Tow Hook Bick ???

[GrumpyBiker]

I got this tow hook last weekend and figured if nothing else it should be decent metal (I don’t make knives ) .

But the more I looked at it I thought , welded to 3/4” square stock or even bolted to 1.5” oak and clamped to a bench, it might make a usable Bick for making bottle openers.

Of course it would need a little reshaping.

 

Opinions ?!?!

[Frosty]

Oh YEAH, clean it up on the grinder first, at least get rid of the die parting line. Maybe refine the shape to your liking and it'll not only make a nice bic, it'll make a dandy dishing die. I see lots of interesting possibilities in that baby and it'd be fun interrogating it to find out how many and what. 

I like it, think I'll keep my eyes open for one.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Goods]

It that forged or cast?

[GrumpyBiker]

A cast tow hook? They make those ?

[Goods]

Sorry, not in my realm of experience.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Probably cast steel, easy enough to check to see if it's cast iron.

[GrumpyBiker]

What’s the tinsel strength of cast iron?

Honestly, I’m curious. I picked this up because of the tremendous stress a tow hook has to endure.

So I assumed  nothing but a Forged part could withstand the stresses of being pulled & yanked by very large vehicles.

 

Is that wrong?

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

To test the tinsel strength you will need a Christmas tree gage......

I am going to say cast steel, look at the shape and try and hammer to that between a set of dies, not going to happen. Thin parting lines are a sign of castings, wide ones are a sign of forgings,

[Frosty]

No, a tow hook wouldn't be cast iron and casting it in steel would be expensive. It's probably a closed die forging. Tensile strength wouldn't be much of a factor, hooks have to resist bending, not stretch. The forces on a hook tend to try to straighten it so it has to be tough, think medium carbon steel, in the 1040 - 1060 range. New ones are probably 4140 or close, that's a hard alloy to top in high stress conditions.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[GrumpyBiker]

Thanks Frosty , I’ll be keeping an eye out for more of these.

 

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Casting would be a fast and inexpensive way to make thousands of these. I'm gonna stick with casting just due to the thin part line.

 

[Charles R. Stevens]

Forged connecting rods and crank shaves have parting lines, an artifact of closed die forging. 

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Correct Charles, but the part lines are not that thin, they will be anywhere from 1/4"-1/2" wide depending on the size of the part. That was always the quick way to identify a forged crank from a cast one at the swapmeets.

[GrumpyBiker]

Mounted to 2.5” thick oak , the shaping begins.

[Charles R. Stevens]

I always thought the prosses was cool, they are forged flat and then twisted to offset the rod lobes. 

Btw, modular iron sbc cranks will servive 500hp if you don’t allow them to detonate.

 

 

[anvil]

Drop forged or closed die forging for sure. And I can see where it was twisted! Very cool. Thanks, Charles.

You might consider twisting it 90* so you will have better access to your bic.

[GrumpyBiker]

Just about done.

So many nice radius’s (sp) on this piece that I’m thinking it may be pretty useful.

 

 

[Chelonian]

Looks like it has lots of nice shapes to work with.

The plural form of radius is radii, BTW.

[pnut]

Very nice indeed. It definitely will be useful. I've been keeping an eye out for something similar.

Pnut