Bead making and captive ring tools

[Jack Plane]

I have some 20mm x 5mm HSS bars that I am thinking of converting into a bead making tool and a captive ring tool.
Can anyone provide any tips on bevel angles, shaping, sharpening etc please.

[OGYT]

Don't know, myself, Jack, but glad you posted this. I've been wanting to do the same, just didn't know how. Maybe someone will chime in before long that does know.
OGYT

[Jenny Brandis]

I have been trying to make a captive ring tool with a nail - no success so far but then again I amtrying to make captive rings on lace bobbins and at less than 0.75cm diameter there is no room for errors :)

[Wood worrier]

I have 2 homemade captive ring tools made from cheap 10mm wood chisels. They are ground into a hook shape with different diameters (the inside of the hook is formed with a diamond file), the top surface is left flat (and honed on this face to sharpen), the bottom surface is ground to about 30 degrees leaving the tip thickness about 3mm. If done right you should end up with a trapezoid tip side on and partial ring face on. Mine were modeled on production tools made by Sorby, they work remarkably well. Hope this rather cumbersome description helps ;) .

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Can anyone provide any tips on bevel angles, shaping, sharpening etc please.

For my own captive ring tools, I simply round/bevel the end like a round-nose scraper then use a rat-tail file of the same diameter as the ring I'm making to cut a (less than semi-circular) nock on either the left or right (depending on which half of the pair of tools I'm making) giving it the same bevel as I did for the nose. For larger dia. rings, I may nick out the nock with an angle-grinder first, just so I don't have to file as much away... but be wary of overheating.

Should get at least one ring out of it before resharpening, only a couple of strokes with the same file (from the bottom of the bevel to the top to create the burr!), but after a few touch ups the nock will become semi-circular and subsequent touchups will result in a larger nock/ring diameter. As they work in pairs, touch up both at the same time to ensure they stay matched.

This is why I prefer to make my own, rather than buy 'em. ;)

Jenny? If you're using a conc. nail, try driving it into the end of a dowel, as a handle, and cut the head off. Then grind about 1/2" of one side of the end flat on your bench-grinder... don't grind the whole side flat as it's best to leave some for strength. Chatter's a pain. With the flat side up, the above method should work for you. It does for me, anyway. [shrug] The only diff with a conc nail is I sharpen the top flat instead of the nock.

[Jack Plane]

Thanks Guys. I now have some much shorter HSS bars, learnt that rat tail files like to bite knuckles, the grandkids have learnt a few new words, but alas no tools that will cut captive rings.
My next step is to follow Wood Worriers idea and go down to Carbatec to have a closer look at the Sorby model.