How to drill a hole in a hardened steel blade ?

The build is on hold while we go back and fix something that was a failure.

The adaptor fashioned from a squashed bracket does not apply enough pressure to hold the scroll saw blade and…the clamp itself fouls the jigsaw blade guide.
Next thing to try is drilling both the jigsaw blade and the offcut and screw together to clamp the scroll saw blade.

I know it’s not possible to drill hardened steel with a regular HSS bit. I’m going to anneal a blade to soften the metal so I can centre punch a hole.

Heat the blade and quickly centre punch in the correct location.

With the blade clamped in a drill press vice heat the blade again for 5 – 10 seconds and proceed to carefully drill the blade hole.