closer to our chisel temper and wont roll a burr, but it can be tempered like anything else. Its just a plain carbon steel like western 1095 but perhaps with ever so slightly more carbon.

I would resharpen the saws with a diamond file, and have done so on saws with hardened plates as well as the cheap stuff with impulse hardened teeth.

 

[D_W]

Not sure, by the way, what's in the floppier saws with impulse hardened teeth. I doubt it's yellow steel, which was, to my knowledge, a precursor to white paper steel and is similar except with slightly looser tolerances for contaminants in the alloy.