knife making question???????

[cracker]

I'm making a knife out of one of those king size hack saw blades like goes in the motorized hack saw very good steel works great problem is when I get ready to drill holes in the tang for the pins the drill will barely make a scratch. The question is how do I drill it? I'm thinking about heating those spots red hot with a pencil torch and let them cool. We've done this at my shop to drill abrasion resistant plate that is bout 480 to 500 hardness and it works great how about on this stuff?
Thanks in advance. Ronnie

[sailordad]

ronnie, ive had tht same problem on saw blade knife blanks ive made
i solved it exactly as your thinking 

its works well and if you clamp the blade in between two pieces of steel they will work as a heat sink
and the blade itself shouldnt loose any tempering either

[cracker]

Thanks Sailordad we use that method on very hard plate but it aint this hard,Ronnie

[lerxst]

Have you tried carbide bits?

[Bevan R.]

for the last KITH, I went through 4 Tungsten bits and 3 dremal Tungstem Carbid cutters trying to punch holes through the edger blade steel I had used. I had not thought of pin heating the drill spots.  Thanks Tim.

Bevan R

[El Destructo]

Ronnie...heat it with a Propane Torch...just make sure that the Blade itself don't get too hot...just the Tang....this way you take some of the Temper out of the Tang so the Bit will drill through it...I normally drill mine before I temper them...but with a Hacksaw Bled...the temper is already there...but you don't need the Tang to be tempered anyways...JMO

[crooketarrow]

   Your surpose to aneal the blade. Take the temper out and put it back in later after harding. But its is so hard beause it's been temper good for that kind of steel.  To heat will take your temper out which you don't want.You don't want the blade to change colors.  Cover the blade part the potters clay and only heat the spots you want to drill keeping the flame pointed away from the blade. Use just enough heat to drill you dont have to get it red. DON'T QUENCH IT LET IT AIR DRY drill holes.

[skyarrow]

   Your surpose to aneal the blade. Take the temper out and put it back in later after harding. But its is so hard beause it's been temper good for that kind of steel.  To heat will take your temper out which you don't want.You don't want the blade to change colors.  Cover the blade part the potters clay and only heat the spots you want to drill keeping the flame pointed away from the blade. Use just enough heat to drill you dont have to get it red. DON'T QUENCH IT LET IT AIR DRY drill holes.

That's right  crook you don't want to heat the blade and by normalizing it by air cooling it should get close to what it was before you heated it in the future if you want to anneal some metal like old files ect you want to cool it muck slower you want to heat it to a cherry red and then cool it real slow a cheap way to do it is use catlitter the bentonite works great I'd just cut the side of the bag open place the hot steel on it and lay another bag ontop it won't cach the bag on  fire itl just smoke alot lol an dost it cool overnight