What are new blades good for?

[Percy]

Sometimes when Im opening a box of brand new blades, Im tempted to just fold and bust a couple right off with a hammer/whatever. Could possibly save some time as it seems  the rocks/railroad spikes, horse shoes etc can smell new blades easily...

[GAB]

A big lag bolt in an elm made short work of some interesting blade geometry. All the teeth are bent the same direction and are rolled over past 45 degrees. No stress in figuring out what to do with this one  

Nice museum piece you have there.  
In my experience I find a newly remanufactured blade works just like a new one at finding trash.
GAB

[Crossroads]

Nice knives Caveman! I forge welded some blade material together right before I moved to Idaho and never did anything with it. There's a good chance that I'll have a place to set up my forge this winter and I'll try to finish it. All of the knives I've made at this point have been material removal with 1095. To bad I gave them all away and didn't keep one for myself. Now I get pictures with my knives with dead animals every fall. 

[caveman]

Thanks, I've got a coal forge that I eventually would like to learn to use to make things, especially knives.  So far, the knives I've made have been pretty basic - just remove everything that does not look like a knife blade and put a handle on it.  The knives pictured were made for my senior FFA officers the year all of our students were sent home in March 2020.  The seniors went home for spring break and missed a lot of their senior year' events (grad night, prom, awards ceremonies and banquets) when school did not resume for us in person until August. 

[YellowHammer]

@caveman 
So you just ground them to shape and they worked?  What about hardening?  Do you heat treat and quench, air quench, or use them as is?  They look great.  What thickness were the bands originally, or did you find one thickness works better than another?  As many times as I'ver been cut by a band, I keep telling Martha I ought to make a knife out of them!  I know they will cut, they've bled me more than once or twice.      

[Stephen1]

@caveman
So you just ground them to shape and they worked?  What about hardening?  Do you heat treat and quench, air quench, or use them as is?  They look great.  What thickness were the bands originally, or did you find one thickness works better than another?  As many times as I'ver been cut by a band, I keep telling Martha I ought to make a knife out of them!  I know they will cut, they've bled me more than once or twice.      

Yes please tell us the recipe for making a knife. Your right YH , this is the 1st year I have been wearing shorts sawing. My shins are a mess from flipping blades open and closed,  I like the shorts but i'm tempted to go back to long pants. But then I end up with all sorts of holes in my pants. lol

[Magicman]

My shins are a mess from flipping blades open and closed

 
I have no idea how it made this pattern??  :  ???

[beenthere]

Again?  Not too long ago saw one similar. 

[Crossroads]

I
Here are a few examples of the knives that I've made. They were all material removal with 1095 except the one balanced on the deer horn, it was a file. They were all quenched in oil then 2 cycles of heat treat for 2 hours at 500° if I remember correctly. 

[caveman]

Those knives are far superior to any I've made. 

 Robert, generally, I've just grinded anything that did not look like a knife blade away.  I keep a can or a bucket of water close to the grinder when rough grinding to quench the blade.  As I get close to a knife shape, I take a little more time to keep the blade from getting too hot.  After it is roughly shaped, I start grinding an edge using a coarse, 60 or so grit belt.  The ones I've previously made were out of .045 and .050 blades but the .055 should be even better unless you are shooting for a fillet knife.  

[Crossroads]

Thank you, I hope to get back into it soon. Unfortunately I won't be able to take one of my own custom knives to Alaska with me moose hunting in September.  My partner will have the one I made for him though.