Last weekend we had an introduction to toolmaking using carbon steels, the students had either been on our taster day course, or had not attended courses before.

The objective was to get hands on experience and the basic knowledge to successfully forge carbon steels from various scrap objects, namely coil springs, files and leaf springs.

None had had any experience in forging or using recycled carbon steels.

First we went through the HT processes and how they were done and the reasons for doing them, annealing, normalising, hardening and tempering.

They then forged a 1/4"round punch from a coil spring and then made an old farriers file into a hot cut chisel, and finally making a pair of scrolling tongs, and took home a blank to make a bending fork

Some adjustment to the basic shape were made to get them to function properly, but I am pleased to say they all eventually succesfully managed to forge the carbon steel without burning it.


Some pics of what was made on the course (warts and all)

Good job John. Looks like they picked up the instructions well. Thanks for sharing. :)