Home made punch question.

V

voodoolord

Joined
Jan 31, 2017
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Made a punch to start hammer eye holes or just punch hot steel. I quenched it but should I temper it also? Seems like it would lose temper being driven through hot steel anyway.

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I'd definitely temper it, and make sure the head is good and soft. Hard hammer on a hard punch is generally a bad idea. Not too fun getting hit by chips breaking off of either. Can be about like getting shot with a BB gun
 
None of the drifts I've used have been heat treated, but if you did harden it you'd want to temper it nice and soft so the first time you hammer on it, it doesn't go *ping* and send jagged pieces of steel into sensitive parts of your anatomy.

Really I don't know why you'd bother to heat treat it. Believe me it's going to get plenty hot drifting a hammer/axe head...
 
Thanks for the advice, tempering it right now. I was thinking that chisels are hardened so I hardened the punch as well. I guess I should just let my next one air cool and use it like that?
 
You want to draw a low hardness Rc 45-50 is the max. The butt should be even softer.
 
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