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by David Kranker 5 min read
Quick Summary
Making serrated knife blades requires a few more steps than creating a smooth-edged knife. To make serrations, you’ll need to mark out your pattern, cut in guides, shape the serrations, and clean up the backside of the blade.
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A lot of modern knives feature serrated blades. These blades, which look like they have small, jagged ‘teeth’ on one or both sides, look impressive and are designed to cut through materials that might be too tough for a regular blade edge.
Making serrated blades can be more complex than creating a smooth-edge knife, so in this blog, the team atRed Label Abrasives shares some tips on how to make serrated blades.
The main advantage of serrated blades is their greater cutting power. They can rip through plastics, textiles, bone, and other materials that can be problematic for regular blades. Other advantages include:
Manufactured serrated blades have their place, but there are many advantages to making or buying a handcrafted serrated blade. For example:
Taking the time to create your own serrated blade can result in a finished product that looks great, delivers a sharp cut, and lasts a lot longer than its mass-produced counterpart. Now let’s get started.
Mark out where each serration's center will be. Make sure the mark extends a little beyond the blade's bevel.
Make some grooves that will serve as guides for the next step. Using a diamond blade, cut into the blade until you reach the edge of the bevel.
With a rotary cutting tool like a dremel set at its lowest setting, grind away while holding the knife at a steep angle. Work your way up to the largest bit. Make sure you keep your grinding centred with the guiding groove the entire time. Once the grooves disappear, gently apply pressure toward each tooth in the serration until a uniform pattern results.
When you are cutting serrations into your blade, be careful not to overheat the blade. These blades are already heat treated and tempered for good edge retention, and you don’t want to compromise that. For best results, spritz the metal with cool water after each pass.
As soon as steam appears, it means the water has reached the boiling point, so you have at least hit 212 degrees. You want to keep it under 300 or 400 degrees, so if you see steam, it's a good idea to take a break.
There are less aggressive channels on the backside of the blade. At this stage, burrs begin to form on the backside, so you’ll want to clear them away. Repeat the process, but with just enough grinding to remove them.
Sharpening a serrated knife is not as straightforward as sharpening a chef's knife. Although most people prefer to have their serrated knives sharpened by a professional because the best method requires each serration to be sharpened separately, you can still do it yourself.
You should use a ceramic honing rod to manually sharpen your serrated knife. The rod is shaped to fit inside the serrations of the blade and sharpen the knife, tooth by tooth.
Take the following steps:
Routine sharpening can keep your handmade serrated blades in great condition and preserve the edge needed for them to do their work.
David Kranker is a writer and creative maker who has been covering the abrasive and knife-making industries on the Red Label Abrasives Blog since 2020. David spends his time continually researching sanding and bladesmithing to provide readers with the latest and greatest information. In his free time, David utilizes abrasives for many different home and auto projects at his home in Delton, MI.
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