Chisels for limestone

[Chad Neff]

I'm half retiring from small town networking repair and want to get back to my roots as an artist, particularly sculpture. I have a small mountain of Central Texas limestone, some regular and a fair bit really hard.
I don't have any tools to work with it effectively. And decent chisels are unbelievably expensive. Sure as the world, as I get back into it, I'm going to want to be able to fashion a extended kit of custom tools, anyway.
So, in the begining, I'm asking what salvage materials I should be looking for. I've heated some rebar to make sharp bends in the foundations on my shop. So I'm about as complete a wanna-be as you're apt to come across. But, I'm highly motivated to fashion hand tools that will not limit what little ability I have left. Self expression wise, I'm begin to dig through these boulders the possiblity of working them into something folks might find worth looking at is daughting. Having effective tools should even my odds a bit.
Thanks in advance for putting up with this wandering question. I'm looking forward to any direction you all can offer.
-chad,

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

A tough impact steel like S-7 would be good, but regular 5160 or 4140 would work. Hex stock would be best.
Harden the whole chisel and then use a torch to draw the shank and end down.
Make the edge at around 30-40° per side.

 

[Chad Neff]

A tough impact steel like S-7 would be good, but regular 5160 or 4140 would work. Hex stock would be best.
Harden the whole chisel and then use a torch to draw the shank and end down.
Make the edge at around 30-40° per side.

Thanks so much,. I'll look them up. I hope to be using these tools for quite a while. -c,

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

A search on the internet will give you stites that sell rock chisels and you can see shaped and styles for different types of cuts and types of rocks. That should help with choices for what to make. Forging is pretty basic, but if you aren't set up for it most any nearby smith would be glad to forge out a bunch of blanks with you just for the fun of it. From there a bench grinder or belt grinder will do the rest. HT can be very simple with a good torch and a gallon of canola or brine. Temper in the kitchen oven at 500° or 550°F