Home made tools. Lots o' pix

Joe Fisher

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Hey all. Since there seemed to be some interest at RobustFest '07 in the hook tools and skew I made, I thought I'd share techniques and pictures.

First I started the forge fire. It's really smoky at first, but once the coal really gets crankin' the smoke disappears and you get a nice wispy - read:hot! - flame.

fire_starting.jpg
fire_ready.jpg

Next I have to mark the O1 tool steel rod where I want to cut it. I marked it every 9" with a cold chisel, using a holdfast in my pritchel hole for a third hand.

marking_steeel.jpg

I used a cutoff hardie in my hardie hole to drive the hot steel down and cut it off. Demo piece here since I didn't have a helper to take pictures.

cutoff.jpg

Next I flattened the end and tapered it to make for less grinding at the belt grinder. Next time I don't think I'm going to bother with this step.

flattened.jpg

I went to the belt grinder with 40 grit and shaped the edge close to the finished taper. Another "for next time": finish the inside of the hook to a much higher grit so I don't have to do so much work with the hone later. Note that I don't grind the finished edge at this point - if the steel gets too thin there's a good chance I'll burn it in the forge. Yes, steel burns and it's not a pretty sight when you're trying to make an edged tool.

Then it was time to turn the hook. I got it red hot and turned it around a piece of 1/4" rod. Next time I'll try a larger hook diameter.

hook_done.jpg

More to come...

-Joe
 
You keep that up and you'll run me out of business.:D
HA! Not much chance of that at my current production rate ;)

The story continues. I moved on to the skew next, which I'm making from 1 1/4" x 3/8" thick O1 steel.

First I needed to make my tongs fit the steel. Toss them in the fire, grab the steel and smash them in the vise. I also squeezed the handles to make them grip at a comfortable distance apart.

jaws.jpg

Now I need to define the shoulders of my tang. I used a spring fuller for this.

spring_fuller.jpg

Then it was a matter of beating the daylights out of the tang to stretch and thin it out. I had to keep an eye on the sides, too, as the steel spreads in all directions, not just the one I want. So every few heats I have to flatten the sides back down to their original 3/8" thickness.

tang_done.jpg

Then it's off to the grinder to make it pretty. I rounded the tang, the entire bottom of the tool and broke the corners on top. I also ground the start of the edge shape.

skew_done1.jpg

Then it was time to harden. To do this I brought the tools up to the temperature that they were no longer magnetic and held them there for a minute or so. Then they were dunked into preheated automatic transmission fluid. They were then hard enough that a file wouldn't bite.

Here's my day's work, ready to be tempered.

dayswork.jpg

Tempering is just baking them in an oven at whatever temperature you desire in order to pull some of the brittleness from the steel. I tempered at 400F for 2 hours. Tool steel that has been hardened but not tempered will shatter like glass if you strike or drop it. I've seen it myself and it's cool as all heck, but not something I want in a turning tool.

This is why you don't hit things that aren't nails with your framing hammer; it's too hard. You don't right? :)

Anyway, here are my tools right out of the oven. Notice the golden patina on them - this is the "tempering color", which is another indicator you can use if you temper with a flame instead of an oven.

tempered.jpg

To be continued...

-Joe
 
Final installment!

Here are the finished hook tools:

hook_two.jpg

And the skew, with my 3/4" and 1/2" crown skews for size comparison:

skew_done.jpg

Want to see that curly maple handle up close? Me too:

hook_handle.jpg

And how about a close up of the hook? Since taking this picture I ground the bottom of the hook to make for a shorter cutting edge, making it a bit easier to turn a tight radius at the bottom of a hole.

hook_edge.jpg

Here's the first hook tool in action!

hook_bottom_cut.jpg
hook_side_cut.jpg
hook_shavings.jpg
hook_finish.jpg

I don't have any pix of the skew in action, but we put it to the test at Bill's this weekend, and I think it performed admirably. It's got a great feel to it. Even Bill tried it out and gave it his stamp of approval :)

-Joe
 
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