Toolmaking Art

I have been needing to shape and temper a bit of steel for quite some time, but have put it off with one thing or another.  My belt grinder has been acting flakey, so I really need to put together a bunch of parts I have been collecting and make a better one.  A couple [...]

When making simple hand tools, a ferrule is an important addition.

The ferrule on the knife was made by heating a nut on punch, to a nice cherry red an then beating it with a hammer. This gave it a good angled inner surface that jams on tight to a wooden mortise. This makes [...]

Here is a bowl of goop.  Below it  is a blade I used the goop on.  The blade was painted with the stuff, and then heated to a nice cherry red for about 15 minutes. Then it was quenched  in safflower oil.

I had to put a cover on the oil, the oil caught [...]

I have quite a few projects planned that are going to need blades.  So I am going to have to get back to work grinding shaping and mangling steel.   On top of that, I really, really need to clean up several of my work areas.  They have gotten a bit unruly and need to be [...]

Derek Cohen has done a Comparison of Diamond Grit vs Green Rouge. It is great to see interest in diamond spreading, even though this review does not come out positive for diamond grit.
For some background, Derek Cohen is in my opinion one of the great woodworkers on the net.  He shares his methods and [...]