Chisel Making

[ByronBlack]

This is a series of initial questions about a vague idea I have to make myself a set of new chisels.

I currently have the two cherries stub chisels, which are great, but I would like to make a set of purpose-made longer length dovetail chisels.

First of, what steel do I use and where can I source this from?

Are there any good books that are recommended for tool making?

Will Ash be a good choice for the handles?

How do I prepare the steel for actual use, do I need a small furnace or any specialised equipment?

and finally, how I would I cut the steel to the correct length/shape without spending a lot of money on a milling machine?

Any links/resources, advice much appreciated.

 

[mr]

Im planning same as you, aiming for mortice chisels myself. Though whether Ill pull it off or not is a different question completly.

Steel you can get from Tilgear. No website, but you can get a catalogue from them. Tel 01707 873434. Theres probably other places as well, it's the Ground flat stock you want which comes in thicknesses up to 15 mm as far as I can see.
I would have thought Ash would be good for handles. It's what Im thinking of using. Beech also probably good.
Steel prep? My understanding is that the Tilgear steel is annealed so you cut and shape with hacksaw and file, heat it up (note to self - find blowtorch) quench in oil and then cook in the oven till done. Easy huh ?

None of this come from first hand experience,I'm just half a step ahead of you in the thinking about it bit, no doubt an expert will be along shortly

Cheers Mike

 

[JesseM]

Tool Making for Woodworkers by Ray Larsen is an inspirational book which gives you all the necessary steps in heat treating. They cover the whole gambit of how to turn coal into coke (not cola :wink: ). I have been interested in this myself, but lack the proper facilities for doing it right now. Might I make a suggestion. Locate a heat treater. I went in with a number of other people on a group deal to have some steel treated. I made 8 blades in all and they all turned out fabulous. One of the blades was that weird looking sliding dovetail blade that Jake made from a file. I have sharpened it up but not used it yet. The blades were all treated to RC 60-62 I believe and very expertly done. In fact they all better than many of my blades. Apparently the guy we used was the same guy that Ron Hock uses. My reason for suggesting this is that it is relatively cheap and you get the steel expertly treated. And this is not to discourage you, but like many things blacksmithing takes practice (probably years).

On the other hand steel is cheap so you could practice. BTW I think we ended paying like $2 an iron and I believe O1 steel is the easiest for the casual steelworker to deal with.

Oh I forgot to add. Having looked into this I have researched some things. There is a line of propane based forges available which I think is the easiest way to go. Propane is usually readily available. Here are some links. I believe one of the propane forges is made in England. Can't remember the name right now though:

http://chileforge.com/
http://www.centaurforge.com/

 

[ByronBlack]

Guy's, thanks for the responses, much appreciated. Jesse, do you have the contact details of your steel-treatement guy? I would be interested in getting a quote for the treatment if I felt it was beyond my skill.

Chisel Design:

Ok, I want to make the ultimate dovetail chisel. In my mind, it has to be fairly long with slightly thin by perfectly balanced handles. I'm thinking that the bevel edges shoulld be a quite a shallow angle. My Kirschens that I had before the stubbies, had almost firmer style angled edges and had to grind a few down to a more acceptable angle.

Does anyone own the lie-nielsen chisels, if so what sort of angle are these set at, as i've recently read that these are superb for dovetail work?

Any other idea's/construction methods I should consider in the design of the chisel

 

[woodbloke]

BB - I've got a set of the LN chisels and they are excellent, can't fault them, tho' now I think you can buy them individually rather than in a set and then there's no need to purchase a next to useless leather tool roll - Rob

 

[JesseM]

Guy's, thanks for the responses, much appreciated. Jesse, do you have the contact details of your steel-treatement guy? I would be interested in getting a quote for the treatment if I felt it was beyond my skill.

http://www.edwardsheattreating.com/

Keep in mind they are across the pond from you, but here is website I found of UK heat treaters. It may be of some help:
http://www.chta.co.uk/

 

[JesseM]

Ok, I want to make the ultimate dovetail chisel. In my mind, it has to be fairly long with slightly thin by perfectly balanced handles. I'm thinking that the bevel edges shoulld be a quite a shallow angle. My Kirschens that I had before the stubbies, had almost firmer style angled edges and had to grind a few down to a more acceptable angle.

I think bugbear had suggested somewhere here that grinding down an old triangular file would work well for making a dovetail chisel. Its already hardened an even has a tang.

 

[Frank D.]

Hi Byron,
You can even grind down some old chisels; many of the older ones are quiet hard enough for the task. Here's one I grinded down for a particular job:

What I really wanted to say is that f you want to make your own, all shaping can be done with a 6" grinder (do you have one?) and a file or two. Here are some chisels I made before shaping the handles:

The most important thing is a good tool rest for your grinder. Make sure it's positioned as close as possible to the wheel so the blade doesn't get swallowed and jam in between the rest and wheel. To flatten things out or touch up what you can't do on the grinder, use hand files. Also make sure, if posible and if you're using O1 steel, that you don't heat up the metal too much because it might harden on you as you work it (no big deal, it just gets a little harder to work). Yo ucan also use A2 steel, which is what I used here, but you'll have to get it hardened, which can raise the price of the chisels considerably.
HTH

 

[Effigy]

Working with O1 Carbon steel is relatively straight forward. A good source of supply is Cromwell:
http://www.cromwell.co.uk/category?code=160202
There is bound to be a branch near you.

As regards heat treating, I have recently made some knives out of O1 and heat treated them myself :

My Method

I bought a burner from machinemart which I connected to the gas bottle on my barby
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/pr...s/brand/clarke

And scrounged half a dozen fire bricks from work. I arranged the bricks into a rough hearth.

For a quench, I used vegetable oil in a Quality Street tin, which I positioned near to the hearth.
I also made up a magnetic tester, by screwing a magnet to a piece of wood, and kept that close by. Oh, and I went and switched on the oven in the house to warm up ready for tempering.

OK, with everything set, I fired up the torch.

I was surprised at how quickly the blade heated up - just a couple of minutes.
When it reached an even heat all over the blade, I took it out and tested it with the magnet. That was ok, so I placed it back into the hearth and bought it back to the same colour as before then quickly into the quench. It flamed a little as I held it there, but not as much as I had been fearing!

After holding it in the oil quech for a few minutes, I took it into the house and wrapped it in foil and placed in the oven.
The blades came out at 58 to 61 Rc.

I had no warping or cracking at all and really it all went to plan (which is highly unusual for me )

Here are a couple of the blades finished:

 

[Frank D.]

Nice knives Frank,
Very inspiring!