Hot Cuts, Anvil devils, metal cutting on the anvil.

I've got an old busted chisel that I have been considering turning into a hot split, and my question is should I forge it into shape or just grind it into a hot split? (Going to be used for RR spike split crosses. The people of the town I live in are primarily Catholics and all tell me they would absolutely love stuff like that.) Also, after forging or grinding or whatever you guys suggest, should I reharden and temper it or leave as is? The chisel is 1045 I also have a cape chisel made from 1045 that I am considering turning into a pritchel. P.S. The angle. What is a normal hot split bevel? 30 degrees? Or perhaps a little more narrow for the application…

OK, so I've got to the point where I'm having trouble finding chisels in my pile. I need something more efficient and would like some ideas. At present my idea is to make a 24" wide cart with shelves every 3" or so with the top shelf being intended for "active use" and lower shelves for storage with the business end facing out. Everything needs to be mobile as everything has to get packed up at night. Thank you.

Made a new Hardie cut off. Made it out of an old splitting wedge. I will use it as my hot cut but I did temper it. Am I wasting time doing that? My thought was it might hold the edge a little longer. It fixes nice and tight with just a couple light taps to release it.

Hello gentlemen I'm looking for advice on how to forge a cut off tool for the hardy hole in my anvil . Tried to make one out of a piece of 1in. Rebar , haven't given up looking for input . Frosty have to say thank you for IFI I have been reading post , and gained a lot of education .

New video up on my youtube channel:

light duty hot cut to fit 20mm 3/4" hardy, also will fit in vice or swage block. also available a sleeve to make it fit a 25mm 1" hardy will add details of the normal ones later

Found this in the shed today. I'm guessing it's a hot cut tool?

Here are some pictures of my makeshift hot cut hardie. I was looking for a hot cut solution, and my forge is too small to pound one, so I decided to pick up a Stanley 2" Brick Chisel. After pulling off the rubber grip I removed the paint and began slightly tapering the end. The next step was to find a piece of pipe that fit around the shank and hot fit it to my hardie hole. I left enough of the pipe round so that the chisel would still fit in and then I began to hot fit the chisel into the pipe while continuing to square it in the hardie hole. Over all the project took a couple hours total. It is simple and very effective for a makeshift beginner tool. I really need …

Made a hot cut hardy today and the heat treat stuck a file just skates off it. I used a rail clip so it's about medium carbon it worked great for cutting nails.

I am relatively new to this but this is a tool I was proud off. It's a hot cut that is spiked on the end; instead of fitting into a hardy hole (I use a "railroad track anvil", no hardy) it is driven down into the stump.

Hi everyone! i was wondering how i could make this cold cut chisel into something i could use with hot metal or whether it would even be worth it. . Thanks for all the help.

Out of curiosity, has anyone here ever converted a carpenter's hatchet into a hot cut top tool? One caught my eye in the hardware store the other day, and it struck me that one could easily grind or cut the blade width to match the height of the eye, maybe spot-annealing the hammer end to make a softer struck end. Has anyone ever tried this, or is there a good reason not to?

Critiques, please Newbie here, in the process of making some basic tools to make knives, flint strikers, and other little things. I am using junkyard steel for now, like leaf and coil springs. I found myself in need of a hot cut. So I made this chisel from a jack hammer bit (that was about 1-1/8 inches thick). It was hard as hell, had to work it really hot and coax it with a 4-lb sledge until I got it thinned out a bit. Obviously didn't turn out as planned, taller and thinner than I intended, but here it is. For my use it should be adequate, though. I ground an appleseed edge. Normalized it for 30 minutes when it became non-magnetic, but then I had tro…

Hi there all Dave Custer AKA "Fiery Furnace" here with Chase Saxton AKA "Trip." So Chase had this idea to forge some Brian Brazeal style rounding hammers. He came over yesterday and is planning on staying thru Friday. We are using 2-inch solid 4140 in billet sizes 3.5-inch, 4-inch, and 4.5-inch! He's got all the pictures so far, so he'll be posting the pictures and such. Just wanted to let you all know we are working together on this project. OK Trip Here, a while back I came over to Dave's shop and we forged out his striking anvil, and then a Brian Brazeal style rounding hammer for myself, as was seen in my video, "Heavy Forging". Not long after that (as D…

