Spanners

Spanners, but not the suspension bridge type, I am of course referring to spanners for tightening nuts, bolts or whatever.

Why is this in off topic, cos spanners/bikes are a couple. The reason for this is im looking for info as to what the spanner is made from, as its not for spannering nuts, bolts or whatever, but is infact for woodcarving.

Watched a utube vid concerning carving spoons, and the chap doing the work modified a spanner to make it a sharp tool to gouge out the cupped middle that spoons are.
So it's really all down to the metal, and I was thinking if x spanner is x metal it would be better than y metal for holding a razor sharp edge, and it needs to be that sharp, so it needs to hold the edge well, not crumble and being in need of constant sharpening. The process of turning it from spanner to ring carving tool isnt a great deal of work, but it is a fair bit, so I'd rather not be making more than a couple.
Asking here rather than a woody forum because more engineers here with better advice.
See if I can find the vid.

First one on top
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY-h3qRp308

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Could you harden a softer spanner then put final edge on it once shaped?

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I remember doing this when doing my apprentice piece screwdriver.

A possibility , and I do have a couple of blowlamps but im not sure I could get the temp up to that high :? I suppose orangery , but im clueless as to what temp id be getting, or what id be aiming for.

Good quality spanners seem to be made from Chrome-Vanadium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium-vanadium_steel

The wiki page suggests that some chrome-vanadium steels can be used as High Speed Steels. HSS being what good quality cutting tools are made from.
Sounds like a go-er to me.

Any hardenable steel (high carbon steels) can be used. The issue tends to be how fussy they are about heat treatment, plus hardness vs flexibilty, corrosion resistance etc.

It's easy to ruin a heat treat by overheating, so keep it cool enough to touch at all times.

Most decent spanners are forged and made of Chrome vanadium steel - perfect for what you want to do with it. cheap spanners will be soft, and not worth the hassle.

I have a colour guide to tempering tooling metals,ill dig it out and post a picture up

firedfromthecircus":bagm50ea said:

Good quality spanners seem to be made from Chrome-Vanadium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium-vanadium_steel

The wiki page suggests that some chrome-vanadium steels can be used as High Speed Steels. HSS being what good quality cutting tools are made from.
Sounds like a go-er to me.

Click to expand...

Spot on cheers, and cheers all others

I've a good sized 26mm here and the longer handle will be better. If it works I'll hunt the flea market for a 60mm or more. I've also got some hss and tungsten i use to make turning chisels, but its only flat bar and good for the tool shaft and the cutting edge.

Its things like hollowing out a seat, which this style of chisel always makes a simple plank way more comfortably to sit on. The actual a tool is called a scorp, but for the odd job, this diy options is i think will be fine.

joe careless":bagm50ea said:

I have a colour guide to tempering tooling metals,ill dig it out and post a picture up

Click to expand...

Superb. That will be really helpful to a lot of folk on here. Its reasonably easy to heat it up with an easy to get blowlamp. But knowing a bit of what you do next is 1/2 the battle. Always best to get stuck in.

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(Cut/grind/shape into the profile you want, with the edge on it)
Heat to bright carrots in colour. Not just until it "only just" gets there, the metal needs to be through-hot. Keep it sitting there for a bit to get hot all the way through.
You'll be holding it with tongs as no matter how long the handle, it'll be pretty hot by now. You should be able to do this with a blow torch.
Quench in water.
It'll now be glass-hard and will shatter if you drop it.
You now need to "temper it", to relieve some stress. Even wikipedia wil help you here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempering_(metallurgy)#Tempering_colors

<Clean the metal to bright and shiny with no scale>
You want a light-straw colour.
The wrong way to temper that edge is to play the flame on that edge to get it hot. You want to heat a few inches back and watch the lighter colours travel up the metal. It'll get blue where you heat it, you want the straw to travel up to the edge that you want.
You'll want to practice on something first. The colours keep travelling after you remove the flame and it takes a bit of getting used to.

Using this method you'll also have a higher temperature temper (tougher, less brittle) on the bulk of your article (less prone to cracks), and a lower temperature temper (sharper/harder, but more brittle) on the cutting edge.
You'll now have trouble sharpening that edge as it will be as hard as your file, so you'll need to use a stone.
If you use a grinder, you'll overheat the edge and lose the temper.

Welcome to the world of smithing.

I was under the impression that water quenching had by far the highest chance of cracking the steel as it cools so quickly?

Regardless, if the spanner is kept cool enough you'll not need to bother with heat-treating & tempering in the first place.