Allen key knife and chisel

[Racers]

Hi,

I have lots of 4mm Allen keys so I decides to have a go at making small knives for carving marking out etc,

You need a MAPP torch to heat the keys up to red hot and something to bash them on, I use a 56Lb weight.

Get it nice and hot

Bash it into a rough shape

Let it cool slowly and file it into shape

Cut the end off (you might need to heat it up to anneal it) and then heat the blade to red hot

And plunge into water

It will now be hard, clean up with wet and dry etc.
Now take a small piece of nice wood, drill a 4mm hole in the middle

And shape the sides

Knock off the corners

Hold the blade in the vice and tap on the handle

Sharpen and test

And put it with the others

Sorry about the pics most of then where taken one handed.

Pete

 

[Philly]

Very nice, Pete! Reminds me of the ones Krenov used to make.
Cheers
Philly

 

[woodbloke]

Nice...I guess that the steel allen keys are made from needs to be half decent. Hadn't thought about using that for knives...you're right Philly, very JKish - Rob

 

[Chris Knight]

Pete,
Great notion! Like Rob, I had overlooked the obvious - that the steel might be better than old pot metal.

I have boxes of old Allen keys and they could become quite useful little scrapers and the like.

 

[jasonB]

Just make sure they are half decent allen keys, the ones given away with flat pack etc are usually not very high carbon steel so won't harden as well.

Jason

 

[Racers]

Hi,

They are cheap ones! and they do harden a treat, I guess they anneal them to much or don't heat treat them properly.

Pete

 

[jasonB]

Must be because you are using them on wood, I was trying to make some very small internal threading tools from allen keys the other week and they just wouldn't hold an edge, Iwas trying to cut bronze & steel though.

Jason

 

[Racers]

Hi,

Well I thought a bigger and used a 3/8" allen key and made a fish tail chisel. It took more heat and flatening but here is is.

The handle is just a peice of ash plained to a octogon that split when it taped it home
Here is a shot of it in use, it works quite well, but I might just make some from a lenght of 6mm Ground flat stock I have kicking around. I think they will look better and have a thinner neck. But its a very handy chisel to have, I might have to start a collection :wink:

Pete

 

[wizer]

wow I'm always in awe of both people who work with metal and that can make something out of nothing!

Bravo!

Playing with MAPP burners is not something I'm going to consider. Luckily for my family (depending on how you look at it)

 

[aesmith]

No tempering? Sounds too good to be true, and coincidently I was having a little tidy up and I've quite a few surplus allen keys as well.