Worn out band saw blades, good for anything?

[k0ua]

Are worn out horizontal metal cutting bandsaw blades good for anything? Like to make something out of them?
Mine are 64 1/2 x 1/2 inch wide x .025.

The only way I can imagine cutting them is with a carbide cutoff wheel in my dremel.

I can't think of of thing right off hand to do with spring steel pieces, but I am not the type to throw away something that I could repurpose.

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[yomax4]

Knife makers like to forge them with multiple other steels to do makeshift Damascus blades. I give mine to the Blacksmith Guild in my area and they love them. They heat and pound them together and they make high quality knife blades.

 

[dfkrug]

Knife makers like to forge them with multiple other steels to do makeshift
Damascus blades. I give mine to the Blacksmith Guild in my area and they love them. They heat and
pound them together and they make high quality knife blades.

Great idea. I may try forging them to make a blade.

I have some retired 64.5" blades, too. I always get the bi-metal blades, and they last a LONG time if
you do not cut thin steel with them.

 

[Budweiser John]

I used. Piece of 3/4 wide used band saw Blade and a piece of 1" dowel to make an oil filter removal tool for the hydraulic filter on my NH tractor.
The filter is located between the engine block and the FEL frame leaving in no room for a conventional filter wrench and the filter is only accessible from the bottom. By taking a piece of 1" dowel about a foot long and cutting a kerf in the end (laterally) wide enough to capture two thicknesses of saw blade and using a piece of blade equal to the cercumfrence of the filter plus a couple inches one makes a "grabber" that when slid up the side of the filter canister and turning the dowel by hand or with a pair of channel locks one can loosen the filter and spin it off PDQ.

I also use a piece of scrap blade about a foot long with holes punched in each end and screwed to a piece of plywood with fender washers as spacers so a full sheet of sandpaper will slip between the blade and plywood. Makes cutting sand paper to fit the jitter bug a breeze.

 

[k0ua]

Some interesting ideas, keep em coming.

 

[yomax4]

Great idea. I may try forging them to make a blade.

I have some retired 64.5" blades, too. I always get the bi-metal blades, and they last a LONG time if
you do not cut thin steel with them.

Yes BiMetal only. The Neo carbon blades are throw aways. If you can forge the BiMetal blades you will like what you get for sure. BiMetal means Blade 1 material, Teeth another. They actually electron weld a thin band of teeth to the high carbon band. In my early days I used to make Lenox bandsaw blades on a computerized machine. When I left there I made sure I had a Banana box full of blades to get me through. Wish I had a forge to mess with.

 

[bcp]

Make lock picking tools.

Bruce

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Yes BiMetal only. The Neo carbon blades are throw aways. If you can forge the BiMetal blades you will like what you get for sure. BiMetal means Blade 1 material, Teeth another. They actually electron weld a thin band of teeth to the high carbon band. In my early days I used to make Lenox bandsaw blades on a computerized machine. When I left there I made sure I had a Banana box full of blades to get me through. Wish I had a forge to mess with.

Interesting. I've always wondered how much is cobalt and where does it end. I've made a couple of fillet knifes out of our 1" x .035" blades, but I gave them away and not sure how well they kept an edge.

I recently bought a Lenox Master Grit blade with carbide grit welded to the cutting edge. I use it to cut Macor ceramic, but it chips out the bottom of the ceramic quite badly.

 

[LD1]

The only way I can imagine cutting them is with a carbide cutoff wheel in my dremel.

A regular old cut-off wheel will cut them however you want.

I have no suggestions on what to do with them as I usually just fold them and snap them, so they are small enough to fit in my scrap steel barrel.

I do have a few pieces of various lengths that I keep with the mill tooling. Use the spring steel, folded in a U shape, to hold the parallels against the vise jaws so they stay in place.

 

[JerryK]

I've used one before to ' fish ' something up, down, around, etc '. Usually just roll them back up and toss them in the trash. I have an old Harbor Freight [old enough to be 'Made in Taiwan' ] band saw that produces one once and awhile. I could tell you what else you could do with them, but the moderators would probably eject me off this forum site....
[ not that that would be a bad thing, surprised I have lasted this long ]