interesting info from a Wood working site.

[irnsrgn]

Traditional Tools

[Bentiron1946]

Very interesting. Who would have thought that wood workers cared that much about steel. On our public television station here this week they had a program on the making of steel for Japanese swords. It show the steel making process and stated that the lower grade steel went into kitchen knives and tools. All laminated like the sword blades so I guess that the traditional woodsmiths would get some fine tools out it too.

[triw]

Hey irnsrgn Thank you for sharing that info. I enjoyed the reading and need to read again I am sure I missed a few things the first time through. William

[S.Willis]

Thanks for sharing

[irnsrgn]

Hey Bentiron, WWers have always been interested in the properties of steel, moreso than even the Blacksmiths and Blade smiths, as there livelyhood depends on getting and maintaing a very keen edge on there many edge tools. Many of the modern WWers that do use hand tools (Normites use only a chisel to scrape excess glue), go to great lengths to get a keen edge, some even using up to 8000 grit stones to try and accomplish this feat. Including the re-blading of old planes with A2, O1 and W1 modern steels, but they have lots of problems because of the hardness of the complete blade and the brittleness imparted by making them harder, They still haven't figured out that the old timers had perfected the blade thing many years ago to almost perfection. and still argue that their so called superior modern blades are actually inferior to well made laid on blades of the past. Same old story of modern craftsmen trying to improve on perfection and making a mess of it.

[ThomasPowers]

I'll argue the "moreso than even the Blacksmiths and Blade smiths"; most bladesmiths I know are steel fanatics some even starting with ore or making their own shear steel from wrought iron.

[Frosty]

Same old story of modern craftsmen trying to improve on perfection and making a mess of it.

That's only mostly true, every once in a while some modern hack messing with yesteryear's "perfection" discovers something that works better.

If that weren't true we'd still be picking nits off each other on the grasslands and feeding the kitties.

Frosty

[ThomasPowers]

When I was in the MOB I had a feller who was a woodturner come to me---they had figured out that metal lathe carbide inserts didn't dull very fast when working wood and he wanted to make some bowl turning tools to take the inserts.

So I heated a good sized piece of barstock and stuck it in the postvise and told him to grab the cold end and bent it to the curve he wanted. He started work on his own forge almost immediately thereafter....

[racer3j]

One of the reasons I am tip-toeing into smithin' is the demand for A2 and D2 and AST34 from my handtool buddies. I will be trying to forgeweld to mild- just a guess, but the fluxes with filings will more likely help.They machine like very hard but sticky, mushy putty. I'm starting out with O1, though.mike

[matt87]

I should probably warn people, that 'Ancient Blacksmithing' article Ultrahigh Carbon Steels, Damascus Steels, and Ancient Blacksmiths (Oleg Sherby) does not conform to the 'accepted', 'mainstream' theories of archaeometallurgy. Some very... interesting theories and assertions.

It is important to emphasize, however, that it is very easy to make iron since no melting is required. It it much more difficult to manufacture bronze since three seperate melting procedures are required.

I don't know how the first section holds up, but it's very interesting in a completely different way, from what I could understand.

[rstegman]

My brother gets machining magazines.

He says that most of them are woodworkers who needed to make their own tools.

That is really how I am getting into metal working.

[shogsten]

Thomas still turning wood, those tools have been re-bent multiple times. Made another set where I only flattened the bar and just drew out the tip. Been hanging out with Adlai and working on forge version 2.

Scott

[shogsten]

Someone commented on the old steels being better. In some cases yes they were. But a lot of woodworkers are replacing destroyed/worn out/rusted steel in the old tools. For example the good steel on a lot of old planes was never very thick to begin with and it only takes an idiot with a grinder a few seconds to destroy the good steel. Either they grind the steel off or they grind it so hot it takes the temper out of the steel.

Scott

[ThomasPowers]

Scott; good to hear from you!

I always enjoy it when folks first get to realize that steel is a plastic material. We still have the bowl you gave us in a place of honour---it even made the transition to NM humidities OK.