February contest. tools

Stamp and pritchel made from s7
handle made from 3/4x5/16
And stamp handle got a bit of hoose
tempered stamp by getting a shoe hot and leaving the
stamp in the nail hole till cool
made for a e 6
to see how they held up made 3 sets of 3/4 fullers
Seems fine

Verry nice smitty .never heard of tempering that way beut looks like it works

Chris have you used yours yet? Can we see?

I ordered some steel from the site Rick posted. It should get here in time to get in an entry. Nice work shown so far.

Got that tip from paul robinson monty

tried them yes , worked fine , they are just a bog standard stamp and pritchel , they are at a clients now under going heat treatment , apparently my figures earlier are not correct , it is 3 hrs at 450c , air cool then 2hrs at 400c and air cool

Sheesh Chris what are they made of?

from what I understand from manufacturers this is how they do it on modern materials , most tools break down through lack of detailed maintainance , i have picked up several forging tools over the years , had a tinker with a file and emery , heat treated as specified by steel manufactures and bingo , new tools better than the original , by the way S7 for the stamp

My lack of dilligence with cooling has allways ben the death of my tools . I have made punches and pritchals out of cold roll in a pinch and they held up suppriseingly wellas long as they were not over heated. Might have to try your method its verry simular to the way we temper knives.

you just can't beat science when it comes to metallurgy or was it alchemy?

your probobly rite brian just seems like a lot of trouble to go to when your going to un do it in a verry short time

it sure beats shrapnel though

I think you would find the straw 400° range more brittle then blue

Brian a little first year alchemy for youDepending on the tipe of steel used. Straw 400-500° is going to get you 50-62r genraly used in cutting edges such as knifes. Blue 500-600° gets you between 45-59r a hardness genraly used in punches and chisels. A long heat has its advantiges , it gives the molecules time to stabilize how ever a quality struck tool is only hardend at the cutting edge and genraly anealed at the struck end to avoid the shrapnel your talking about. As you can imagen acheaving two different hardnesses in the same stock using the method Chris is discribing would be difficult.

I think my creasers, stamps and pritchels (s7) start off a little soft after the double draw temper but their exposure to hot steel and subsequent air cooling make for tougher tools after a short period of time. Provided I don't get stupid and smash them first.

Having a BB sized piece of a head stamp surgically removed from my arm has made me pay closer attention to metallurgy.

i have always tempered as Brian and Mikel have described and noticed after a lot of use muhrooming and splitting , fractures and luckily for me shattering that missed , stamps needed doing at the end of a day and pritchels constantly , materials are constantly upgrading and metalurgy information is getting better , JA gave a fantastic clinic on these new "revelations " and luckily I have a client who knows these modern processes , she has nursed my tools through them , believe me there is one heck of a difference in how they can be used , when was the last time you fullered at black heat ?

Chris, how big was the hammer you used to fuller at a black heat?

why ?
watch comp videos a lot nowadays start at red and carry on at black . listen to Grant talk about the process , things have moved on ,