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PostPosted: Thu Feb 02, 2017 11:54 pm 
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Trevor Gore posted a process to re-harden cheap chisels in my chisels thread here:
viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=48946#p645796

I decided to have a go at it. No pix - as I managed to perforate one of my fingers during testing. :(

I used a small oxy-mapp gas torch to do the heating. Some olive oil the wife doesn't like for the quenching... And off we go. I added a magnet to test for non-magnetic.

Test subjects were a Chinese Harbor Freight wood handle "wood chisel" ($9.00/6) and a USA made BORG store Buck Brothers with a yellow handle (about $9.00)...

Round one... Results...
Something happened.... The chisels are at least as hard as when they started. I can't really tell if they are harder, though. Interestingly - the Buck Brothers seems to respond better to the treatment than the HF model although initially at the re sharpening after hardening on the work sharp machine - I would have maybe guessed the opposite.

I tested the chisels post hardening by paring Jatoba, cherry, and spruce. Both end grain and long grain. They do well - but not quite as well as the standard LMI chisel.... Though the Buck seems to be on par.

My Thoughts....

1. I am not sure I let the chisels get non-magnetic enough. It went into the quench as soon as it mostly wouldn't stick.

2. Maybe they would do better with a water quench than oil.

3. Oxy-mapp heats way faster than conventional propane.

Opinions?


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PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 1:06 am 
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When welding the gases used make a big difference in the quality of the weld. Is this a consideration when hardening steel. I have no idea myself but the thought occurred to me.

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PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 1:50 am 
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There are 3 different types of tool steel
Air hardening
Oil Hardening
Water Hardening.
The steels are made to quench, and harden at different speeds, which affects the dimensional stability of the steel and also the hardness and/or toughness of the steel. Water hardening is probably the worst for a chisel, it will cool quickly but the steel will be more brittle afterwards. Oil hardening is pretty good on the dimensional stability and will give you a tough edge that should work well for a chisel. Should hold an edge well and not chip or break. Air Hardenng is the whole enchilada usually used to make dies and hard tooling as the stability is superior. If you have some sitting around, use it. Waste of money to buy it for a chisel, IMHO
I don't know what the magnet trick is, although I'm sure the molecular structure of the metal goes into a flux state when heated. I have always used an oxy-acetylene set up to harden tool steel bringing it to s cherry red as I feed into an oil bucket and work my way up the piece. Put it into the oil slowly, if you can hold onto it that long. Putting oil hardening in water is only going to make it brittle, which means it harder but also means you're always sharpening. The cheap chisela are probably water hardening, and a poor grade at that. Pretty sure the Buck are oil. If you really want to get into it Sweedish Steel used to be high quality. I always used Carpenter Technology because of the consistency. Harbor Freight you have no idea what they are using. China has no quality control consistency
Kinda get what you pay for with tools.

Tim


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PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 1:59 am 
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Actually if you going to try it again, harden the Bucks in oil as I said above. After you pull them out of the oil and they are fully cooled. Reheat them slowly up to a light straw color. That will anneal them and if done properly will give you a tough edge.. Hard is brittle. Tough is long lasting for an edge.
The Harbor Freights who knows???


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PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 6:16 am 
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Tim L wrote:
There are 3 different types of tool steel
Air hardening
Oil Hardening
Water Hardening.
The steels are made to quench, and harden at different speeds, which affects the dimensional stability of the steel and also the hardness and/or toughness of the steel. Water hardening is probably the worst for a chisel, it will cool quickly but the steel will be more brittle afterwards. Oil hardening is pretty good on the dimensional stability and will give you a tough edge that should work well for a chisel. Should hold an edge well and not chip or break. Air Hardenng is the whole enchilada usually used to make dies and hard tooling as the stability is superior. If you have some sitting around, use it. Waste of money to buy it for a chisel, IMHO
I don't know what the magnet trick is, although I'm sure the molecular structure of the metal goes into a flux state when heated. I have always used an oxy-acetylene set up to harden tool steel bringing it to s cherry red as I feed into an oil bucket and work my way up the piece. Put it into the oil slowly, if you can hold onto it that long. Putting oil hardening in water is only going to make it brittle, which means it harder but also means you're always sharpening. The cheap chisela are probably water hardening, and a poor grade at that. Pretty sure the Buck are oil. If you really want to get into it Sweedish Steel used to be high quality. I always used Carpenter Technology because of the consistency. Harbor Freight you have no idea what they are using. China has no quality control consistency
Kinda get what you pay for with tools.

