Hand trowels

[RP Coyle]

Here are a couple of trowels I made by inverting 1 1/2 " angle iron and drawing out the edges. Peened the xxxx out of it to make it look REALLY look hand forged.

[mitch4ging]

Nice, Rp. Looks like "feather trowels"! Maybe a marketing niche.

[MRobb]

Very nice!  Is it all one piece?  Or is the handle attached/welded to the "blade"?

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard RP, glad to have you. I like your trowels, very distinctive, a little feather or leaf texturing might make them even more marketable.

 

If you're wondering where all the Xs came from IFI has decent language rules. It's participated in from more than 150 countries and I don't know how many thousands of people, many of them children so it is by intent and rule a family site.

 

Okay, more than enough of that. Show us more pictures of your work please, we LOVE pics.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[RP Coyle]

Thanks for the comments.  No Mrobb...I cheated and just fired up the Miller. Too new and scared to try forge welding and there was not enough left on the shank to beat into a decent

diameter insert into the handle. People are really impressed with the look of the center spine and it does add a lot of reinforcing.

 

Thank's for the heads up Frosty... I will try like xxxx  to keep my comments under control.

[Rashelle]

I really like these. Spurs my imagination to "eventually, grrrrrrrrrrrr" make some garden trowels in leaf configurations, rather then feather. Not that I have time to do much other then think about it. Here is a thought for you. If you are afraid to try forge welding try cutting two sideways V's in as shoulders at the base of the handle and make the handles socketed. As it was angle iron to begin with. You've already got the socket material.

[RP Coyle]

 

try cutting two sideways V's in as shoulders at the base of the handle and make the handles socketed. As it was angle iron to begin with. You've already got the socket material.

 

Not sure I see how this works Rashelle???

[Rashelle]

Instead of removing only the blade portion from the angle iron parent stock. Leave enough stock for a socket behind the blade. Cut in from the sides in a V shape from each side. That will separate the blade stock from the socket stock. Do not cut all the way through leave enough material to hold blade to socket. Forge you blade out. Forge the socket material into a socket, and roll up into socket.

 

Watch the thickness of material and your heat. So that when forming blade and/or socket you are not burning the other one.

 

The V's cut in from the side will divide the blade from socket material. One section will be blade the other will form a socket.

 

Hope that makes sense. I really really really need to learn how to draw pictures on the computer.

[ThomasPowers]

The V's are to make the transition from the trowel to the socket.  I'd even try it without them for a stronger transition area.

[bigfootnampa]

Yes!  The transition space is critical!  Do NOT make the V cuts!  Forge the Vs in by upsetting the angle iron from the edges.  I have done this with spear heads... which have very similar shapes.  I haven't tried it for trowels because my beta tester is VERY TOUGH and I need at least medium carbon steel to pass muster on trowels!  

[ThomasPowers]

Old bed rail angle iron is often medium C or higher,  (a trick for Q&D corner chisels...)

[Frosty]

If you do cut the "V"s the wide part is away from the blade. Be sure to rounded the bottom of the cuts to avoid cold shuts. I'm just adding a fiddly bit to the "V" start socket technique, not necessarily recommending it. It works just fine and the failures will show you how to do it right. Just like everything else. <wink>

 

Forge welding is not big mystery, I usually try to have folk do a forge weld during their first session to dispel some of the mystique. Its like most good welds, prep and proper execution. The three secrets of forge welding being clean, clean, CLEAN. Good flux in moderate amounts, enough heat and not smacking the living snot out of it to set the weld. Yeah those count too but no single one is the secret or a deal breaker if not met. Patience and practice will like in any craft make the main difference. By practice I mean the proper techniques of course, we don't want to learn a mistake to perfection, though there is more than a little tradition of that round abouts.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[RP Coyle]

Good info... Ill have a go at it next time I am making trowls.

[LastRonin]

I was inspired by this thread, so fired up my coal forge this afternoon when I got home from work. It doesn't have the neat feather looking marks, but it is functional. I necked it down between the blade and handle over the horn so it would be gently rounded instead of cutting away metal, This also has the result of retaining strength in that area by thickening the steel. I rolled the handle and finished it around a tapered drift I have.

[bigfootnampa]

Excellent LastRonin!  Looks like you need to spread the material for the wide end of your socket more though... before you begin the roll.  I find that I need 3 1/2" to 4" width there to make a good socket.  It looks as though your metal is thick enough there to do it, if you had spread it wider.  All of my nice ones have been claimed, bought or gifted... I am reduced to planting with a pitiful store bought model!!!  PRAY for me!

[RP Coyle]

Nice work LastRonin. the roll handle looks way cool. The critial part will be whether the roll into the handle will bend.with use. The first trowel I made I welded a 3/8" round for the handle and it bent so I went to 1/2" and so far it has been fine. How much of a metal cross section do you get at the joint of the roll?

[Frosty]

That's a good concern RP. When you're dealing with structural strength tubing is stronger than solid bar in bending or twisting conditions. The same weight of steel in a hollow cone with a smooth curved transition is far stronger. Consider a shovel handle socket, the moment of leverage working on a shovel blade is orders of magnitude greater than a hand trowel and the blade socket is forged down to around 14 ga. (Go ahead guys correct my estimate of shovel socket gauge, I'm using my mark one eyeball.) I've seen shovel handles break all my life and I've never seen the socket even give visibly.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[LastRonin]

I would have to go get it back from my mother-in-law to get measurements. But it was made from a piece of 1"x1"x3/16" angle. For the transition from blade to handle, after flattening it out, I fullered it in about 1/4" on either side which made the metal there at the transition a tad thicker. Then I used a ball-pein to start the opposite direction curves the handle and blade would need. The transition area is at least 3/16" thick, I couldn't hold the blade in one hand and the handle in the other and get it to bend. I'm no muscle man, but I'm also not featherweight.

The handle didn't get drawn thinner and turned into a proper (or as close as I could get to it) socket because it is intended to just be an integral handle. We liked the way it fit our hands, comfortable and solid. I had thought about making it a socket and putting a wooden handle in it, but my wife said she liked it without it.

I will probably try an actual socket on the next one.

Thanks for the critiques, comments, suggestions and compliments.

[beammeupscotty]

Regarding the OP's trowel, which I too find quite attractive, you should probably consider putting a ferrule around the point where the tang enters the handle.  This will keep the tang from splitting the handle with use.  The easiest ferrule to make is a short piece of copper, brass or even steel pipe.  i also like the rolled handle version by Ronin.  

 

Although I am not a big fan of making things from railroad spikes, I have a buddy who forges a very nice, sturdy trowel from them under a power hammer. 

 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BobbioForge