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Was in the process of drifting a slit for my first hammer eye punch in a rectangular piece of 4140 about an 1 1/4 deep and 3/4 of the way one of the corners chipped off (about 1/4" of a 1"). I was cooling in my water quench bucket after every second/third hit, I didn't work the material cold (good orange heat), used a 2/5lb hammer. What did I do wrong? I should be able to salvage the chisel by regrinding and re-heat treating, I just don't want to repeat my mistake. Any advice (pertinent to my slitting chisel) is welcomed. Edit: Should also indicate that the 4140 billet was annealed in vermiculite for a couple hours after I pressed it from round into rectangle.

Got a few things here I'm unsure of their use. Utility knife is for size reference. Tongs aren't too old I don't believe. I have a bunch of the + shapes chisels (?) and I have four of the old cone shaped iron pieces...hardy? The post is cylindrical so I wasn't sure if it was a hardy or not.

I forged this socket chisel/slick from a bicycle chain welded to an O1 steel backer. Heat treated it myself in the forge and my kitchen oven. The handle is redheart, finished with shellac and wax. This project was inspired by the Peter Ross DVD "Forging a Socket Chisel". Next time I'll try to get the socket to weld properly, but it seems to hold the handle very tightly regardless.

I, for many different reasons, need an enormous gouge chisel to hollow out logs. I have seen them on YouTube videos and such but they almost always seem homemade and I probably couldn't afford one if they could be sold. But what I do have is a 5 foot long, 1 and 1/4 inch thick, old ground anchor from a mobile home. I know I can cut the auger off, heat, and pound a chisel out of one end, but I'm not a blacksmith, I don't know the type of steel this anchor is made from, how to heat treat it, or whether or not it pays to even try. Any advice?

Here's my first wood chisel. I wanted to do a style like Gerald Boggs but I don't have the best equipment/skill to forge shoulders, so I decided to do a socket style. Mild steel socket and body, 5160 forgewelded onto the bottom for edge, and a sycamore handle. I have some trouble with forging sockets and not getting a slight gap or space where they'll meet the body, whether or not it's on a chisel or an arrowhead. I have trouble getting a completely wrapped, no gap socket. Any tips or suggestions? I chose sycamore because i've been told it makes good hammer handles and is nice and hard, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Heat treat was quenched in warm, used motor oil and baked at 425F for an hour and a half. Thanks!

Hello smithy types, I have a quick question: I am forging a couple of 3 1/2" wide timber slicks for a pioneering program I help teach at two youth camps in the summer. I have a few pieces of 5160 truck leaf spring that are 5/8" tapering to 1/4" thick. What is the best way to go about forging the sockets. Would it be best to roll the socket and forge weld it (I have gotten to about 90% success rate with fire welding) or would it be best to forge a socket from a piece of pipe and then forge weld it to a tang drawn on the chisel?

I made this hammer eye chisel over the last couple of days. Its not perfect but it does punch a hole. I ground off all of the scale that's why its so shiny. Its made from one inch sucker rod.