Tim


We do some heat treating at work. What steel? What is the end use? And method used? This falls under the nothing to do and all day to do it category :mrgreen:


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PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 7:25 am 
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I think you are supposed to assume it is water hardened and go to oil it water does not work, but things like that are all over you tube. Anyway you will learn a lot. I came close to doing this years ago but found some other solution. But I forgot just what. Sorry.

I have made a lot of plane blades and other thing out of oil harden tool steel and also scraps of spring coils(water hardened). Map gas is the best. Contain the heat in a section of a cinder block as a cheap furnace. This will speed things up.


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PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 8:03 am 
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Sorry if this is a hijack but it might be relevant if someone overshoots the mark re- hardening.

I have a Japanese chisel that sits unused because apparently it's too hard. Periodically I pull it down and re-double my efforts to get an edge on it. It chips during the sharpening process. I keep increasing the sharpening angle, but even at 35 degrees, straight off the stones, the edge is ragged. I had to look at it under a microscope before I realized what was going on. I hate to get rid of it because it's too hard but it just sits unused.

Do any of you metal masters have have a simple method to soften it slightly? I thought we gave chisel manufacturers money to do this stuff for us. idunno


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PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 9:24 am 
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I went through a phase where I was into knifemaking -- I made a bunch of knives and a few chisels, generally forged from O-1 tool steel rounds. I'm no expert, but I'be managed to make some sharp edged tools that get used every day still.

If you have a chisel that is too soft you may be able to heat treat it yourself to make it harder, but you have no idea what kind of steel it's made of, so you are just going to be guessing at the process. If it's a junk chisel, you've got nothing to lose.

Heat treating generally involves heating the steel to it's austenetic temperature, which you can tell by when it loses it's magnetism. Some steels need to soak at that target temperature. Some need to quench in air, some in oil, some in water -- it depends on the alloy. Sometimes there is a a sub-zero liquid nitrogen freeze post quenching. Always there is a post-hardening tempering process to relieve the stress and make the steel slightly softer.

For knives and chisels made from O-1 steel I'd heat them to "cherry red" (inside a shop, if you're outside or it's really bright in the shop this is not very precise). Use a magnet to check that the steel has lot it's attraction. Then plunge into an oil bath (I used a mix of motor oil and tranny fluid, but people use lots of different things from actual quenching oil to lard and parafin). Move the steel slowly in the oil so that it's in contact with fresh oil constantly -- air bubbles on the metal surface or locally superheated oil will slow down the quench rate.

After a minute take the blade out and clean it. It should be hard, and brittle. It would e easy to snap or chip it at this stage. Try a slightly dull file on it, the file should just skate across without cutting into the chisel. Now bake the chisel at 350-400 degrees for an hour. Let cool, and repeat. The higher the bake temperature the more you'll draw the hardness down and the less brittle the tool will be. Too hard is at least as bad as not hard enough.

It's fun to play with, and if you're interested it would be easy to buy some precision ground O-1 tool steel flat bars and make your own chisels using a bench grinder or files, a torch and bucket of oil.

CAD rendering/plans for making a chisel to pare out dovetail sockets
https://mcglynnonmaking.com/2014/11/11/ ... il-chisel/

Chisel I made many moons ago, forge welded nickel foil and 1095 steel top on O-1 tool steel base.
Image

Forged and ground kitchen knife parts ready for finishing.
Image

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PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 10:29 am 
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That's pretty sweet there Joe.

I suppose my question is more.... How do I know I got it where it's supposed to be... Full hard.

What happens if:
Oil hardening steel that I didn't get quite hot enough. Like say it's still barely magnetic instead of fully non-magnetic and then I quenched it in oil. Will it harden but not just all the way? Or will it be kinda gummy?

My chisels are definitely hard - and there is a clear area about 2" back where the steel goes softer. You can feel this clearly with a file.... But they don't "feel" harder than standard out of the box.

