spring steel

[noob]

i apologize if this is not an appropriate venue for posting this question. I bought a piece of tempered 1095 spring steel for the purpose of making what is called a maebiki which is a very wide Japanese saw for ripping logs.THe steel was shipped flat but has a kink in it. I cut the piece in half and both pieces have the same kink now. The saw will be bowed to the right and will suddenly flip to the left. It does not gradually bend one way or the other but pops into place and can settle bent in either direction. THe whole shudders when it buckles or clicks into that bowed position. On woodworking forums they say to either pour boiling water and bend to the concvex side or pound on the concvex side with a slightly convex hammer. I didnt really know what side was convex as it seems to settle bent equally in either direction. i tried both processes with no sucess. Any advice on getting that kink out and was it caused in the tempering process or being coiled at some point (it was not shipped in coil)?

thanks, Noah

[rohart]

It sounds as though the piece has expanded in the centre slightly. You need to shrink the centre, just like you shrink a dent in car bodywork.

The advice to heat and then pound the centre makes sense. Car workers use a shrinking disc to apply friction to the centre. The idea is that they heat a small area that is constrained not to expand by the metal around it. The small area is then deformed in compression, and when it cools it goes into tension. A centre in tension is pulled flat and does not kink-flip as you put it. The hammering will help the deformation you need.

So my advice is to work harder with the advice you already have. Maybe you need more heat, or more hammering, or maybe you need to fully anneal it before you work it, and heat treat it again afterwards.

[gwilson]

See my new post where you started the thread on the other forum. You need to make a frame saw out of that. Don't go trying to hammer on it or you will ruin it. That is VERY tricky business requiring years of learning.

[oldtiffie]

See a "Saw Doctor" or "Saw Filer" from a timber/lumber mill who will "beat" circular and band-saws every day as a matter of course.

Its a real eye-opener to see one at work and how they recover bent and damaged blades.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saw_doctor

http://www.google.com.au/#hl=en&rlz=...w=1280&bih=549