Tools, general discussion

I have been trying to source tool steel with limited success. It seems a lot of folks around me use Alro, but my contact with them has left me with serious sticker shock. I would like to find a reliable source for 4140, 5160, 6150 or similar. I have some scrap sources which are fine for my own shop tools but for product use I would like to have new stuff. Is 4140 really $28 a pound?

This is a touchmark I use for small personal items that I make. The marks on the scale are 1/64th inches, with the total width of the touchmark 1/4 inch wide.

Don't see a garden tool category, so I'll throw this in here, although maybe it should be in "What did you do in the shop today" instead. Mr. Moderator please move it if need be. Thanks. One of my sisters is a University-certified Master Gardener, who also teaches others. Her favorite all-around garden tool is the Japanese Hori Hori, but she uses her tools daily and hard, and has suffered a rash of broken/bent blades (from prying roots & stones) and poorly attached partial-tang handles that loosen up in use in the commercially available tools. Most popular variations appear to be rather cheaply made with blades stamped from stainless sheet metal, and they are inf…

There have been a number of posts on the forum showing bottom tooling secured in the hardy hole with looped stems and wedges, which can work very well and has the advantage of being easy to set up and take down. I just ran across a Facebook post showing another interesting method, where the smith has run a bolt through the pritchel hole to hold the base of a ball stake securely to the anvil face. Here's a photo of another version from the same maker: Presumably they're using some kind of tapered washer on the underside, to keep the bottom nut from pulling at an angle, although it occurs to me as I write this that a large barrel nut would also work: This would have the …

While rummaging through some of my dad's old tools, I came across a very old flatter. I'm pretty sure it belonged to my grandfather, who passed it down to my dad. I remember using it to drive tent stakes as a Boy Scout. Anyhoo, in the process of knocking some of the rust off, I found what appears to be an eagle stamped into the top near the handle hole. Does that seem familiar to anyone?

Just thought this interesting.

Hi, I have a piece of car hitch material, and I assume that it is a simple mild steel. Because of this, I cant imagine it being very good for a hammer, so I thought I’d make a set hammer. It already has a hole in it that I’m going to drift. One side of the chunk is longer than the other, and I don’t know which side to make into the struck end. Should I use the long end, so that I have more material to compensate for mushrooming? If I use the longer bit for the face, I will have to grind/cut 3/8in of material because of the marring when it was cut. Thanks for the input! Asa

What can anyone tell me about these shears and odd-ball looking tongs??

Hi all, Hope y’all are having a lovely day. I’ll get straight to the point, Kens Custom Iron sells 1045 hammer blanks, would these be suitable for making top tools like a fuller, flatter, handled hot cut, etc? Are top tools eyes any different than hammer eyes? Do y’all have a hammer eye drift y’all like, I know I could make my own, but a commercial drift would fit most commercial hammer handles, right? If y’all think I should just make one, let me know! Happy Saturday, Asa

I would love to see y’all’s forge calipers, antique, forged by you, forged by someone else, whatever!

We’ve all seen bending jigs with a piece of pipe and a smaller peg to one side, for bending hooks and the like. Here are some screenshots of a version I spotted in a Facebook video that takes a new approach. The angled piece on the side will accommodate both different thicknesses of stock, as well as giving plenty of choices for how far from the pipe one should engage the peg. The pipe also makes a good place to store the scrolling tongs between heats. And here’s the link to the original video: I Have A Confession…This Setup Was A Little Unbalanced.

I have recently been upgrading some of my tooling and looking at buying some new files. I have several Grobet Swiss style pattern files that I really like. I currently chalk my files and before I put them away I have to clean and oil them. Would switching to inox files be a good idea for me? Is there something im missing or overlooking in my thinking? I mostly file soft metal like silver and pewter. But I could justify it to myself because one day I might choose to start working with Platinum a super hard metal. Would switching to inox files save time because I wouldn't have to oil my files after each use? Does anyone here use inox files? The…

