WWII Pilot's Survival Knife Restoration

[just bob]

I'm pretty sure what you're suggesting would work. The big thing is the thickness of the saw would have to be the same as the old blade and that may be hard to match. The blade is probably more than .0100 thick and I doubt a sawzall blade is near that thick. Maybe better to find an old saw blade from a knife. Lay the stub of your old blade on top and see is it lines up. If you can find an old saw blade that is the right thickness it would be a pc of cake to line it up with your old stub, drill the hole and reassemble.

[orvet]

You might get by with the saw blade from a 225OT "Son-of-a-Gun.
The tang on the 225OT is about 0.125" and the length is good for the Pilots knife. The knife frame is 5-1/4"

The saw on the Pilots knife has a thin saw blade with a piece of steel on either side that the saw blade is clamped between which acts as the tang. The thickness of the Pilots knife "tang assembly" is 0.145".
You might be able to thin the spring out .005" to .008" and get the 225OT blade to work.

The 225OT blade has aggressive teeth for wood or maybe bone.
It would probably be of a lot more use to a hunter or outdoorsman that the metal cutting blade originally in the Pilots knife.

pic borrowed from past ebay sale-

[wazu013]

This thread needs a picture. I remember reading that the saw blade on this knife is able to cut through metal like the hull of an airplane if needed.