Any tips for what to do with used mower blades?

I ran to the tractor dealer to get some parts for my tractor. He had a used set of mower blades laying on the ground and i asked if i could scrap them out. What uses are there? Knife blade, spear tip, can opener...
What types of steel are they made of?

They can be easily made into a sturdy knife blade.

mmmhmmmm I like mustard with my fries. mmmmhmmm

Would be decent metal for blacksmithing blades.

Use to sell mowers. I've cut myself on well worn blades( i barely touched it) they can get razor sharp and pretty sturdy.

Make a nice machete with a bit of work.

They seem kind of thick and oddly shaped for that. Machete's tend to be fairly thin.

I think they might well make a pretty good knife but it would take some serious grinding and chopping to get there.

here's a great thread on knife making using the material removal method( not forging or casting)

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=264909

Save them for when the zombies attack....

If they're OLD blades they may be a mild carbon steel and suitable to make a knife but will still be soft. Newer blades are low carbon steel and soft to start with, they bend but don't break. Lawyers don't like hardened steel flying through the air. If you hit a rock with a hardened blade and a chunk flew off it would punch right through the deck and keep going. If you want to make a knife get an old circular saw blade or truck leaf spring to start with, much better steel.

- JP

Some folks calls it a Kaiser blade. I call it a sling blade. Mmmmhmmm

If you can sharpen them with a file, they are soft. All of the ones I have used were like this.

lawnmower blade will work. reference Wayne Goddard's $50 knife shop book.

Wasn't it biscuits and mustard?

Yep, it was.

It was also French Fried Pertaters, mmmhmmm.

You Billy Bob fans...... The lawyer theory sounds right. Probably save them as throwers for the walkers.

They'd probably make good a good "fro" for splitting wood. Although the last fro I made was from a car leaf spring...

I own a mower repair business. I literally have hundreds of mower blades collected at the end of the year. I hear you guys talk about how soft they are, but I got the bright idea to cut the ends off (the "wing" portion that causes the grass to stand up) and weld some together in an attempt to see how many it would take to stop bullets fired from a rifle (.223 and .308). I stopped after I cut one end off because it dulled my saw blade on my electric band saw so bad leading me to believe they were super hard.

A machete is more like it.

My bet is that once you take some piece of no name steel and try to turn it into a knife, the comparatively minimal cost of known good steel will look a lot more attractive.

However, that's not to say that various types of steel can't be turned into something else useful, especially a survival type situation.

Good luck, and make sure to post pics of your first knife.

Depending on the blade, some of them are actually decent high carbon steel. They just don't temper it, so it remains fairly soft to appease the lawyers, and cheap enough for consumers to buy rather than repair. I've made several decent blades from some older lawn mower blades, but it's all about the heat treat. Fortunately, the carbon steels are easy enough for me to do with an oxy acetylene torch and bucket of oil.

Whatever you do, don't offer them for free to your fellow arfcommers. Nobody will take them.

Linky

Twould make a nice addition to my scrap pile.

That's what I've been doing with them. Basically, it's my ammo money!

Haha scrap pile = ammo money over here too!



ETA: I guess I hit the beer cheers more than once

i shootem with a .22

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