I have 1/4" x 1" bar stock that is 316 SS. I would like to use it to make a wrench to tighten/loosen the plug for my boat (boat used in salt water) - basically I need a 9/16" square hole in the bar stock. I was thinking of drilling, then filing/grinding a square hole, but then I thought I could just drift a square hole. My concerns: If I make a drift out of mild steel, will this be tough enough to drift a hole in the stainless, or will the drift be too soft? Also, will the 316 SS discolor when heating? Will I be able to passivate the 316 SS to remove iron contaminants from drifting a hole (I have citric acid)? Thoughts/suggestions to make a square hole in 316 SS? …

This was in the gallery at Quad-State 2025: a massive French nail header dated 1784. This was forged by one Blaise Simon and was used to make spikes for the shipyards of Rochefort. The slot in the middle allows the smith to push the finished spike out from below.

In the 1861 U.S. Army Ordnance Manual, page 340, "Contents of the Limber-Chest of Forge A," a set of taps and dies are listed. These are numbered 1 through 4. On page 346 is a list of "nuts and washers" in similar number, all of which seem quite big (I presume they're big - 4ea. of the "Number 5" nut/washer appears to weigh 5 pounds). On page 347 is an entry for a set of taps and dies up to a diameter of 1 inch, which makes perfect sense. Looking through my other texts from the period from around 1855 through 1875 - pdf and "dead-tree format" - I find but few references to numbered sets of taps and dies; and of these, all seem far too small for the purposes to whi…

So I don’t have the necessary material to forge out swages I specifically want to make a set of half rounds but my question is if I was to go and cut some pieces of pipe in half length wise to create a semicircle then cut out the general shape in a piece of steel with a plasma cutter or torch then weld it all together would that work? Or am I just overthinking this

Having lost my bending fork one too many times, I had the thought that I could permanently mount some on a leg of my vise stand. So here they are: There are differently sized gaps on either side: You’ll notice that there’s also a bit of pipe welded onto the stand; this will be for making S-hooks. Here’s a demonstration of how it will work, using election sign wire instead of hot metal:

Each is double-ended; a large and small version of the same shape.

i used to have my tongs hanging on a cut down 55 gallon drum. I got tired of reaching and bending so tried this. This is a steel wheel off an old wheelbarrow. I mounted it on a 1/2 inch rod and inserted it in a pipe and then welded both to a 1/4 inch plate. So far seems to work ok

Ran across a short video on Facebook of two smiths using an interesting tool for heading large forged spikes. In a nutshell, it is designed to be held by both smiths (each using a pair of tongs) while they alternate hammer blows (which start out slow and heavy for the upsetting and get faster and lighter as they finish up and shape the head). Here are some screenshots: If you're able to watch the video itself, enjoy the casual flick at the end with which one of the smiths sends the finished spike into the growing pile of its fellows.

I'm putting together hardy tools for my new anvil, and I thought of making two spring fullers. One small, half inch in diameter, and maybe a bigger one, made out of semitruck axle cut vertically to make the two halves of the fuller. Cutting the axle is probably going to take a while, and since I'm afraid of the angle grinder, I'd like to know if this is a good idea at all, since if it is not, it'd save me time, fear and sweat. I've searched around a bit and found nothing about spring fullers this large. Thanks for any replies and good day.

Hi. If anyone could help identifying the tools, please. The bloks I presume are power hammer die but are huge and heavy. One is straight and the other one rounded. The plate with square hole it looks like a swage but again the holes are bigger. Any helps will be appreciated. Thank you.

California blacksmith Steve Taylor posted on Facebook this image of a setup he used to shoulder a number of tenons in 3/4" square bar. Rather than take time to forge a monkey tool, he clamped his bolster plate over his anvil's hardy hole and used that. Note that because this is a Doyle (Harbor Freight) cast steel anvil, he was able both to lift it down to the floor (to put the top end of the workpiece at a convenient hammering height) and use a large C-clamp to hold the plate down (since the anvil's feet allow access to the middle of the underside).

A few years back, I picked up an old adjustable wrench at a garage sale. With the jaws rounded off and with the addition of a piece of black pipe as a handle extension, it makes an excellent light- to medium-duty adjustable bending wrench.

https://drive.proton.me/urls/WC432KFN5R#435gLu8uZ7HN