Making one's own Tools

[houtslager]

Okay , we have enough people here making their own planes and a couple making saws,BUT is there anyone here who has made FROM SCRATCH their OWN CHISELS ?

Why ?

I want to have a SLICK, but as yet after 3 years looking , have only seen 1


So, finally I have taken the decision to make one, I have from a scrapy,
an old leaf spring c 1950 - 1960, so I have read some basic metalergy
and smithy stuff.
But I need some further advice / tips / tricks.

HS

 

[jasonB]

Could you not just turn up a longer handle and use a framing chisel in that, I think Sorbey do decent square edged framing chisels upto 2" wide.

****the also sell japanese slicks.

Not sure if the steel from a leaf spring will have sufficient carbon content for it to be hardened & tempered, a piece of guage plate would be quite easily worked, this tends to come in 2" widths and upto 1/4" thick in a unhardened state. You could then cut the tang and file a primary bevel before hardening and tempering.

Jason

 

[Anonymous]

I can second the guage plate idea as I once had a couple of little blades made for home made planes from the very same stuff. One was a mini scrub plane I used to sculpt seat's, the other a stubby little smmothing plane blade. A helpful bloke at an engineering shop did it during the lunch hour, I'm not sure how, I remeber the hot blade's going into a bucket of oil, but they would sharpen up very well and were better quality then a normal stanley blade (but then what isnt?). He was going to machine up some bowl gouge's as well from "silver steel" whatever that is but we never got that project done.
I heard that industrial guillotine blade's are a good source of steel. Might be better to find a smith who can forge weld (not all can) and get some guillotine steel applied to a bit of track rod, axle or leaf spring or whatever? Check out Todd Hughes. Decent smith's always have good odd bits of quality metal about their shop, if you can wangle it out of them that is :wink: :lol: :lol:

PS I took out a fireclay fire back when I had my wood burner fitted and suddenly thought I could make that into a forge, might work?

 

[houtslager]

forgot to say the size - I need to do some very serious
M & Ts in the Framework so I need a 3" slick

 

[Inspector]

You said in the past you were only able to find 1 slick. Was it from this guy?

http://www.barrtools.com/

Here are some of the blacksmithing sites I've bookmarked for my own 'way in the future' needs.

http://www.abana.org/

http://www.anvilfire.com/index.htm

http://www.hybridburners.com/

http://magichammer.freeservers.com/

http://www.anvilfire.com/FAQs/temper_colors.htm

http://www.jamesriser.com/Machinery/Gas ... Forge.html

http://www.iforgeiron.com/

http://www.engnath.com/public/manframe.htm

http://www.crucibleservice.com/eselector/index.html

Hope this helps.

 

[joekid]

i made some chisels from a 25mm by 6mm piece of carbon steel,on my trusty bench sander ,i first angle ground the shape, then finished them on the sanding belt they look bought but theyre carbon steel so/i could make them with good tool steel, its being bothered sending off for it so soon to christmas, i will do more and il get the photos sorted,, i started doing knives not to long ago but started doing other stuff to,you can either throw a kiln together or send them off to be heat treated, its not to complicated with carbon steel but its when you start messing with d2 or o1 tool steels you have to be spot on, if youve got a bench sander first try turning an old wood chisel into a scraper, its quite easy and theyre usualy good steel, have a good un folks,

 

[Shivers]

Most slicks ,well the ones the shipwrights use anyway have sockets & not tangs,this is so they can give them a quick tap to loosen & change to a different sized handle--up to a 3ft one for splicing planks or mast work.

look on usa ebay--should always be some on there, if not i dont have a particular shop as yet but i can do a search & locate one,they are also sold new in usa(get this ,manuafactured in uk).look under timberframing tools.
Of corse only a laminated one will do.

edit add http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=247

there ya go a 3"3/8ths slick(bloody huge)

regards
shivers.

 

[Dee J]

Fully support the 'make your own tools' initiative, as soon as I get some time there's a few things i want to try out on my forge......but if you're just looking for a ready-made slick, will this do? http://www.green-shopping.co.uk/tools/t ... ools2.html
Bristol Design stock a lot of green woodwork and timber framing tools also.

Dee

 

[jasonB]

You would be better off with a framing chisel for chopping out the mortices as slicks are really only for hand paring of large joint areas.

Sorbey do both framing chisels and slicks

The all steel chisels that Axminster sell are food for framing too, hard enough to hit with a big hammer and being 400mm or so long and weighty make a good small slick.

Jason