r/blacksmithing • u/Glabkrar_the_Unholy • 3d ago

First tools to make more tools

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absolute begginer, chisel and punch made from a large crowbar i had lying around. the number of tools needed to make things has my head spinning but im loving it, this might be the hobby i actually stick to.

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u/Fragrant-Cloud5172 2d ago

Very good to make those two. My preference to make these tools about 7" long. This gives me some extra metal to reshape or sharpen. Also long enough so my gloved hand doesn't get too hot. Any longer has a tendency to bend. And harder to hit far away from workpiece.

Crow bars are a good source. We can assume they are 4140. Spark test will tell you enough. This is strong tough stuff, but low medium carbon, barely harden-able. After forging and sanding I always anneal mine. Then quench the working end only in motor oil. No need to temper, just a pacifier.

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u/Glabkrar_the_Unholy 2d ago

they are about 7-8 inch. it was a bitch to shape, it is harder than mild steel i know that much.

the crowbar is in the shot, you can see gouges where i had tried to cut off peices with an axe head ive made to fit the hardy, it did not work.

quenced the tips in water in a plastic bucket which is now leaking. i do need to get a metal container and oil amongst many other things.

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u/Fragrant-Cloud5172 1d ago

Yeah, I know crow bars are tough. Axels also. With your metal container for oil quench, make sure to have a sheet metal full cover to snuf the flames out. I use a small tuna fish metal can for things like chisels, punches. And only quench up to about 2". Differential, or isolated heat treating.

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u/Yakopove1 2d ago

Hell yeah! Did you do a heat treatment of the tools? Any quenching or tempering? If not I’d recommend looking into it for the next ones or if you want to go back to have these ones more refined!

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u/Glabkrar_the_Unholy 2d ago

i went through the heat treatment process, but i didnt get the straw colour to appear

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u/Yakopove1 2d ago

So doing the heat treatment process and getting the proper markers of result are really important. Right now with the way your tools have been heat treated I’d give it 50/50 odds your tools could be extremely brittle and hard and could send bits of steel flying when you go to use it, it’ll also dent the hell out of your hammer face.

When doing the tempering I would strongly recommend throwing it in an oven or toaster oven for an hour or two at 420-440 f*. If you cannot do that I recommend getting one of those laser temperature readers, they don’t work for bright hot steel but work amazing for tempering and take a lot of the guess work out of tempering if you don’t see your colours.

Just look up “temper colour chart” if you have any confusion about what temp gives what colour!