FYI

I'm a member of the Australian Blacksmiths, Bladesmiths and Knifemakers Network on Facebook and a recent post was so amazing I thought to repost it.

Ian S posted about how he needed to put a new pin in a knife handle and came up with his own solution. I saw its immediate application for making Japanese wooden nails - both the drill bits and the nails themselves.

Here are his words: "Broke another tapered hand reamer last night. Found an unreal work around. Repurposed a broken 3/16 drill bit, by feeding it at a high angle onto a 120 grit belt, on the grinder, while turning it in reverse in my drill. Polished it doing the same on a real fine belt and it works an absolute treat. No sharp cutting flutes up the bit so it doesn't bite too hard at all."

...and a picture.

As can be envisaged, using a jig to make the drill bit and get the angle right would also work for making the nails. When these guys say "grinder" they mean a belt driven grinder called a "Noob grinder" made by 87Engineering here in Canberra (or one of its variants). They are fairly expensive and specialised, but one can be made of timber (ply) and work either with your own motor-VFD combo or mount it to a variable speed lathe (for us woodworkers!). They use 2440x50 belts in a huge number of grits and finishes.

tapered bits.jpg