First hammer eye punch

[J.P. Hall]

Made my first handled punch from a big masonry chisel. If I were doing it again I'd start with heavier stock. I'm a little worried about the small cheeks getting enough friction on the handle and I need to regrind the point, but overall I'm pretty happy with it.

[Frosty]

Looks pretty good from here. How's it work? The handles on top tools doesn't need to be very strong just reasonably solid so the tool doesn't move around. If you're really concerned or it proves to be a problem trim the handle closer to the head and wedge it. A LITTLE epoxy will do it too.

Frosty The Lucky.

[J.P. Hall]

Haven't used it yet, but I'm eager to see how it differs from a hand slot punch. It seems pretty well seated on the handle so I may be overthinking it. I've got a hot cut with a much sloppier eye, which has held up fine albeit needing taps to seat the head more frequently.

I don't know what size or alloy stock I'll be using this for so I hardened up to and including the eye, which got tempered  past blue just in case it would run the risk of deforming under a heavy hammer (probably wouldn't anyway). It also got a healthy dose of thermal cycling.

I guess if there's anything I should be worried about it's the striking end, which is soft, but there's not much I can do for that short of annealing.

[J.P. Hall]

Tested it out yesterday and therr are a few things to iron out. I'd likento taper the eye a but more to get some grip on the handle, and also regrind the tip. The "crosshair" shape of the double ground point is slightly rotated around center. As a result it all looks square  when starting a hole but then as the bulk of the punch makes its way through it gives the appearance that the punch is rotating theough the workpiece. All in all those are simple fixes though