Making your own tools

[Captain_Bandaid]

Re: Making your own tools

Big Sid, I have seen chisels made from spade drills for sale at carving shows. Never tried one but I hear they work well. Another thought is to use the shaft from a golf club. The shafts on the newer ones are 5160 and are hard enough to take and hold a fair edge. The round shape makes it a natural for a variety of sweeps from one shaft. Cut a section long enough to mount in a handle, cut diagonally across the cutting end with a hack saw, then cross-cut to remove a 1/2 section and presto...ok, not presto, ya gotta grind an edge on it but not much work involved.

[Big_Sid]

Re: Making your own tools

Thanks Capt'n. I might try one of those golf clubs as I do more carving these days than I do golf. I've even started carving my golf balls. It is fun to make the tools but I do find the people who do it professionally have much better tools and I try to buy some every chance I get. I have about 10 times more tools than I already need but you never know when you might need some for a friend who is just starting to learn to carve.

[millhoused]

Re: Making your own tools

I make carving knife blades from .050' power hacksaw blades I buy from an industrial supply house. I just make sure they are the blades that are hardened the entire width of the blade. Some blades only have the edge hardened. I cut the blank with my dremel cutoff wheel. I cut for 1 sec. then put the metal in water to cool. I have never had a problem with overheating. After the blank is cut I place it in a handle made from scrap hardwood and glue it in with gorilla glue. After the glue dries I shape the blade and handle then sharpen it. Works well and lasts forever.

[Captain_Bandaid]

Re: Making your own tools

:P I tried using an alloy jig saw blade for a knife. It did not work very well as it was still too soft to really hold an edge. It is tough to beat forged O1 or W1 tool steel for taking and holding an edge.