Made an all-steel chisel!

[FortyTwoBlades]

I've wanted a rough-use chisel solid steel for some time now. There's a French company that makes some, and Craftsman and others USED to produce some very nice ones, but I typically am just scrapin' by so don't have a lot of spare cash to throw at tools that are "nice to have" rather than "need to have" and I had come into possession of some worn out 1/2" thick snow plow blades a few years back, so I decided to try making one. While it's mystery steel, an educated guess put it at 1080 or thereabouts, and I used it to make this 1" wide fellow.

Rough-ground. The blade was definitely heat treated, but was soft and tough in its base state--probably around 40 RC and I wanted it a bit harder in the blade.

With the blade and struck end both quenched and tempered. I heated the blade with a torch, quenched in water, and it easily skated a good quality file. I ran it through one tempering cycle before deciding I wanted to harden the struck face as well, softer than a hammer face, but harder than it currently was. I used my mini induction heater to heat the very end and quenched it, then used it to reheat it until it reached LIGHT blue to blue-grey, then dunked in water again just to halt the process before putting it back in for a second tempering cycle. The end result should be about 45 RC on the cap and about 57 in the blade.

Pretty pleased with how it turned out and I've already put it to some use with success. Once I get the time I'll be doing a little 1/4" one as well.

 

[Blue Sky]

Nicely done. A chisel like that is a very handy tool as well.

 

[Square_peg]

The images aren't showing up for me.

 

[DocJD]

I can see the pics .

Pretty cool tool ! Good job .

 

[Square_peg]

I've wanted a rough-use chisel solid steel for some time now. There's a French company that makes some, and Craftsman and others USED to produce some very nice ones, but I typically am just scrapin' by so don't have a lot of spare cash to throw at tools that are "nice to have" rather than "need to have" and I had come into possession of some worn out 1/2" thick snow plow blades a few years back, so I decided to try making one. While it's mystery steel, an educated guess put it at 1080 or thereabouts, and I used it to make this 1" wide fellow.

Rough-ground. The blade was definitely heat treated, but was soft and tough in its base state--probably around 40 RC and I wanted it a bit harder in the blade.

Pretty pleased with how it turned out and I've already put it to some use with success. Once I get the time I'll be doing a little 1/4" one as well.

I see the photos now. Looks like a handy and sturdy chisel. I'm curious, why did you select that shape of bevel? What is the intended use of this chisel?

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

I see the photos now. Looks like a handy and sturdy chisel. I'm curious, why did you select that shape of bevel? What is the intended use of this chisel?

All around rough work. Chopping, prying, paring, both hand-pushed and struck. Think of it as an "Estwing chisel" if that makes sense. Any sort of work liable to damage my nicer ones.

 

[Square_peg]

I made an all metal chisel a few years ago. It's a rough service slick I made purposely for trail work. I was working on a puncheon bridge at the time. But I've found many uses for it since.

It's made from 1" hex bar. I forged out a 2" wide bit and forged it to one side of the stock for flush trimming. I like it because I can beat on it with a 3-pound sledge for quick removal of large amounts of wood. I quenched it in oil and tempered it back to dark bronze.

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IMG 0881 — Postimages

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[Lorien]

that's awesome. I'm impressed.

 

[oldmanwilly]

That's really cool, nice work!