Recently, my passion for woodworking has been rekindled. I spent a few years building and installing high-end custom cabinetry and shutters several years back, before pursuing my current career as a paramedic. Paramedicine is typically characterized by long, loooooooooong hours (often more than 100 hours/week) and pitifully low wages (most of the "life-savers" who respond to your emergencies make a lower hourly wage less than that of a teenager working at In-n-Out Burger....hence the 100+ hours/week) and so after 8 years I have found myself in dire need of a hobby. While much of my previous experience was done using expensive power tools, I have found myself very interested in the idea of hand crafting wood and even the tools for woodworking. In my research and purchasing of tools, I began to entertain the notion of making my own chisels and plane irons. A premium 2 3/8" wide plane iron made of 3/32" O1 steel is roughly $40 from Hock Tools, whereas 18" of 2.5" wide O1 steel of the same thickness would cost me roughly $28+s/h. Likewise, with good O1 steel chisels running around $70/ea, I could theoretically make four or five for the price of one. Further reading and research led me to a number of ideas and techniques used to make premium hand tools, such as laminating a piece of high-carbon tool steel to mild steel or wrought iron to create a tool with that was able to take and keep a finely honed edge, while still retaining the shock absorbing and impact resistance properties of the milder steel (these were also much easier to sharpen as most of the bevel being hones was made up of the milder steel). I also read that tool steels typically contain 0.8%-1.2% carbon (with the higher quality steels having more carbon) and learned how the grain structure and molecular structures affect how finely and edge may be honed and how well it keeps that edge. I would also note that my father-in-law has been a professional ferrier for about 30 years, and has a small propane forge, anvil, various hammers and tongs, as well as a working understanding of blacksmithing (at least as it relates to shoeing horses). Thus, I have access to basic tools and enough knowledge to hopefully keep me from burning myself too badly-although, if I DO get burnt...well, there's something I HAVE been extensively trained to handle ;-) Now on to my harebrained schemes... 1) Use mild steel repurposed from old horseshoes, and forge weld a 0.03125" thick piece of O1 steel to the back of one side (using perhaps sand or borax as flux?), creating the laminated edge that is highly sought after in quality chisels and plane irons. The stock could then be rough shaped on the anvil, finished with files or grinders, and then heat treated and tempered before honing a final edge. 2) Simply anneal 0.25" thick O1 stock; then shape, heat treat, and temper accordingly. 3) Heat the O1 stock to critical temperature, then air-cool 2-3x before forge welding and/or shaping (I read in one thread that it is a common method of further reducing the grain size of the steel) 4) Use a case hardening method to increase the carbon content of the O1 stock from roughly 0.90% to (hopefully) something closer to 1.2% (I have a video tutorial/lesson by the American Gunsmithing Institute that explains and demonstrates case hardening small parts using a propane torch and carburizing liquid that is brushed onto the steel) Well, these are the ideas I am throwing around in my head. I would greatly appreciate any advise and/or caution from those with more knowledge on the subject. Thank you in advance!

I'm building a workbench for my handtool work. I have to chop out some mortises. I decided to craft this mortising chisel to work with. Included are before finish and finished pictures. Started with 3/4" square stock.

Made some punches and a chisel over the last few days. It takes me a while to get things done. If I last 2 hours in the shop I've had a long day. It didn't used to be that way, but I'm gonna do stuff anyways. Bad knees and all. Anyway. I made several punches and a chisel from some spring I was given by Phil Krankowski . I was very happy to recieve it and he totally gets the credit for me having it. Another spring I was able to get was from Jake P. I made a bob punch from it but I'm not done with it yet. Also the chisel is from that same larger spring. I heat treated them today and took pics. I tried my best to run the colors on them but I'm not so sure I did a very good job. I brought them up to non magnetic, quenched in water and then scrubbed them with some sandpaper watched the colors run and when they hit a light straw I finished the quench. So, I don't know if thats right or not but I did a test with them and they all held up just fine. Made the marks on a piece of mild plate. Hope you enjoy.

I had an idea recently that one could split and drift a square (diamond?) shaped hole with the same tool. But the geometry of such a tool has thrown me for a loop. I'm sure it's rather simple concept to some but I've struggled any advice would be appreciated. Has anyone seen/made/used such a tool? (pictures would be great!) Is there a specific name for such a tool? (Or is it just a chisel when cutting and a drift when drifting?) I'm sure the usefulness of such a tool is highly debatable but I've set out to make one anyways if only as an exorcise. I've had limited success so far and I don't think a lengthy post is desired here, but I've detailed my experiences in my two most recent blog entrees if anyone would like more insight into my questions. PS: this is more of a general blacksmithing question but I don't think it warrants a second topic.. As I understand it the length of the slot to be cut is 2a - 5% ('a' being the width of one of the four sides of the the hole to be punched). In Mr Hofi's blueprint his chisel cut a rectangular hole, less of a 'split'. I'm led to believe I may need to account for the thickness of the chisel as well. Does anyone use any other formula? When I was first approaching this problem I assumed the diagonals of the square would be used to calculate.