Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Floats?
Gary B
>I know that they have something to do with wood plane making, but can anyone tell me what they do and what they look like?!? thanks. I picked up david finck's book on wooden planemaking and I'm going to try a couple, seems real neat. I'm even thinking of making my own irons out of o-1 steel (anyone try that?) I think I can heat treat them in a charcoal grill....we'll have to see.
Link details how *LINK*
Jim in Burlington On
>I didn't harden the one I made out of 01 it seems hard enough for the job. The filing was a horrible long job.
http://www.norsewoodsmith.com/
Re: Floats?
Steve Kubien
>Hi Gary,
As long as your charcoal grill can heat the steel to the point where it loses its magnetism (a magnet no longer sticks to it) then yes you can harden O1 steel. I've made my own travisher blade, tempering it in the kitchen oven. It is hard enough that doing finally shaping of the blade and honing was a real bugger.
Good luck and play safe. That stuff gets kinda warm ya know.
Steve Kubien
Re: Floats?
Gary B
>Steve,
Thanks for the encouragement. How did you heat it up to critical temp before you quenched it? I've heard of people doing it with a mapp gas torch, but I'm afraid of it being uneven......(first time jitters perhaps) thanks
Re: Floats?
John Aniano, in NJ
>Gary,
I have made a number of specialty angled floats out of old files. I use a MAAP torch to take the hardness out of the file by heating it to the blue/gray oxide color and let it cool. I then file off the teeth and then grind the surface if need be. Hold the file in a good vise and start filing away using a large 3-corner saw sharpening file. Follow the tips given on various web sites as for filing rip teeth on a saw blade. The float is basically the same as a rip saw, just much wider and therefor harder to shape the teeth. I did them by eye and a little variation makes the actual cutting properties of the finished float smoother. Joint the tops of the shaped teeth using a diamond stone or india stone and use the 3-corner file to bring the float teeth to final sharpness. No need to harden since they cut wood just fine at the blue/gray temper. Anyway, if you harden them they can't be resharpened using a file, right?
It is pretty easy to make these, just a bit tedious with regards to the filing.
Over and out,
John
Re: Floats?
ThomD
>They can be resharpened if you temper the blade. You can also use triangular hones. There are even diamond hones.
Has anyone seen instructions on cutitng them with a chisel?
Re: Floats?
ThomD
>You need to get it darn hot, and even in charcoal you may need an air source to get the heat up. Or a chimney formation. They don't have to be as large as this, and you can use a hairdryer: http://64.176.180.203/washtubforge.htm
Re: Floats?
Steve Kubien
>I have a small brick forge. The interior is about 1-1/4" high, 5" wide and 8" long. I used 2 MAPP torches coming in from one side and a propane torch on the other. Seems to have worked fine, and it is pretty cool!
Steve Kubien
Re: Floats?
Dan Donaldson
>Cool, huh? I thought forges were supposed to be hot ;-)
Sorry, couldn't resist ;-)
Do you have a picture of what you are using? I would be interested in seeing it.
Re: Floats?
Jim in Burlington On
>My setup is alot less fancy I just heat it with a map torch on a fire brick the redness spreads out in about 5 min of heating. Carefull when you quench the blade the vedge oil spits and catches fire. As for tempering I just put mine in Vedge oil in a old electric frypan set at 350 for a hour for 01 tool steel.
I'll rebuilt it and take a pic
Steve Kubien
>
Re: I'll rebuilt it and take a pic
ThomD
>Brick forges are excellent.
http://www.anvilfire.com/21centbs/forges/microfrg.htm