i've been mulling this idea around in my head for a little, i tried to look on here for any ideas, but couldn't seem to find anything. i'm thinking of making a knife from an old craftsman ratchet i have. I realize the fumes will probably be toxic, but i was wondering if anyone had done this. Or had any ideas with the process...thanks
_eric_

also a while back i asked for some cable. to great dismay i have lost the address and name of the person who shipped it to me in my move. i am terribly sorry and would like to pay that person back plus some, if that person reads this please PM me

Why would you want to wreck a craftsman ratchet? I would look for another piece of suitable steel. Just curious.

send me the craftsman, ill send you a dollar store one you can use to make a knife. chromium is NASTY when its airborne. The coolest knife in the world is not worth losing your life.

oh the craftsman is broken ( i know i know i can go back and get a good one), but i thought that the steel would be good quality

Unfortunately what is good quality for a wrench is not good quality for a knife. Good wrenches are usually a medium carbon steel so they will be tough and less likely to break than if the were high carbon steel.

Quite a few blades have been made from plain wrenches and there should be pictures of examples out there; but you can still find unplated wrenches and so not deal with the hazards of forging plated metal. They are not the best steel but are probably better than RR spike knives!

find an old wrench that isnt chromed to make a knife out of, like this one.

Knife from a old crescent wrench (spanner) - Blacksmith Photo Gallery

Wrench Knife - Blacksmith Photo Gallery

There are better ways to get chrome vanadium steel... Really big allen wrenchs from the fleamarket, and torsion rods off a car or truck. Both are vandium alloys due to the need to resist shearing or rolling under torisional pressure, which happens to be what vanadium alloys excel at. I did make a knife out of a 3/4" box end wrench, I didn't die (obviously;-), but there are ways to remove the chromium coating on most wrenches, either acid (then what do you do with the acid...) or sanding it off with a resperator on to prevent you from just sucking it up a different way... Try the allen wrenches my father-in-law got me a pile of 1/2" allen wrenches prefect size to make a decent camp knife, and should be sturdy enough to handle some prying and levering;-)

Ok. Thank you very much. I'll think of some other metal. In another project, I'm making another knife from about 100 year old buggy springs. This metal seems to be very tough. I should have known about the wrenches being built for toughness rather than hardness.

I plan on making a knife out of a Regular old wrench which is NOT plated. I won it in Iron In the Hat at the smithville chritmas meeting this past saturday. I `ll post pics and stuff . I also have some old wrenchs which arent plated , If this works okay I plan on forging em into knives.

Chris

I had an old ratchet handle that was trashed. I took out the guts and measured it, turns out that an old wornout track bolt from a D9 Cat was a close size, so I tapped the wrench handle and made the bolt into a nail heading plate. Made lots of them different sizes, a realy usefull interchangeable header. I still have a 30 gallon drum full of track bolts, but I don,t think tey ever made that many differens sized nails.
paul.
It's Not Over... Untill we Win!!!

If you have the track bolts... Do you have another barrel with track pins around 1 1/4" - 1 1/2" diameter, and how old?? The ones from the mid 80s or later are supposed to be case hardened. Before that they are supposed to be 1045 steel, and are excellent for making hammer heads out of, because they are nice and tough and can be water quenched.

Wow! didn't know that. I was in the equipment business for a while, great fodder for the fire! I will root around and see what I come up with. I have good sources for cast off's, send me a PM with your location, and I will fish around for someone in your area. Mine and Quarry bone yards are realy good places to know, in the off season up your way theres always someone who can be "greased" with the threat of a skinning knife or a _ - fill in the blank- Later
Paul
It's not over.. untill we Win!!!!