Now... The interesting thing is the feel of the chisel in use.

The HF chisels are very sharp and hard and they definitely cut - but they don't feel slick/smooth when cutting, though they leave a very smooth surface.

Both the re-hardened Buck and my LMI chisel feels slick when cutting. The cut has a much better feedback...

Is this the difference between forged O-1 and non-forged but simply ground steel?

I suppose I need to rig up a chisel plane to hold these for a Chris Schwartz sort of chisel test to see whether or not I really did anything worthwhile....

But - just feel wise.... It it feels like to me that "rehardening" a cheap chisel is worthwhile if it's properly forged out of decent steel. Say a Stanley, Irwin, Buck Brothers, Marples, etc. They have otherwise good, well forged steel and good fine grain structure - they are just intentionally tempered soft for liability (so they don't split in paint can and screwdriver duty).


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PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 10:56 am 
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david farmer wrote:
Sorry if this is a hijack but it might be relevant if someone overshoots the mark re- hardening.

I have a Japanese chisel that sits unused because apparently it's too hard. Periodically I pull it down and re-double my efforts to get an edge on it. It chips during the sharpening process. I keep increasing the sharpening angle, but even at 35 degrees, straight off the stones, the edge is ragged. I had to look at it under a microscope before I realized what was going on. I hate to get rid of it because it's too hard but it just sits unused.

Do any of you metal masters have have a simple method to soften it slightly? I thought we gave chisel manufacturers money to do this stuff for us. idunno


Hey David-
I had the same problem with a cheap Japanese marking knife and asked some Japanese hand tool experts(?) and the consensus was to put it in a 400f toaster oven for 2 hours and look for a wheat straw color around the bevel. At 2 hours it was past the straw color and towards slight blue. This took care of the chipping and now it's a good paint can opener. Way too soft for a knife. When I find my roundtuit I'll reheat, quench and temper it again. But...use the kitchen convection oven for more even heat, sneak up on it with a 350f oven for an hour, check color, increase the temp and check frequently. My toaster oven probably overshot.



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PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 1:13 pm 
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I never had the luxury of you tube when I learned. They pulled me into the tool and die room after running the 120 ton presses for a year. I learned the old fashion way, hands on. Embarrassingly enough, that was 47 years ago making the card cages for IBM. You know, where they sorted the punch cards for the computer. Way before PCs. Computers took up a full temperature controlled room at both NCR and Northrup. For the big dies we used Air Hardening and it was hardened in a gas controlled furnace. For small things, like drill fixtures we used oil hardening, either O1 or O2. When we switched to steel rule dies we used oil hardening and flame hardened and oil quenched by hand, no furnace. I also worked in a shop where I was given free reign to use whatever was needed to make holding and drill fixtures. Everything went into gas environment furnaces, brought to color and then held for a specific amount of time before removing from the furnace. Then back in to anneal. Everything was done by color and time. After starting my own shop in '78, I flame hardened all my drill fixtures, holding fixtures and special cutting tools by hand. With what I know, and it may not be much, It would seem to me one would need to know what kind of material they are starting with and what the end game is, before starting. If you really want to harden a chisel, why not go buy some quality tool steel from MSC and make your own? You should be able to make one on a bench grinder by hand.
There is nothing worse than trying to work with than a dull blade and I still have a scar that wraps around my thumb and into the middle of the palm of my hand to remind me of that. No matter how much money I save, it isn't worth it to me if it increases the chance that will happen again.
Good Luck

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PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 1:47 pm 
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One of my former hobbies was building R/C model airplanes. Along the way I found a document that discusses techniques for tempering steel wire to make it springy so it will deflect, but not take a permanent set.

Here's the document I found most useful. It talks about using color to determine hardness.

http://vaillyaviation.com/images/Workin ... 0_web_.pdf

Basically, you heat the wire then, quench it to temper it. Then, steel-wool the wire to get it shiny, then heat it slowly watching the color to return it to a specific hardness, but without it being brittle.


