?? Designing Garden Tool

I will just figure out how to do the HT. I want to try to sell this as a consumer product and to offer it at a viable premium price it needs to look as nice as possible. So the blade needs to have an attractive blackened finish. Maybe if I can sell a few of these I can scale up and maybe some other shop can do the HT for a larger number of blades in a cost-effective way.

It must be hard to sell garden tools. Even the pretty nice ones I have seen hand-forged in Holland or Japan are priced really cheap.
 
It doesn't cost all that much to have heat treatment done, really. Have you gotten quotes on it from anyone?
 
It can be expensive to have one or two done, relatively. Massively cheaper for a large lot. Depends what country you live in, too.
Aren't you still on the prototype stage? Have a go at HT yourself. It won't take much practice to do a good attractive job.
 
In prototyping, sure--DIY works fine. If entering into any sort of production capacity then the economy of scale will kick in, but even in small batches it shouldn't be prohibitively expensive. I got a dozen blades heat treated when I was putting my Baryonyx Machete design through the prototype phase and Peters' Heat Treat was able to do up to 20lbs of steel for $80, so only $4 per pound. That included cryo treatment and straightening as necessary after heat treatment. You'd be able to get a boatload of those little guys done up at that rate. Granted, this was back in 2010 so things may have changed, but my point is that it was pretty affordable even when I was only getting a small batch done.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
In prototyping, sure--DIY works fine. If entering into any sort of production capacity then the economy of scale will kick in, but even in small batches it shouldn't be prohibitively expensive. I got a dozen blades heat treated when I was putting my Baryonyx Machete design through the prototype phase and Peters' Heat Treat was able to do up to 20lbs of steel for $80, so only $4 per pound. That included cryo treatment and straightening as necessary after heat treatment. You'd be able to get a boatload of those little guys done up at that rate. Granted, this was back in 2010 so things may have changed, but my point is that it was pretty affordable even when I was only getting a small batch done.
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Thanks. I'll try to get some quotes for HT. I hope that I can find some local shops so that I can avoid extra freight charges.

I have gotten three quotes for the laser cutting and they were surprisingly affordable.

I made a quick introduction video with the prototype and here is the link...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kZs-mOYWpE

I am going to do a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo and try to make something like 50 or 100 of them.
 
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Nifty! Please do keep us posted with how the project works out for you. Always nice to see innovation in hand tools for vegetation management.
 
Contact knifemaker Delbert Ealy for the cheapest heat treatment around. You can do a google search for Ealy Knives and it will come up since we are not allowed to post up links to non member sites. I have had him heat treat a bunch of my own handmade blades and he has only charged me $5.00 per blade plus the shipping cost which is usually around 7 or 8 dollars. Tell him the steel type and the hardness you are looking to achieve when you send him the blades and he will usually get the blades back to you within 30 days or less. The last batch of 3 or 4 blades I sent him was about a year ago so make sure you touch base with him in case his charges have gone up or if he is still providing that service. I am very happy with how all of mine have turned out and I have sent him some that were "mystery" steel and they still turned out pretty decent. He is also a very nice person to deal with.
 
mtangent said:
Looks like a good tool.
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Thanks! It seems to work real well. It's a lot faster than hand-pulling and doesn't disturb the soil.

alex said:
Contact knifemaker Delbert Ealy for the cheapest heat treatment around. You can do a google search for Ealy Knives and it will come up since we are not allowed to post up links to non member sites. I have had him heat treat a bunch of my own handmade blades and he has only charged me $5.00 per blade plus the shipping cost which is usually around 7 or 8 dollars. Tell him the steel type and the hardness you are looking to achieve when you send him the blades and he will usually get the blades back to you within 30 days or less. The last batch of 3 or 4 blades I sent him was about a year ago so make sure you touch base with him in case his charges have gone up or if he is still providing that service. I am very happy with how all of mine have turned out and I have sent him some that were "mystery" steel and they still turned out pretty decent. He is also a very nice person to deal with.
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Thank you. This might be useful for a smaller number of blades. To avoid lots of extra freight cost I should try to find a shop closer.

The Indiegogo campaign is up! Here is the link....

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cricket-precision-weeding-tool#/

I have basic information in there now. I will add some more to it.
 
The campaign already drew one backer for the complete tool! Check out the Indiegogo page if you haven't seen it already...

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cricket-precision-weeding-tool#/

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why not add a folding "pedal" to allow the user to push with a foot? it would be on a hinge and normally lie up against the black ferrule, but could swing down to be used.
 
scotchleaf said:
why not add a folding "pedal" to allow the user to push with a foot? it would be on a hinge and normally lie up against the black ferrule, but could swing down to be used.
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European shovels commonly lack a step on them and instead use one of these clamp-on ones.

attrezzo740-400x208.jpg
 
That's a neat tool. I see that the Indiegogo ad says that the steel is heated to 1,100 degrees F before the quench during heat treatment, which sounds too low; might want to double-check that.
 
scotchleaf said:
why not add a folding "pedal" to allow the user to push with a foot? it would be on a hinge and normally lie up against the black ferrule, but could swing down to be used.
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Thanks. This tool is not really meant to be driven into the ground, but instead just works with a quick chopping motion for cutting the plant stem.

But I do have some other design variations in mind, including a heavier blade made with 1/4" steel for chopping big weeds like burdock and thistle.

FortyTwoBlades said:
European shovels commonly lack a step on them and instead use one of these clamp-on ones.

attrezzo740-400x208.jpg
Click to expand...

That's neat. Maybe something like that could be added to another variation.

Mecha said:
That's a neat tool. I see that the Indiegogo ad says that the steel is heated to 1,100 degrees F before the quench during heat treatment, which sounds too low; might want to double-check that.
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Thanks. It works real well. It's a lot easier and faster than hand-pulling. Chopping the top of the weed off might not necessarily kill it, but if you get it at the right time you will slow it down and give other plants an advantage. Since the work moves a lot faster with this tool, it might be easier to return to the area some time later to clean up weeds that have resprouted.

Yeah I was just writing something down. I will work out details and specifications like that when I get closer to getting the steel and other materials.
 
It took a while, but I finally got my laser-cut blanks and I also ground the cutting edges into them. I ended up using the .187" thick 1075 carbon steel from NJ Steel Barron.

I have found access to a small ceramics kiln and I'm going to try the heat treat here. This is my general plan...

  1. Heat blades in ceramics kiln to non-magnetic temp
  2. Oil quench (motor oil in coffee can)
  3. Temper for two hours in kitchen oven at 400F

I hope this sounds OK. Are there additional steps or details I should think about? I believe that I need to let the kiln cool before opening to avoid damaging the heating element. Does it matter if the blades are not exactly orange-hot when quenched?

How can I test hardness and toughness? I want to make sure that I don't assemble these things with brittle blades.
 
To take my questions in another direction, I have wondered lately whether the HT + tempering is really necessary at all. Because of the way that the tool cuts--pushing a soft plant stem into the soil--the cutting edge does not really need to be super sharp. I would be concerned about the tang bending with use, but the blade extends only about 2.5" beyond the handle ferrule. It seems as though this design might not need HT + tempering.

Thoughts?

I could also assemble one of these quick with the handle and blade, then take it outside and see how hard I can torque on it before the tang bends or breaks.

If I decide to forego the extra treatment, it would still be nice for the parts to have a blackened finish. I found this cold-blackening kit with a quick search...

http://www.caswellplating.com/metal-finishing-solutions/black-oxide-kits.html#

How does that look?
 
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