Making a few tools and need a bit of advice

Hi Kevin

For the 1/2" round steel, if you have good dry wood and a tight fitt> Hello,

One of the best tools I've made is 1/2" cold roll steel drilled out to accept a

Lot of opinions in absolute dimensions. Mine is to put the handle in 75% of the expected overhang over the rest.

Kevin An inch or two into a handle should be plenty. Most commercial tools use no more. While you look at masonary nails you might also consider some HSS tool bits. Busy Bee Tools have them on sale right now. I just got their new sale flier in the mail. You might like to check out the tool making pages on my site as well.

I think the low cost of hss tool bits makes masonry naiIs and files obsolete. We used to be warned about using them, but many of us did and lived to tell about it. I've heard that today's masonry nails and files are thinly case hardened and their soft innards remove the risk of fracturing. True?

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

Hi Arch

Case hardening is apparently used with some, though I doubt that the fracturing has any bearing on that but rather economic reasons, I still use big body files (auto industry type) for scrapers, the price is right and the steel is hard to beat for scrapers, (they also have teeth only on one side, makes for a lot less work) if you go to thin files they are brittle and I do not use them for making tools, one could after properly heat treating, but there is not much of a profit to be had by doing so, but I find the loose tips you can buy for screw drivers (power as well as handheld) the long ones are 4,5,6" long to be real good steel for making small tools and I've gotten some at surplus places for a buck apiece, and for still smaller tools I do use concrete nails, they work well and one could make a dozen tools for next to nothing, you can roll the nail as opposed to a square piece of hss tool steel, and those of course can be used as inserts in other home made tools. By the way when was the last time you fractured a file by using it as a file, as opposed to a levering tool ???

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

Arch wrote:

Hello Darrell, Your site and the many tips thereon is where I got the idea about making my own. I do have several HSS bits and may well sacrifice one or two for some tools.

Thanks to you and all others for their thoughtful and helpful replies,

-Kevin

=============================== Hi, A good source of HSS bit stock is a flea market. At most any local flea market, someone will have a bunch of drill bits. Sort thru these and a lot will be marked HSS. Sizes between 1/8" to 3/8" can be cut to a usable length to use in an Oland style tool. Typically, several of these bits can be purchased for less than $1.00, maybe less if they are damaged or bunged up some way. They may not be any good as a drill anymore, but you'll only be using the shank, so no harm done for your purposes.

Ken Moon Webberville, TX