High Speed Steel

Does anyone here know of a website where I can order either M2 or M4 HSS in 1/4'' sheet stock. Thanks in advance :-)

good2get2know wrote:
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Annealed or heat treated? ;)
Used "paper knives"? :) (pacific north west) (never seen any, just heard about them)
.100" thick power hacksaw blade too thin for you, Good2?
They sell thicker (3mm?) metric ones in Europe but you might have to be you're'a'peein' to get 'em? :/
BTW for you or anyone else that's interested...
Has NOS (new old stock) CitCo M2 HSS (high speed steel) power/mechanical hacksaw blades that are the 64-65hrc "full hard"/"hard back" type in the larger/thicker sizes, ...he's selling them for basically "used" prices too. .100" or .088" at 24" long and some 14" long .050".
There. Did I about cover it for the search engines? ;)
Anyway, on the brand spanking new Wilson tester at school ($10k) the piece of CitCo blade I tested was 64.5hrc everywhere except near the ends around the bolt/pin holes. Wanted to find a "line" where one hardness started and one quit but ran out of time. :/
A file works pretty good tho...
http://www.panix.com/~alvinj/Buck503.jpg
.088" thick two-tone red Simonds power hacksaw blade. Can you see part of the old "bolt hole" there? :) The "lug" off the end of that blade tested right at 66hrc.
http://www.panix.com/~alvinj/Buck503d2.jpg
http://www.panix.com/~alvinj/Buck503fin.jpg
No nail mark on either side of the blade. :) It was fixed-up for and given to, Carl in Texas.
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For a fixed blade, to drill holes in the hard part, just use a Black&Decker brand "glass'n'tile drill bit" (with the arrow head shaped tungsten carbide tip WC) and a hand drill at high rpm and back-up the HSS blade with mild steel. The spade-type glass and tile bit will stop drilling when it hits the soft mild steel, otherwise it'll break. Use a Dremel and an 1/8" solid carbide burr to modify the drilled holes.
But first, to blank-out and also roughout-the-thin-part of the soon-to-be-knife blade, use a little "hand" (angle) grinder, like a 4" or 4+1/2" and a Norton-Plus type 27 wheel and Norton cut-off wheel. A bench grinder is a second choice and/or backup for the little hand grinder.
Don't use the cheaper 27 wheels, no matter the fancy-ass name, BTDT. Same goes for the drill bits. :) Also, even a Norton wheel that has the mounted 5/8-11 threads, are generally too crooked, better to go with the plain ones (1/4" type 27's) with the 7/8" hole (or 5/8" hole for the 4" hand-grinder) and use the flanges.
I want to see some pictures of your knives, even pictures in progress are cool! Ok? :)
Alvin in AZ (it ain't hard to make a friggin knife) ps- Every knife-knut and every metallurgist should have at least one ~65hrc HSS knife so he'll know what a truely "good" edge-taking and edge-holding knife really is! :) Go for it, you can do it!

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MSC has rectangular ¼" M4 bars 24" long and 1", 2", 3", or 4" in width. Online Metals doesn't show it in their catalog, but can probably get it for you.

Diamond Jim do you know the MSC website I am not familiar with that company?

Hey Alv how did you know I make knives? Anyway as per request here are some photos of something I am working on now. I still have to drill some weight reducing holes in the handle and finish up the polish.