I have been using a cold Chisel to hot cut for a couple of years and have been meaning to buy a hot (use) Chisel for a couple of years. I finally just made one from a piece of coil spring. I have not used a proper one since i finished a blacksmithing course i took 3 years ago and I am a little worried I may have it too thin at about 1/8th inch thick...so i am wondering if i should go back and remake it or if its fine as is. Also, should I put an edge like a cold Chisel and hut cut hardy on it?
Side note: I have yet to heat treat this, but I plan on just doing an interrupted quench in water to harden it, then letting it auto-temper as i have done with some punches I have made to insure I have a hard cutting edge but a soft striking portion.
Thank you for your time.
What you have there is a slitting chisel, which is a slender hot cut chisel. It will work as long as you cool it in water every 3 hammer blows. Be sure to harden the entire flat part. Otherwise it will bend during use. The edge should be a fat apple seed edge. Many of us will grind flats into the handle so that it can be held with tongs instead of your fingers. Orient the flats to match the cutting edge , that helps to line it up while using.
If you want to forge your own tools, I highly recommend Mark Aspery's first book, the skills of the blacksmith.
Sorry, qoates not working for me and this is a bit rambly.
Dennis P Tingle: Thanks, that's how I hardened it, and I will keep that in mind and keep an eye on it the first time i use it. In the introductory to blacksmithing course I took after...I had been forging for a few years as I found one close to home, I learned by using vice grips to hold them. However, i have a preference for hand-held. (I also always wear a pair of impact gloves and welder sleeves when I forge to help reduce the shock of using the hammer to the hand...and i have had hot scale land on my arm.) i also posted this on blacksmithing Reddit and got the tip to make it an octagon so i did a bit more work on it today before i Hardened it and made it a rough octogon...I dont make tools I make for myself pretty as i dont see the point. This is what it looks like now I would prefer a bit more meat to the shaft on it but i...would rather save my 1 inch rounds for knives since I paid a lot for my pops Hitachi blue steel and Silver Steel so I would rather save that for knives I can sell in the future.
Gerald Boggs: Thanks I will look into that...I also have the skills to copy a simple tool I see...however, in this case, I was making something that looks a lot different from the one available from Blacksmith Depot.com and I wanted to make sure I got it right.
well, I figured I would share the finished Brute de Forge Used hot-cut Chisel. I did go for a Parks 50 oil quench instead of an interrupted water quench in par It works fantastically well i used it to do three cuts on the in-progress blade. I decided to put my mark on it (badly) I dont have much practice with my Dremel, but I could not find my Dremel engraver, which is what I normally use to put my mark on (I get nervous with electricity, so I have yet to buy an Electrochemical etcher plus I did not do much cleaning up so this was the better option). It worked quite well, although I need more practice with it. It cuts cleaner than what I was using before (I cut most of the way through on each side, then Bend off the cut-off part in my vise, then save the parts I cut off to eventually get thrown in a canister). Personally, I would prefer a Thicker grip, so I think I am going to redo the cold Chiseland and make it into one of these. I am going for something like the template, but I want to just put a massive bevel on this and see how wide I can make it.
Thanks for the help.
