Hacksaw carving tools

[mudd turtle]

How does one go about making carving tools from hacksaw blades.

 

[Black Hand]

Hacksaw blade would not be my first choice for carving tools. The composition of the steel is uncertain.

I made a collection (25-30) from high-carbon small and large cut nails. These nails can be annealed, shaped, quenched and tempered - yields good blades that hold an edge. Whenever I needed a new shape, I made a new chisel...

 

[omarick1948]

Carving tools is pretty general. What type of carving tools are you wanting to make?

 

[Eric Krewson]

I like to make specialized chisels out of concrete nails as well.

I call this one a nose chisel, I shaped it to cut the perfect morise for the nose of a Late Ketland lock.

 

[pondoro]

What is the heat treat process for tools made of concrete nails?

Thanks

 

[Black Hand]

The same as for a knife blade - heat to cherry red, quench in oil and temper at ~375F for an hour.

 

[pondoro]

The same as for a knife blade - heat to cherry red, quench in oil and temper at ~375F for an hour.

Thanks! Gonna try this soon.

 

[mudd turtle]

Horner: I have a book on carving stocks and the guy did the background carving with tools he made from good steel used hacksaw blades. I thought if I could find someone to make me some carving tools i would pay them to make me the tools I would need. Thanks for your reply . Mudd Turtle.

 

[MSW]

The same as for a knife blade - heat to cherry red, quench in oil and temper at ~375F for an hour.

Black hand - thank you!!

gotta remember that... i will print it out and post it in my woodshop, where i will be able to find it later, amongst the detritus and the clutter.

(if a clean desk is the sign of a sick mind, i must be the healthiest guy in the state)

 

[Eric Krewson]

I don't temper my concrete nail chisels, just heat them and quench them. They tend to be a little brittle but they get minimal use as speciality tools and hold up fine for this.

 

[Rifleman1776]

One big safety caveat: Be sure to put as long a tang on your chisle as you can. Short ones can, and will, break through the sides. This is a dangerous propsition because the blood will stain your wood. :shocked2:

 

[rich pierce]

Mud Turtle, hacksaw blades are too flexy for all but the most delicate carving tasks. Any flex in a carving tool can cause disaster.

If you want to make a bunch of small tools, get a few 36" pieces of W2 or O1 drill rod, 3/16" diameter for small, narrow tools, and 1/4" for wider tools. I use a propane torch with a broad flame and a makeshift oven of 4 firebricks to heat the drill rod. An anvil and a good hammer and you can make chisels, gouges, v chisels, dogleg chisels, and scrapers for a $20 investment.

Nasty old small files nobody wants for actual filing make great chisels obviously.

 

[Zonie]

I like my Flexcut carving chisels and they are quite thin so, I measured the thickness of their blades.

The Flexcut blades are .052-.053 thick in the area that fits into the handles.
(The rest of the blade is the same thickness until it reaches the sharpened cutting end, where it tapers to a razor blade sharpness.)

A hacksaw blade I just measured is .024 thick.
That's less than half the thickness of the Flexcut chisels.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

I was given a few dozen hack saw blades by a neighbor. They are much heavier than the standard hack saw blades, they are made of metal that is about two and a half times as thick as regular blades and the blades are nearly an inch wide. the teeth per inch is less too, but they cut through brass with far less effort than a coarse tooth regular blade. I just mention this to note that there are other hack saw blades than the ribbon like ones we usually envision.

My one and only attempt at a carving tool, was banged/ ground out of an old narrow stanley chisel.

 

[ZUG]

Those hacksaw blades are probably used on power hacksaws. They are much thicker, wider, and longer that hand held hacksaw blades.

 

[Col. Batguano]

Can you cut a hack saw blade as it comes out of the box, or do you need to heat it to soften first?

 

[Black Hand]

Hacksaw blades are relatively soft.

 

[Zonie]

Most of the modern hack saw blades are fairly soft under the area of the teeth.

The teeth are induction hardened which just heats up the teeth and a localized area just below them and then the area is quenched to harden it.

If you plan on easily cutting thru the blade it would be a good idea to anneal it first.

I have done this by heating an area to a bright cherry red and then slowly backing my torch flame away from the blade in stages.
This essentially cools the area very slowly so it doesn't re-harden.

 

[Bagman]

Have to try that one....good to know :thumbsup:

 

[Tinker2]

I have used power hacksaws blades for scrapers and some special purpose chisels.
Don’t use the bi metal ones.

William Alexander