smiths

[savageknives]

i attempted to punch the eye hole today and found that the metal stretched to much on the walls and not enough lengthwise. do you guys who hammer use a chisel shaped punch or am i totally off base? let me know, thanks

 

[K R Johnson]

I mark where I am going to slit the bar with a cold chisel first and sometimes mark where the sllit will end with a center punch. I do this on both sides of the bar. Then I heat to yellow and use a hot slitting chisel from both sides until I have a hole all the way through. Then drift it to size & shape. My goal is to end up with a hole sized so the drift only has to stretch the hole a little bit to get a nice fit around the drift. You can get both hot slitting chisels and drifts ffrom Blacksmiths Depot. http://www.blacksmithsdepot.com/Tem...heLocation=/Resources/Products/Punches&where=

 

[savageknives]

that makes way more sense than what i was trying to do. thanks much my friend.