My First Handmade Tool: The Allen Chisel

That’s some mighty fine grinding and honing. How long did that take? Will be anxious to see the results.

-- You can't get a hug from Facebook.

Looks good as long as you didn’t heat it enough to lose it’s temper.

Looking forward to seeing the results.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Betsy: Took about 5 minutes of filing each side, another 5-10 to grind the bevel, and then the honing/sharpening on the stones.

GaryK: Temper? This was a cheap piece of steel that I filed until sharp. I don’t think it had any temper to begin with. I didn’t heat it at all, having no means to do so. Like I said, I only needed it to be sharp(ish) for fewer than six inches of wood. And it was! :^)

-- Eric at http://adventuresinwoodworking.com

I heard that you can heat it up and dunk it in cold oil and create a temper of hard metal. Don’t know if this applies to a allen wrench or not. Are you going to create a handle for it?

-- JJohn

Nah, in my mind this was a one-use tool. I will, of course, hang on to it just in case, but I’m also planning on buying a 1/8” chisel in the near future which should mostly do the trick for similar projects.

-- Eric at http://adventuresinwoodworking.com

wow that is cool. i love doing that and making tools. my smallest chisel is 1/2” and i needed a smaller one so i ground a screwdriver by flattening the back and making a bevel. it came out pretty good too. great job!

I understand that if you get a lumberjock hot enough, that they’ll lose their temper…
On a more serious note, (that means the previous thing was supposed to be funny) I have heated home made tools with a bernz-o-matic type torch to red hot and then cooled by dunking in oil (I think any liquid will do, actually so as to cool it quickly) and it appears to do the hardening. I read that cooling too fast will actually get it too hard and brittle. The correct way is to control the cooling process to some degree (no pun intended…but as I think about it…not a bad one, eh?)
Back to where I was going, though, by doing the home hardening and turning a handle (we are, after all, woodworkers, so that’s possible) I’ve ended up with a couple of very serviceable chisels, so don’t overlook the possibility of future use.
My great grandfather’s tool box (he was a carpenter) contained many home made tools that served him well in his vocation.
Old files make great chisels, they’re hard already, unless they’re made in China, then all bets are off. -SST

-- Accuracy is not in your power tool, it's in you

Thanks for the tip, SST. I’ll think about a handle I could make for it (but I can’t turn one, no lathe). Are all files hardened already? Even cheap Chinese ones (the ones I get here)?

-- Eric at http://adventuresinwoodworking.com

All files are hardened or they couldn’t file other metals. I’m sure that Chinese ones are as well, but some of the cheaper ones are probably not as hard as good files should be. I always watch garage sales for old ones. While they might be well worn and not be good as files, and therefore really cheap, they are useful as re-makes to other tools. I even made a mini plane blade out of one. I get them to size with a grinding wheel, and use a disc sander for final facing.
As to your handle, if you don’t do lathe turning, you can always whittle one, and epoxy your chisel in. -SST

-- Accuracy is not in your power tool, it's in you

google books has an excerpt from “The compleate modern blacksmith” that gives a bit of information on tempering and then drawing temper. http://books.google.com/books?id=em2Xmi1_-GcC&printsec=frontcover#PPA21,M1

Basically you heat to red heat, quench (oil is preferred, it cools slower and leaves middle a bit softer) which makes the metal hard and brittle. then you draw the temper a bit by putting a mirror polish on the piece and heating it till the oxidation colors shift to the color that you are looking for. As near as I can recall purple yields an edge for wood, and a bronze color a bit harder edge for chisels that are struck. It has been years since I’ve done any of this, and I only tried a few times

-- Fred, Springfield, Ma

SST: If files are hardened, can you grind one down with another file? I don’t have a grinder or anything more high-powered than my right arm.

-- Eric at http://adventuresinwoodworking.com