Newbie Smith here, seeking punch/chisel optons.

[Plantagenet Ironworks]

New smith here, in the tool gathering stage. I am aiming to keep my whole build to START at under $100

 

Hammer, Anvil, Tongs I have so far... Working on possibly getting a couple more hammers and a punch set, in addition to some gloves and of course a forge of some sort.

 

Im looking for a cheap option for punches, chisels and the like currently.

 

A book I read said that heading to a hardware store and buying the cheapest/largest cold chisel's they had by the handful would be a good option as they could all be modified later.

 

I was wondering if this might be a good option as well? I plan on doing mostly smaller, decorative items.

 

$30 after taxes... which would be the most expensive tool I have purchased so far.

 

Thoughts?

[macbruce]

My thoughs are you should get that forge and comence to learning how to make the tools pictured. These are very basic things and I've often heard that a cold chisel and or a center punch are amoung the first tools many BS schools/courses require a student to make. This also sets the stage for future thinking/independence when you need say a hot for your anvil or or a special form....whatever. You'll be ahead of the game if you learn to do it for yourself...... ;)

[Charles R. Stevens]

Yard sales, swapmeets, dog trades etc. also if your going to be a smith, might as well learn to forge them. Spring steel is the common choice. As we forge many of our own tools, recycling worn, damaged and broken tools make good materials for us.

[Jim Coke]

Greetings Plant,

 

I'm with Mac on this one....  30 dollars buys a nice chunk of H-13 off the internet...  It will make a good half dozen or so...   All you will find with the cheap stuff is that they are too short and never what you want...   I have posted examples of chisels and chasing tools on this  thread..  Look them up and do some research before letting go of your hard earned cash...

 

Forge on and make beautiful things..

Jim

[DSW]

I've found dozens of old chisels and punches at yard sales and flea markets. I can usually pick up the "messed up" ones for$1 each or 3 for $2 pretty regularly. Small nail sets and so on often go for a quarter. Ones in good shape some times run a bit more, but not much. I've got 4 or 5 places I make a point of wandering into every time I'm in the neighborhood to see what they have on hand. Most times it's a bust, but you never know.... A few times the guy has gotten a bunch of tools in and he's more than willing to make a deal on the "trash" chisels he was just going to toss anyways.

[ThomasPowers]

Yup I tell them "I buy *rust*!"

[Plantagenet Ironworks]

Making my own tools is actually what I am wanting to do.

 

Maybe Ill just start with an old worn out cold chisel and try and make the rest?

[DanielC]

You could do that and go to your local scrap yard and pick up some heavy truck coil springs. Great steel for these types of tools and you get many feet worth of stock for mere dollars.

[arkie]

Plant,

 

At my beginning at smithing, I needed a bottom fuller and a hot cut hardie.

 

I found an old log splitting wedge at a junk place for a dollar.  The edge was chipped quite a bit.  I dressed the edge to a new, fairly sharp edge, then I used an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel and cut off about 2" of the tip.  I welded the tip to a 1/4" plate then welded that to some 1" bar stock for my hardie hole...quickly made hot cut off hardie.

 

On the remaining piece, I ground the blunt cut to a nicely rounded tip and....had a nice bottom fuller tool.  Two smithing tools from one discard.  All for a buck!  Easy to make your own tools out of scrap.

 

With all the chicom cheap tools out there these days, you can find old chipped, discarded chisels for a buck or two, redress and grind the edge, harden and temper and you probably have a much better quality tool!  Chances are, that if the tools are old, the steel will be of a better quality than most of the new stuff.  I have some new cold chisels that after a few licks, the edges are already beginning to crater.

[Quarry Dog]

  The first hot steel I ever smited with a hammer was a loop from a 3/4 inch thick coil spring.  When straightened out, it came out to about 16" long.  One end I forged a rounded taper almost to a point, the other I forged to a flat taper about 1/4" thick.  I cut it in half, ground a center punch and chisel out the pieces, and heat treated the punch to straw and the chisel to first blue.  Except for the straightening and heat treating, I didn't even use tongs.  The mild steel of the tongs I made next was easy to work.  The frustration there came from drawing out my reins to a consistent taper.

  I still use both the punch and chisel on a daily basis.  I actually find the center punch works better than my chipping hammer for cleaning slag off of welds, and my chisel is great for making marks on the edge of a plate.

[Eddie Mullins]

I also enjoy making my own tools but when I first started I was a bit impatient and bought a chisel set much like the one you posted from Harbor freight, less than half the cost of that one though. Its not the best, some I have modified, others used as is, others to be modified still. I just don't have the time to get to scrap yards and could spend more on gas searching than the cost of the set I got.

 

Now, what I did shortly after was purchase a 12 ft stick of 5/8" 4140 f rom my localy steel supplier for about $15. You do the math, I'll have less about a dollar each in tools if I make them ~ 9" to be hand held which is what I did for some. Next I intend to make a handle(s) to use with shorter ones so I only need half or less than that amount to make others. If I can get 25 + tools this way for $15 seems like a pretty good deal to me.

[David Gaddis]

Not everyone can get such a good deal on 4140 and such due to many marketing obstacles.

Frustration is going to be the first animal to get control of because you are in need of basic tools. But the mast basic tool is your mind.

If at all possible spend some money on gasoline to visit some smiths operating within driving distance and spend a full day there. That experience will be well spent money.

Down here we use spring steel (coil spring) as our "go-to" tool steel for punches and other hand tools. Trouble is learning how to straighten it for a usable item. There a few tricks of the trade that make that process a little faster to learn, if shown by another smith. That process helps build confidence.

I think one of the best dollar expenditures is one or more of those Hate Freight 4-1/2 grinders for 14.99. I use them as well as the expensive version and rarely can tell the difference in performance, as we do not use them continuously like a manufacturing facility.

Good luck on your endeavors.


Carry on

[petere76]

Free stuff I use a lot for tooling. Axels in any size. Front end torsion bars and steering components. Coil springs any size. Leaf springs any size. Jack hammer bits. Old broken chisels and drifts you find at yard sales. Worn out plow scrapper blades. Broken and beat up commercial chipper blades.

Once you get a good supply of this material reduce it to usable lengths and mark it so you know what it was. On the leaf springs, watch for fatigue cracks and cut them out. Anything you torch cut has to be trimmed after the cut because the cut part is not much use after it is burned. Old chisels and drifts are great to repurpose, just make sure to anneal and then heat treat when you are done forging. Most of the time you can just run the colors to get a decent edge. Keep the struck end soft so it doesn't chip.

You are always making tooling in the shop its half the job. The cost estimate on many big projects involves weeks of shop time dedicated to fabricating jigs and tooling. A good supply of scrap steel and pieces of purchased tool steel will serve you well. Good luck.

Peter

[Dan C]

Don't forget about pawn shops.  I seem to have better luck there than at flea markets & garage sales from when people pawn their tool boxes.  The worn and assorted tool steel items get put in the junk bins.  Only once have I had to walk from a shop empty handed because they wouldn't deal.  Most of the time they are happy to just get rid of stuff for pennies.  Catch is you don't know what the steel is, depending on what you're making you don't know how to properly heat treat it.