Bush hammer or pneumatic point

["Disbrow Consulting" <diz@zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

Hi Norm,
I  feel that I am out of my league when I talk about detempering metal and
hard facing.  I do what I was taught, and take it as sort of gospel because
it works at least for me in the primitive kind of work that I do.  We have
real scientists here on the list that would probably be a far better
authority than am I, but here goes...

Tool Steel is meant to be hard... very hard.  It has a lot of advantages in
a lot of applications.  Almost all tools today (and for the last several
decades) are made of tool steel.  Years ago they were made with either the
steel that was available or from the preferred steel for the application.
An example of the former is a hammer I found of the 5-7 pound range that was
made out of a section of detempered railroad rail.  They heated it up, made
a couple piercings for a sledge style head (EYE) while the steel was red
hot, and then detempered the steel to be softer.  Softer steel has the
advantage of not making your arms feel like rubber bands in a short period.
They are also easier to regrind later when the need to take off the
mushrooms arises and it tends not to throw off big chips of the harder tool
steel that really could "put your eye out".  The disadvantage to this is the
mushrooming that occurrs when the softer steel hits something as hard as
granite on a regular basis.  this is why we hard face these tools.  The
general rule for steel as I learned it, is that if you want it to get harder
(or temper it), get it as hot as you can, and then quench the steel
temperature quickly.  If you want the steel to soften, heat it as hot as you
can and let it cool slowly.

Here in the backwoods where we still supplement our heating with wood, we
can place the head in the fire when we go to bed, and fish it out of the
ashes in the morning.  We repeat this several times ( with druid dances and
chanting.. sorry can't help myself.. just kidding) until we figure that the
steel is soft enough.  In my case there really isn't much science to it.
The head will be a softer almost mild steel when we get it to where we want
it to be.  It will then be too soft to last long as an effective stone tool.
It won't vibrate your arms to rubber, and it won't throw off those big scary
chips of steel, but it will give you a lovely mushroom crop.  You then "hard
face" the business end of the tool.  This is done by connecting a harder
striking face to the existing face of the tool.  When done professionally I
understand that they heat the steel to a couple hundred degrees,  weld or
attach the harder material to the softer tool edge and then cool
appropriately for the preferred temper of both the steel and the harder
material.  I have talked to a couple Smiths who claim that "firewelding" and
"Jumping-Up" are the only ways to go, but let's leave that to those here who
really know what they are talking about?  When I hard face a tool (Please
let me stress that this is not the correct way to do it.) I begin with a
detempered head, grind the face to the way I want it, run a bead or three of
welding rod down the face of the business end, and then finally regrind the
face to what I need with the new hard business end.  I  have to admit that I
sometimes just run a bead or three down an unground face and work from
there.  It depends on how much time I have, and how lazy I am that day.  I
also have to admit that hardfacing done properly lasts a whole lot longer
than my botch jobs.  Does that make some sense Norm?

Craig Disbrow
Week-end Warrior

  > I am going to start work in the next couple of weeks on an article