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PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 4:03 pm 
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Tim L wrote:
For the big dies we used Air Hardening and it was hardened in a gas controlled furnace. For small things, like drill fixtures we used oil hardening, either O1 or O2. When we switched to steel rule dies we used oil hardening and flame hardened and oil quenched by hand, no furnace. I also worked in a shop where I was given free reign to use whatever was needed to make holding and drill fixtures. Everything went into gas environment furnaces, brought to color and then held for a specific amount of time before removing from the furnace. Then back in to anneal. Everything was done by color and time. After starting my own shop in '78, I flame hardened all my drill fixtures, holding fixtures and special cutting tools by hand. With what I know, and it may not be much, It would seem to me one would need to know what kind of material they are starting with and what the end game is, before starting.


So... In your experience.... What happens when you don't get material quite up to temperature? I was using magnetic/nonmagnetic as a proxy for knowing the specific right temperature/color..... This is pretty thin stuff - so it's not going to need a long soak to heat it through like a 2" shaft would...

Or... Is this just maybe a case of "it's hardening to whatever the alloy will take in oil..."

Or... Since it's pretty hard - do I just need to grind a little more material off in case there is a surface layer where the carbon got burned out....

Thanks


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PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 9:02 pm 
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As long as it's getting cherry red it's going to harden. If its not getting cherry red it's not really fully hard. I really don't know where you are with that but you could retry the heating process and see what happens. There is more of a problem if it's overheated or heated for to long., which is why it's better to heat slowly and keep your flame on the thicker metal than letting it directly hit the edge. If you keep the torch moving over the whole part the thinner bevel edge should naturally go red first. Once something is hardened, cherry red, I've never had to redo it. Like others have said hit it with a file and see how it reacts. If the file won't cut you should be good. If it cuts you're not hard. At that point maybe it's the quality of the steel. Thats one reason I suggested buying tool steel from MSC. At least you know what it is.
Anneal afterwards.


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PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 11:06 pm 
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Mark Fogleman wrote:
Hey David-
I had the same problem with a cheap Japanese marking knife and asked some Japanese hand tool experts(?) and the consensus was to put it in a 400f toaster oven for 2 hours and look for a wheat straw color around the bevel. At 2 hours it was past the straw color and towards slight blue. This took care of the chipping and now it's a good paint can opener. Way too soft for a knife. When I find my roundtuit I'll reheat, quench and temper it again. But...use the kitchen convection oven for more even heat, sneak up on it with a 350f oven for an hour, check color, increase the temp and check frequently. My toaster oven probably overshot.


Thanks for sharing your attempt Mark. Unfotunately My chisel wasn't cheep. If I find my roundtuit :) before you, I'll give your amended recipe a try and report back. Then you can go to school on me. Baking my chisel in the oven for an hour is about the amount of effort I'm willing to give. After that it's a write off.

Thanks to Tim L and everyone for sharing their knowledge. Interesting stuff. Judging by how few of the many chisels I own have that just right hardness, hardening and tempering must be a little tricky. Even for the big manufacturers. Maybe sometime I'll even try the oil dunk on some Sorby's I have that fold like cheese on a stick.


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PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 11:57 pm 
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Tell us more about your Jap chisel and your sharpening method. What type of steel, stones, etc.

Here's one thing I have run into....
Certain alloys like A2 and conventional HSS can have some pretty coarse carbide grain structures. If you use water stones or conventional stones - you end up pulling the carbides out of the edge rather than grinding the carbides. And you end up with a jagged and dull "sharp" edge....

On these - you either have to go with expensive sandpaper (and change it often) or diamond stones/paste.

Another is a softish steel that makes a wicked wire edge. The wire edge then tears off and it leaves a ragged dull mess. The remedy there is to do very few strokes on one side then flip and do a few strokes, repeat. This sort also needs a light touch.


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 04, 2017 1:07 am 
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truckjohn wrote:
Trevor Gore posted a process to re-harden cheap chisels in my chisels thread here:
viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=48946#p645796

Those were Marples and Irwin chisels, which, whilst certainly not top drawer, I wouldn't call them cheap either. I would expect "decent" steel even if M/I don't say exactly what it is. The specs on the current versions of these chisels quote "high carbon steel" which doesn't tell you a whole lot, but does mean they're hardenable. My (fallible) recollection when I bought them (many years ago) is that mine were a Vanadium/Molybdenum (i.e. alloy) steel and I assumed that was why I couldn't get the brace carver to harden first time around. But I also likely didn't get the temperature right and I quenched in water.

