I have never tried to cut tool steel with a jigsaw but I bet your going to have a tough time of it. Use cutting oil, clamp it down firmly and use bi-metal blades, make sure your steel is fully anealed and you might have a chance. "the complete bladesmith" is a good knife book, even has a section on japanese tecniques. You might get by with a gas cook stove for heat treating I guess.
Yeah, you can make a knife out of an old bastard file and anneal the hell out of it. If you do it yourself, you'll need to find out whether or not you have to quench it in oil or water, but I think when you anneal it, you heat it up and let it cool down on it's own. Help me out here, guys.
I've only really worked with steel to make chasing tools, so I can't help you out too much. I'm sure there are other people on here that can help you out a lot more.
If you buy the steel annealed, that will save you a step. Also, you'll know whether it's oil- or water-hardening.
Then, after it's pretty much done, you heat it up to glowing then plunge it into oil or water, depending on which the sort of steel wants. This hardens it. I'll mention that guys like to use motor oil for that hard-core stench, while women tend to prefer olive oil. :) In either case, outside is good, and ventilation is your friend.
This makes it hard and brittle.
Then, you temper it to whatever point you want. I know there are tables with the temp and color, and don't remember them offhand since i rarely work with steel myself. I think a mid-range color/temp will probably suit.
cosco has 5 gallon buckets of canola oil for $15 or something and I have heard of people using that, also people use old fryer oil if you don't mind your shop smelling like Mcdonalds, these oils should have a high flash point and work well. transmision fluid is suposed to be a faster/harder quench than motor oil, never try the used automotive oil, that is really icky. Whatever you use make sure it is in a metal container with a tight lid, and have a fire extinguisher just in case it spills or something. If you buy your steel anealed it will probably be slightly softer than if you do it yourself as they do it under very controled conditions for a very long time, not that I ever have, it is expensive for screwing around with. Some people aneal there blades in dry ashes or vermiculite, I just use a belt sander so I don't worry if it is dead soft. On the hardening quench you want ot heat it slightly above "critical temperature" which is when a magnet is no longer attracted to it.
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I've only really worked with steel to make chasing tools, so I can't help you out too much. I'm sure there are other people on here that can help you out a lot more.
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Then, after it's pretty much done, you heat it up to glowing then plunge it into oil or water, depending on which the sort of steel wants. This hardens it. I'll mention that guys like to use motor oil for that hard-core stench, while women tend to prefer olive oil. :) In either case, outside is good, and ventilation is your friend.
This makes it hard and brittle.
Then, you temper it to whatever point you want. I know there are tables with the temp and color, and don't remember them offhand since i rarely work with steel myself. I think a mid-range color/temp will probably suit.
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Wayne Goddard's $50 Knife Shop
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0873419936/qid=1149397703/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-1382410-3098319?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
Primitive Knifemaking
http://www.survival.com/volume-9.htm
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