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Thread: 1095 Steel bar stock?

  1. #16
    I have 3-4 of their scrapers that I grind for special use tools. Can’t beat the price and for limited use, they hold a decent edge.

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  2. #17
    I do the same - I've noticed some of their scrapers aren't hardened very far down the tool. After an inch or so they can get pretty soft. Some are hard 3-4 inches down... it's part of the deal for such cheap tools, I suppose. I just wish I was proficient in heat treating.... I need a lesson!

  3. #18
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    I wonder about the hardening going down the shaft 3-4" from the end. It maybe a good idea and not "cheap". If one would harden a tool all the way, the hardened area would be on the tool rest and be subjected to bouncing and potential small Knicks. The area on the tool rest is also the area with the highest stresses. A hardened tool steel with these conditions are much more likely to abruptly fracture during use. I would rather have the steel be softer in that area and not likely to break.

    I guess I am trying to say there might be a good reason not to harden the entire shaft.

  4. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Larry Frank View Post
    ...If one would harden a tool all the way, the hardened area would be on the tool rest and be subjected to bouncing and potential small Knicks. The area on the tool rest is also the area with the highest stresses. A hardened tool steel with these conditions are much more likely to abruptly fracture during use. I would rather have the steel be softer in that area and not likely to break.
    I've got some good quality drill bits made like that - hardened from the tip to past the end of the flutes and soft where gripped in the chuck. That can actually be a disaster for drill bits - I had a clamp come loose while drilling steel with a 3/8" bit and instead of it breaking the shaft bent about 30 degrees - you can imagine what that did before I got the drill press cut off.

    For the lathe, maybe the type of tool and use would make a difference. A bowl gouge or big scraper with a long handle, for example, may be subject to considerable force when used aggressively or by unskilled hands. Other tools like the skew chisel, on the other hand, have almost no force on the tool rest. I often use skews, small scrapers, spindle gouges, and other tools with very short handles (or no handle at all) and the forces on the rest are insignificant. In spindle turning I often hold the tool in one hand; if it bounces I'm doing something terribly wrong. Even with large face work you can easily illustrate controlled cuts by guiding a sharp bowl gouge with just one hand on the tool, probably not possible if the gouge is bouncing.

    I have accumulated a box of a bunch of "cheap" tools for beginners and such and found that some of even the same brand are hardened to different lengths and a few not hardened at all! To me, this indicates sloppy work and poor QA or just cheap manufacturing.

    I think I'd rather have the entire tool hardened, such as Thompson does with his tools. (I even sharpen both ends of some)

    JKJ

  5. #20
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    I think hardened is such a generic term and can have a wide area of actual meaning. Depending on the grade of steel hardening along the entire length might be fine because the heat treatment with proper tempering and you have a hard but tough product. I would guess this may be the case with more expensive tools.

    With a quick heat treatment on cheaper grades, I would not want it hardened along the entire length. I appreciate the fact that as a metalllurgist I may see and understand these things differently than others.

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