Been getting round to these for some time, I can't remember when I bought the piece of HSS, but it was some years ago. Anyway, I am getting thoroughly bored with house-painting, and took the opportunity afforded by some rainy spells to spend a few hours in the shed. The mini skews were just the ticket for a small job to while away an hour or three.
I started with a length of HSS, 1/8 x 5/16 x 8 (inches) (from McJing's) which was meant to be raw material for a parting tool for metal lathes. That was just enough for two small blades. I wanted these skews to be about 5mm wide or slightly less, so I had to trim a bit off each side (5/16 = ~8mm). I did the first one by clamping between two bits of steel & using a 1mm cut-off wheel, but it was hard to control & keep straight taking such a thin shaving, so I switched to a metal-grinding wheel for the second one, which worked better. The steel the blade was clamped between kept everything cool - I could hold the blade comfortably in my hand immediately after grinding/cutting, but you can actually get HSS very hot without tempering it. There was certainly no change in hardness of the remaining metal, took me quite some time to clean up the marks from the cutting wheel on a diamond plate! :C
So I popped on some handles, and there they are:Attachment 309717
The handles were turned from a scrap of Bull-oak that almost went into the firewood pile. It was a crotch piece, and full of splits & bark inclusions, but since I only needed small pieces, I decided to give it a go, and managed to get a couple of useable bits. I'm glad I persevered, it's gorgeous wood - the still pics don't do it justice, but it looks like brown opal when you rotate the handle in the light: Attachment 309716
Just for comparison, here is a mini with a Lee Valley 1/2" (re-handled, of course!) and a 1/4" skew made from a good old chisel picked up at a flea market:Attachment 309718
Now I have no excuse not to get started on the gallery for my writing-desk. The skews are for clening out sockets on the tiny half-lapped dovetails on very small drawers, etc.
Sorry, forgot to take the obligatory shavings pics, but trust me, they are sharp & shaved Pine end-grain effortlessly! :U
Cheers,