Thread: Tapered Brass Ferrules

H Gaza, any chance of some better close up pics of the ferules please? It's a bit hard to see if they are spun out of sheet brass, or machined out of brass bar.
Kryn

Sorry Kryn.... The image is not mine..... I put it up as an example.... The awls I have are missing the Ferrules and I imagine this is what they would have looked like.... Was hoping someone had made something like this and give me some pointers as to the best way to reproduce them.

Thanks Gaza, one way that the could be done, which is the simplest, is to use brass bar. You'll need a lathe, wood lathe and chisels will do the job OK, put a section in the lathe chuck and turn it as you would wood. Work out the taper required, by drawing it on a piece of paper, you'll need the width at the bottom, the one at the top and the length.
You'll need this to work out how far down to drill, working from the narrowest (bottom) draw lines paralell to it about 3 mm apart, to the top widest section. Then work out what drills you need working from the lines, if the drills are wider or narrower than what you've drawn, draw a corresponding line to the width of the drill, this will give the drilling depth.
Turn the inside taper first, drill a hole that is the same as the bottom of the taper, down as far as required, then use the next larger drill bit, dont go as far down, and work your way up to the widest

Thanks Kryn... Have a wood Lathe that I could give that a go... was thinking that there may have been a way you could stretch a piece of brass tubing over a tapered mandrel... I guess you risk splitting the tube.... I have seen some ferrules that are obviously spun as they cover the whole front almost like a thimble.

You could try to metal spin one, you would need to anneal the brass first, and possibly during the execise. I'm not sure but I think brass work hardens.
kryn

Yes would need to do some research first on the process.

Originally Posted by KBs PensNmore

You could try to metal spin one, you would need to anneal the brass first, and possibly during the execise. I'm not sure but I think brass work hardens.
kryn

I've tried it and there's no way it will even even start to fold over without annealing it first.
In general brass is a mongrel to spin unless it is annealed, really thin AND you have the right sort of jigs that hold the work piece very firmly so it can be spun in the minimum number of passes.
It looks really easy on the you tube videos but its a lot harder than it looks.
Skilled spinners with the right gear and arm strength can do it quickly in one or two passes because it rapidly work hardens.
However, if the fold is not complete by then you have to remove it from the former to re-anneal it because if it is pushed too far it just cracks up and disintegrates.

The other thing is those ferrules have such a small end, meaning the contact area with the former during the spinning will be tiny so it would be really hard to maintain enough grip on the piece of brass. Probably a turned steel jig/former would be required to create enough grip.

I have an e-book on it somewhere if you can'y find it shoot me a PM about it.

Thanks Bob for your insight... I will see if I can find that e-book.

Originally Posted by Gaza58

Thanks Bob for your insight... I will see if I can find that e-book.

Its called Metal Spinning by C.Tuells dated 1912, 37p
PM me if you can't find it.

Found it Bob... I notice someone is selling a copy on ebay as well. Thanks for pointing me in the direction.

Hi Kbs PensNmore,
They are leather working awls and the blades are driven into the wood inside the ferrules and work surprisingly well. The ferrules are generally spun brass and on occasion I have seen them with a soldered seam with a wire wrap at the thick part. Lee Valley tools produced something similar they described as a chisel point bradawl. It had a machined brass "ferrule" at the front. The big failing with that was that the diamond shaped blade was ground down to about 3/32" across in a hex shape,where it was glued into the brass receiver. I was silly enough to buy one and the very first time I used it to start a screw hole the blade remained stationary and the handle twisted as there was nothing to resist the torsional forces. That was a big design fail, yet they still sell them. I noticed in an article in Fine woodworking about Garret Hacks suggestions for travelling tool kits, that he had one of the Lee Valley handles that he was using for files that he used to shape scrapers. So I guess he had a similar experience.

Back to the brass bits. The only way I could see a tapered fitting being made is in a large press with a male and female die. That would be prohibitively expensive.It wold also not be economical for some one to spend the time to spin these tiny ferrules one by one from sheet stock. To make something like them today for specific tools I would not use it as a ferrule, I wold machine something akin to a mandrill and have a tang inside the handle with the nice tapered receiver still visible.
All the best.