For those wanting a fuller explanation of the process, try this. It seems that time-to-temperature and target temperature are important (see my original post). Also, I didn't do a post-quench temper, but didn't run into a brittleness problem. My oil quench was not very large, so that might have limited the cooling rate which avoided the problem. I don't know. However, what I did certainly worked for me.

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PostPosted: Sat Feb 04, 2017 1:28 pm 
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Trevor - you need to take your "how to" post and put it into the "How to" section.

And it's a lot easier than it seems like it would be. It takes longer to read the instructions and find all your junk than it does to heat and quench the chisel.

On the cheap connotatively vs denotatively (aka Price vs Value) ... The steel in those UK/USA made chisels is very good steel and it's well forged.

This experiment was:
1. Because I love to tinker and can't leave well enough alone. ;)
2. Because I am annoyed that several of my chisels are too soft for my tastes
3. Then I threw in the HF China chisels to see about sows ears and silk purses. ;)

The Buck chisel costs about what the whole set of HF chisels at $9.00. Similar price range as the Marples/Footprint/Irvin. This is still "cheap" for chisels.

The Buck chisel hardens very nicely and has a great smooth slick feedback when chiseling... Indications are that it has good steel that is well forged to minimize grain size. It just appeared to be tempered soft for very obvious reasons..... On the machine post hardening - it really doesn't form a wire edge - so much as grind off in powder. I am going to re-handle it with an LMI style chisel handle.

The Harbor Freight chisel hardening is still indeterminate. It doesn't "seem" any harder than an unhardened control version of the same. On sharpening - it does take a wire edge. My next step on this one is going to be a water quench.

Thanks


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PostPosted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 4:03 pm 
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Ok. An update

I have done a couple more chisels now.

#1 process. The oil heats up quite fast. It seems like you get 2 small chisels or 1 larger chisel before your oil is too hot to properly quench the steel. I think I may need a water or ice bath to cool the oil after each chisel.

#2 pitfalls... Warping. The biggest one for me is my banana shape chisels. Groan. The first few came out reasonably well.... But then it seems like something went sideways in the heating process. I think I got a little over confident and tried to harden a lot more than the first inch or 2....

I will try reheating those on the opposite side to see if I can warp them back enough for them to be usable.... But I am not holding my breath.

In the future - I will probably only heat the first 1" of the chisel to minimize warpage.

#3. Oil vs water. The LMI chisel and a Narex wouldn't harden with an oil quench for love nor money. I water quenched it and it hardened - but warped more.

#4. They are hard hard hard after doing this.

#4. Grinding them after hardening. These hard chisels eat sandpaper on my work sharp. I am going to need to pull the trigger on a pack of worksharp sandpaper.


Last edited by truckjohn on Tue Feb 07, 2017 12:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Mon Feb 06, 2017 10:36 pm 
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truckjohn wrote:
Tell us more about your Jap chisel and your sharpening method. What type of steel, stones, etc.

Here's one thing I have run into....
Certain alloys like A2 and conventional HSS can have some pretty coarse carbide grain structures. If you use water stones or conventional stones - you end up pulling the carbides out of the edge rather than grinding the carbides. And you end up with a jagged and dull "sharp" edge....

On these - you either have to go with expensive sandpaper (and change it often) or diamond stones/paste.

Another is a softish steel that makes a wicked wire edge. The wire edge then tears off and it leaves a ragged dull mess. The remedy there is to do very few strokes on one side then flip and do a few strokes, repeat. This sort also needs a light touch.



John, I use a couple of DMT diamond plates followed by a Spyderco ceramic stone. A wire edge is never formed. It chips as the stones are cutting. It's the only tool I've ever had do that. I've used every sharpening media at some point over the years.

I have to say, these two chisel threads are cracking me up at this point.
Mark and I have to explain why we are having Baked chisel for dinner, Murray is advocating a homemade Baltic birch surface grinder, and John is down in the trenches, turning his chisels into banana's and needs a water bath to cool his Oil bath. :)
Thanks guys, it's now going to be a piece of cake to pitch my crummy chisel in the trash with a smile on my face. [uncle] laughing6-hehe


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 12:22 am 
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Send it to me and I will ruin it for you. ;)


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 12:52 am 
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Brazilian Rosewood
Brazilian Rosewood

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First name: John
Last Name: Cox
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So speaking of bananas and ruined chisels.....

