Home Made Tools

[Pete Rieger]

Rawhide or sinew is what has traditionally been used as a wrap.Applied wet,and stretched, it shrinks and hardens when it dries. Available in rawhide dog chew toys or traditional archery supplies(sinew). If you hunt, make your own.I used green garden cord to wrap my crooked knife(on the advice of a native carver), but it has to be incredibly tight or it works itself loose. I layed a loop of the cord from the blade to the rear of the handle then back to the blade then wrapped back to the rear, covering the loop as i wrapped, when i got about 2 inches i passed the end through the loop left sticking out from the wrap, pulled both ends tight using pliers, then tied snug knots in both ends to stop them from slipping.The handle has to be trimmed to match the width of the blade to prevent sideways movement.I figured this out through trial and error,and the blade is tight as a nun's purse. Hardwood and rivets would have been way more simple. sorry for the long explanation,too much coffee tonite!

[Eddy-Smiles]

I'm not quite sure how tight a nun's purse is but you just described a bit of basic marlinspike seamanship! Works everytime! We recently had another thread where one of the guys uses the same technique. I found a description of whipping in my basic seaman handbook from long ago. A photo of it is at: Arthritis

[mark yundt]

I've made knives for carving,,kitchen type knives with acid etched designs in the blades,,chisels,, gouges,,adjustable heat burners,a variety of burner tips,router bits,,shaper bits,,texturing bits for my old dremel,,reground knives for my planer to make custom mouldings,,a variety of adjustable clamps,,vises,,hold downs for carvings,,hinges,,texturing punches,,most all of my sculpting tools,,solid brass hammers,,, lathe bed extensions (8 ft) an 8 ft adjustable tool rest for the same lathe,lathe turning tools and jigs,,custom router bases to do radiused pieces ( radius as in a sphere or a column) ,,a duplicator made out of a drill press with a 2 axis sliding table,,an 6 ft x 12 ft elevator,,an extending arm with swivels to hold my camera,,aww ,, I'm getting tired thinking of all the stuff I've made,,,lets not get into antique truck parts,,,,or tools used for things other than carving,,,

[TUKLONITA]

By swapping around I acquired a huge wood-burner with a very large fire-box and door... but no bottom grate to hold fuel. I borrowed a wheel from some sort of foreign vehicle... placed it in the bottom above the ash removal... attached the discharge duct of a 16 gal ShopVac for blast and... my left handed forge was born... (no disrespect to "leftys" intended)
Now for the kind of steel that I thought would make good blades... Found that it's expensive and not something I really want to invest in... but, there are a multitude of very used "lawn-mower" blades available if you can convince the owner that you're not just plain crazy for wanting 'em... "Lawn-Mower- Blades" because I have stumps and rocks that tweak blades on the rider and I have had to try straightening this tough steel... or come up with another $40.00 for a new set... 3/16" or 1/4" is too thick for carvering blades... but for an adze or axe. it's great...

[mark yundt]

I've made quite a few knives out of old circular saw blades,,carving,,kitchen,,all types,,take the temper out of it,,shape it,,then retemper and anneal it,,it's tool steel..and can be hardened to whatever rockwell level you want,, I've also used old industrial band saw blades as well as some rather large blades from a saw mill as well as the large (industrial type) hack saw blades (3/32) . Plenty of decent tool steel around for cheap if not free. You can also pick up some old kitchen knives,,you can get quite a few carving knives out of them,,it's good steel as well.The small knife I made out of an old straight razor,,the large chisel was a broken old file,,as were some of the other gouges,,the lagre chefs knife ( which I started years ago) was a hacksaw blade,,I've brazed on brass for ferrules and have to add handles yet,,but you get the ideas...

[Goody]

Thought about a patton but don't want to build any more of these plus it would be a very limited market. There is a second phase of this machine to automate it with a plc and some stepper motors. Its easy to use and I don't want to tear it apart right now to automate it as its the only way I can keep up with my carving orders. Also a picture my carving bench made from an old dental chair and my homemade sharpening system.
Goody