Carbon-steel blades with different thicknesses...

[Olcaytug]

I realised that I have two types of carbon-steel hacksaw blades
One is cheaper and has a thickness between 0.5-0.6mm
The other is more expensive and has a thickness of 0.7-0.8mm

In the Pyro's video, he says that cheaper ones are better since they are thinner. But the manifactured picks usually have a thickness between these two.

The expensive ones usually have more smooth surfaces. Furthermore I assume that they would give a stronger feedback. On the other hand, the extra thickness is an obvious problem.

I searched but couldn't find a topic on this subject. Which one would you prefer? What do you think the pros/cons would be?

[master in training]

Make picks from both and see what feels better? Its probably more about personal taste than anything.

~ MiT ~

[Olcaytug]

Actually I made but I couldn't decide( since I'm a bit begginner )
But they should have different general properties for everyone.

[pretender]

Get some scraps, do destructive testing. See how easily they bend, how prone they are to get screwed up from overheating, etc. Go from there.

I've made picks out of a few different brands of hacksaw blades; one was too brittle (sure you Americans know of 'em, those crappy blue-painted thingers), another was way, way too soft, and the rest were fine.

I'm not sure what you have there, but generally high-speed or carbon steel blades at the cheap end of the spectrum will be fine. Only way to know for sure is by destroying a couple and seeing what characteristics they exhibit.

I try to get some that are just slightly soft, as after making them I temper/quench 'em. Makes them highly resilient.

[Olcaytug]

Thanks for the answers.

Actually mine are blue painted, too. They are german made I think.

But they are very good, wonderfully strong, elastic, and never deforms.

The expensive ones are blue too, only light blue. And on both of them the following note writes:

12"X1/2X24T

Does it have a meaning?

[Octillion]

I would guess it means the blade is 12" long, 1/2" thick and has 24 teeth per inch.

[mcm757207]

I would guess it means the blade is 12" long, 1/2" thick and has 24 teeth per inch.

A hacksaw blade couldn't be 1/2" thick...

[Olcaytug]

Thanks for answers.

But they are! I don't buy the ones having 1" thickness, since it is difficult to shape them.

By the way whick thickness are you talking about?

[mcm757207]

Perhaps you mean 1/2" wide? The thickness couldn't be that much, it wouldn't cut through anything.

[Octillion]

After I posted that I realized my mis-wording, although I figured people would know what I mean... width.

[scampdog]

try using both thickness hacksaw blades,you will find that the thinner blades are better in tight keyways,and dont forget you are trying to pick the pins not, force them,this will help in less breakages

[stanmar]

what about bi-metal blades. Are they better?

[scampdog]

i've tried them,but to be honest, didn't find them any different.also they are more expensive.

[Gordon Airporte]

I'm pretty sure that the only the teeth would be the second metal, and you grind them off (or don't use them on the business end at any rate.)
I would like to warn people away from the cheap blades though - they bend too easily and you can never get them quite flat again. If you can snap the blade like Pyro does in the video, this is what you have.
I've had better luck with the white blades available at Home Depot, which I believe have 'wolf' in the name somewhere. They make a point of mentioning their elasticity on the packaging.

[Shrub]

Silicone carbide blades are probably the better ones to play around with but you can pretty muchg use anything as you are useing them in their strongest plane, if you are making tools for turning like tension wrenches etc then maybe you need to worry about bendy blades but otherwise it really doesnt matter.