Looking to make a few cold chisels. Any of you guys know the best steel to use for that? I'd assume something oil hardening but anybody know an exact tool steel number? Thanks, George

I found this chisel in my friends diseased uncles welding shop it was laying on the floor and I asked him if I could have it and he said yes so I took it home and cleaned it up. what's weird is how it has one bevel so I thought it was on old cold chisel that was converted into a wood working tool but I still cleaned it up and sharped it also the brand is Herschel with the numbers 633 next to the brand name if someone's ever seen a single beveled cold chisel please let me know Nick O

I started to make a hot it today since my other one got stuck in the hardy whenever I used it. I plan on making it a brazenly style hot cut, but make it have a shoulder. I think I made the taper fine, then I cut the rest of the steel I do t need on the top and started to heat that and got it to form the shoulder. It got a little bent out of shape, but I think I should be able to fix it. My question is that is the shoulder I have on it big enough to stop the shank from going any further into the hardy, and if it is large enough to not chip. Also any tips on how to make the fan shape hot cut. I know that I need to fuller it, and I hope my 2 pound cross peen will do the tric…

Ok so while I was attempting a nail header and failing I worked on my first hot cut hardy. Here is what I came up with. It was 3/4" by 1 1/2" stock. My hardy hole is about 7/8 if I remember right. I actually haven't tried it yet and that's the best test. But I finished it up at the end of the night.

Well today i finally found time to get back on the forge and decided i would see if i could make myself a hot cut hardy. I started with a piece of 1 1/4in shaft then tapered it to fit into my hardy hole. After that i upset the metal to for a bit of a lip over the hardy and to give myself a bit more metal to spread out to make the edge. after i got everything situated where i wanted it i flattened the round stock out and drew out the edge. Heat treated it then sharpened and of course tested! Was like a hot knife through butter and beats the heck outa my hacksaw lol

Made from a salvaged jackhammer bit. It didn't have enough metal for a squared-off shank, so I upset it to fit diagonally in the top of the hardie hole and jury-rigged a spring clip to keep it from bouncing around. Another view:

this is my first tool. Made out of some unknown shaft material but it has a high hot hardess as it had to be almost white hot to forge.

Hi Guys. Im new to blacksmithing (I'm still playing with rebar). However I decided to try and make a cutter for my Hardie. I live on an Island and couldnt get 1 1/2" inch mild steel so had to buy 1 3/4" Bright steel. Is this any good for tool making and how high should I try to get the cutting edge. I had to buy a meter of this bar ( xxxx expensive stuff). So Im hoping it has its uses. Ive started to shape the bar using varous hammers from 7lb down to 4lb when my arm get sore. I have also been using the hardie hole as a dye and tried hitting the bar into the hole and upsetting the steel above the line. All advice would be welcome

I was wondering if anybody has any experience using 1045 for a hot cut or any other hot work for that matter. I need to make a hot cut and I have used H13 in the past and while it works very well it's also a rather expensive steel. I am trying to find something cheaper that will work without using something that won't hold up at all. I tried some searching but couldn't find much so either I don't know how to search or there's not much out there about it.

Co worker gave me an auger tooth he found. I made a hot cut out of it. My first attempt at forge welding was to get those pegs together and I think it came out pretty good. Tapered the edge, and heat treated in oil. Works good so far, fits better on a diagonal. http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/38678-hot-cut-hardy-tool-from-auger-tooth-ready-for-action/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/38677-hot-cut-hardy-tool-from-auger-tooth/ I haven't posted much lately but I have been in the process of building a shop. I basically got it built just laying out the inside now. You can kind of see my forge that I just got finished in one of those pics. Just rigged a d…

I forged a hot cut hardy today out of a peice of torsion bar from a pickup and was wondering what everyone's thoughts were on heat treating it or if it's a waste of time because the heat it's gonna be seeing cutting.