Thread: Everyday turning tools

Originally Posted by wood spirit

Don't forget scrapers -the thickest old rusted out files that you can find. Good hard steel - Cost 0$ - 50c . shape as wanted.

Hmmmm.... the steel is good for a carbon steel but the tempering and structural integrity can be big a problem.

Ever dropped a file on the cement floor? They shatter!

There are two causes for that.

They are left very hard with minimal tempering. That's good for a file but it leaves them very brittle and prone to shattering from any impact.

They also come with rows after row of preformed fracture fault lines waiting to extend into and through the body of the file when a lateral force is applied, like when the downward force imparted by the rotating wood is on the end of the file and the tool rest provides a fulcrum/failure point.

Unfortunately, some of the old woodturners and pattern makers passed down this re-purposing of files WITHOUT pointing out that they used only the very thickest of files (and much thicker than any of us will get our hands on nowadays) for this purpose, having ground away the teeth and gullets below the fracture lines and, if necessary, re-tempering them.

I know from talking with some of those old woodturners and pattern makers (now in their 90s) that they still had some of those re-purposed files shatter on them. Engage the wood a fraction before getting the 'tool' down firmly in contact with the tool rest and it will slam down on the tool rest and..... bang, you can end up wearing some of that steel...

I wouldn't recommend that.

PS - most modern files are now case hardened, so by the time you have ground off the teeth and gullets you getting down to low tempered steel that isn't going to hold an edge anyway.

PPS - if you really want to make your own scrapers out of something that is cheap try old car spring steel or mower/slasher blades that will take an impact.

PPS - if you want to make something out of your old files and rasps make them into knives (not cleavers) where you can leave some of the teeth as a pattern. Just don't drop them.

PPPS - braze a small piece of M2 HSS to a bright steel shaft and you have years of scraping in that. Small pieces of HSS flat bar are not very expensive and you can make a number of scraper tips from one strip for just a few dollars each.