Some more on my saga...

I am trying to clean up the least warped of the Harbor Freight chisels to see if I can get anything useful out of them. I am using my Worksharp... Wow does this sort of duty EAT sanding disks.

Wow, those cheap Chinese chisels do not hold their hardness well. You can draw the temper with McDonalds coffee!.... They went from glass hard back down to about where they started just with me grinding and sharpening them. I am doing all this barehanded... So the steel can't get all that hot before I can't hold it.... It didn't even start to turn yellow at the cutting edge!

The Narex is next hardest. It seems like it's harder than where I started but not as hard as that Buck Brothers chisel.. It's hardness stability is much better than the HF chisels... Probably indicates a better alloy used.

The Buck Brothers is king of the hardness in this test... I can gouge the HF chisels and scratch the Narex and LMI chisels with the hardened buck.

So where did all this end up?
1. Over 50% of the chisels in my test were ruined. I will probably should not fool with those any more, chunk them in the trash and move on... The reality is that I can't leave well enough alone... So of course I will have to throw more good money after bad and try to straighten them back out. ;)

2. The incoming steel quality has a large effect on the results. While $9.00 for a set is great if you need a starter set on the cheap - the Harbor Freight chisels aren't really made of great steel. They are hard enough out of the package (probably Rc 58-60 range). That appears to be about the useful limit for hardness that you can get out of them because they are limited by the alloy.

3. The surprises for me were the Narex and LMI chisels. Both appear to be some sort of water hardening steel that will not harden in oil... They obviously have decent enough steel - as they don't soften as quickly as the HF chisels.

4. The good surprise was the Buck Brothers chisel. It hardened nicely, quenched properly in oil, and didn't warp enough to be an issue... It was also hard enough to put impressive scratches in all the others. And it takes a crazy sharp edge.

So... This now makes me curious about how Hardware store Stanley chisels would do....


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 8:14 am 
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Koa
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Location: Durango CO
First name: Dave
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gaah John your efforts have called my bluff as someone who can let this kind of thing go!

I tried one more time to put a 35 degree edge on my chisel. Carefully and gently. It's not going to happen. I wish I had a way to get a picture from microscope to computer.
There are no McDonalds near enough so into the oven it will go. 350 degrees for one hour or straw color, witch ever comes first. But that's it! No nasty buckets of hot oil!

If oven tempering doesn't work, I'll gladly donate the cadaver to science. Pm me your address and it's all yours.

I have a Stanley hardware chisel I bought at least 15 years ago and used for rough carpentry . It's now in my shop because the only thing that holds an edge better are my Hirsch chisels. It's metal is hard. Maybe It's a lucky one or it was a good year. The problem is it's Short uncomfortable handle, thick crude blade, and extreme weight. Other than that it's perfect! :)

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 10:14 am 
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Brazilian Rosewood
Brazilian Rosewood

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I think I would just try giving the blade a brief soak in boiling water first before going to the oven. Then - if that didn't work, I would go 300 rather than 350.. You just want to drop the hardness a bit.. Not to take it down to "hardware store chisel AKA paint can opener/screwdriver/nail puller but you could also use it as a chisel..."

Another option is to give it a whirl on an electric sharpener like a worksharp. You can definately draw the temper on a chisel with one of those. ;)

Thanks


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 10:24 am 
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Brazilian Rosewood
Brazilian Rosewood

Joined: Thu Feb 12, 2009 10:27 pm
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Location: South Carolina
First name: John
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david farmer wrote:
. I have a Stanley hardware chisel I bought at least 15 years ago and used for rough carpentry . It's now in my shop because the only thing that holds an edge better are my Hirsch chisels. It's metal is hard. Maybe It's a lucky one or it was a good year. The problem is it's Short uncomfortable handle, thick crude blade, and extreme weight. Other than that it's perfect! :)


LMI sells the same handles they put on their chisels for about $10 each. It's a comfortable handle. Chop off that plastic handle and stick a good handle on it. It's worth the trouble if you like the chisel.


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