Forging my own hook tools.....

[dan]

Hi everyone, Ive just about finished my home build forge and im going to make some hook tools, ive got Ben Orfords set but want some other shapes and sizes, so my question is:
Do you guys forge them straight, grind the bevels then re heat and bend the hook, then heat treat or do you forge and bend in one go?
Dan.

[Bob_Fleet]

Hi Dan
Try the search box in the top right.
I don't forge but remember seeing all the information over the years.
There are some very detailed posts.
Maybe someone could put the links rather than answer your question.

[SeanHellman]

Forge, grind, bend and then heat treat. I want my tools be have a good ground surface and bevels on them before bending into shape. This way I have a lot less sharpening work to do. Do not sharpen them before heat treating or you probably burn the carbon out of the edge of the steel. Just leave a blunt square edge.

[dan]

Cheers Sean

[Christophe]

Hi everyone,

In regards to what Sean said about leaving a blunt square edge in order to not loose the carbon content, I just remember a trick that was given to me by Tom Sterling (who had it from an old jeweller...etc etc )

In order to reduce the sharpening time once you got your tool harden you can do as follow:
Take a small jar and fill it halfway with boric acid, then fill the rest of the way with "rubbing" alcohol. (in USA that is 70% isopropyl alcohol from the . store), but the type of alcohol isn't important. Ethanol is fine, and probably methanol (wood alcohol) would be OK too.
This simply provides a supersaturated solution of boric acid and the alcohol readily burns away, leaving the boric acid behind. Boric acid will melt in the forge, and is a common ingredient in lots of kinds of soldering fluxes. It's purpose is simply to exclude oxygen from the hot metal. Oxygen will combine with the carbon in the steel forming CO and CO2, reducing the carbon content of the surface layer (decarburization).
And as to how many times you should dip the blade well, dip then burn enough times that you get a good, solid white coating of the boric acid on the blade. Better to have more boric acid on the blade than you need than to have too little...

I used the previous methods for doing a crook knife and it has worked well for me, actually it has worked so well that a friend of mine went away with the knife and I still have to do another one....

Hope this helps.

Christophe

[neilyeag]

Chris, can I clarify. You are using this boric acid concentrate prior to heat treating?


1. Forge, then file the edge close- then bend.
2. Cover with the paste mix and then burn off the alcohol - repeat a few times to get an even coating.
3. Then in the forge- heat to non magnetic and quench in oil?
4. Then normal oven annealing and then final sharpening.

Is this the process?

Neil