choice of material for a blade

[chopperrr]

I am about to make a small "brake hub" forge, in order to produce small blades (knives). A decade ago, my uncle showed me a knife he bought in France. It was regular steel, rusting if not looked after, not like modern stainless.. But the trick was that there was a very thin sheet of very very hard steel in the middle. It was covered by milder steel, so when you sharpened it, the mild steel would be sanded in order to expose the hard steel and the knife was very sharp.

Now, I want to do something similar but will be using scrap material, like leaf springs or springs from cars.
What is the best way to achieve what I want? Can I harden the middle part and aneal the outer part? would that do the trick? How would I fuse them together without them loosing their properties?

I am a novice (if that :) ) so any suggestion is more than welcome!

[Ken Hosford]

You not very easily duplicate the sandwiched steel but you can come close by using power hacksaw bi metal blades and grinding the teeth off , the down side is the edge must be pretty straight or you get into the spring steel backing .

[NewOCork]

There are quite a number of websites on Knifemaking and you probably should find forum that is capable of more extensive answers.

try http://www.bladeforums.com/

Also there is probably a a group (or a sub group of a blacksmith organization) in your area that has classes and supplies. Since knifemaking doesn't use large amounts of steel some of the materials are not very expensive. One of the favorites is large bandsaw blades which are L10 steel (I don't know the European equivalent) and for stainless steel it's the 400 (440) series that is used since these will take some heat treating.

Here is a supplier in Finland that serves your are, and check out there books.

https://www.brisa.fi/portal/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Corky

[oldgoaly]

Maybe Bob Haverstock will pop in and tell you how he does his Harley chain knives!!! really a treat to watch him work! What you are talking about is what is commonly called Damascus steel you have a good steel that holds and edge forged with softer iron to make it more flexible and shatter resistant. This is a very good forum http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/ as is this one http://www.anvilfire.com/index.htm Some good info here http://fredlyfx.com/ When my joints weren't so worn out I could swing a hammer! and I don't mind the black boogers from the coal fire. Oh one of the major "holy-wars" on the internet was the use of anhydrous borax and common 20 mule team borax......made true radii and flats wars seem tame! tt;)