This article discusses a few types of steel that many wood lathe chisels are made from. There are many different types of steel alloys with a verity of hardness' and strength. The internet has a huge amount of information on steel, alloys and their use, a little research will always lead to better understanding of the tools you want to buy or make.
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What is tool steel and what makes it different that other types of steel? Tool Steel is a specific type of high quality steel made specifically for the production of tools and tooling components. Tool steels are produced in electric melt furnaces and stringent quality standards are upheld to produce the necessary quality. Tool steels are formulated to withstand high pressures and abrasive materials. Typically tool steels are used for shearing, cutting, stamping, and forming of metals and plastics.
There are 3 different tool steels that you will most commonly see associated with wood turning tools, they are 01 steel, M2 steel and PM steel.
O1 tool steel is a low alloy cold work tool steel that must be oil-quenched in heat treatment to create the required hardness. O1 contains small amounts of manganese, tungsten, and chromium, giving O1 adequate toughness for normal tool & die uses. 01 steel is a steel that wood turners can use to make and shape their own tools and then temper the steel to a hardness that will hold a good edge some where between 60 to 65 HRC.
M2 is a higher carbon version of the M1 tool steel (Molybdenum High Speed Tool Steel). The M2 alloy has somewhat better wear resistance than M1. Applications are primarily used for cutting tools and shaping.
PM (Powder metallurgy) is a term covering a wide range of ways in which materials or components are made from metal powders Powder metallurgy is also used to make unique materials impossible to melt or form in other ways. PM Wood Lathe tools are very hard and hold a fine edge usually some where between 67 to 69 HRC. Files will not work on tools of this hardness. HRC is an abbreviation for Rockwell Hardness measured on the C scale.
If you are turning wood on a regular basis you probably have 30 to 40 tools that you use. I Counted the Wood Turning Tools in my collection and there are currently 43 and I am ordering some 01 steel to make Scrapers that I can use to shape long even sides of a turning. The 01 steel allows you the ability to make your own tools, especially tools that fit a specialty turning that only you are doing. It çelik konstrüksiyon is always good to have a friend who is a metal worker and understands how to machine and temper metals.
There are many ways to acquire wood lathe tools. Buying from a tool supplies is the best way to start wood turning. With a little experience you will know what to look for when acquiring tools. Aside from buying from a tool supplier, watch the garage sales, estate sales and some of the social sites like Craigslist..
Wood turning is fun and enjoyable and even more so when you are able to make you own tools.
The cementation process is a now-obsolete technique for making steel with the carburization of iron. Unlike modern steelmaking it increased the amount of carbon in the iron. It was apparently developed before the 17th century. The process probably originated in Bohemia in the 16th century and was in use in Bavaria in the early 1600's. The process was patented in England by Ellyot and Meysey in about 1614.
The cementation process of making steel is also called the converting process. This process consists in impregnating bars of wrought iron or soft steel with carbon, at a temperature below its melting point, and was used (chiefly in England) for the production of high carbon bars to be employed in the manufacture of crucible steel or shear steel. The bars were usually of pure Swedish iron made by the Walloon process. They are packed in layers, separated by charcoal (sometimes called cement) in fire-brick chambers (converting pots) heated externally by flues, and forming part of the cementing furnace. The top of the pot is closed with an arch of wheel swarf, which later frits and forms an air-tight cover. The furnace attains its full temperature in about 3 to 4 days, at which it is maintained about 7 to 8 days for mild heats, about 9 days for medium heats, and about 11 days for high carbon heats; the cooling down requires about 4 to 6 days. To test the progress of the operation, trial bars (test bars or tap bars) are drawn at intervals through a special small aperture, provided for the purpose, and examined. If wrought iron has been employed, the finished bars will be found covered with blisters formed by the reaction between the contained slag and the carbon, from which comes the name blister bar or blister steel; at one time this was sometimes termed German steel.
This phenomenon is absent when steel bars are treated; both products are known as cement (cemented) bars or cement steel. Bars desired of very high carbon may be retreated, and are known as doubly converted bars or glazed bars. Since the carbon penetrates from the outside inward, the percentage will decrease progressively to the center. In very mild bars there is an unaltered core of mild general steel [] called sap, and very hard bars are easily distinguished by being what is known as flaked, as on fracture they present bright cleavage planes. It is important to have the transition from one grade to the other as gradual as possible: when the line of demarcation is too abrupt, the process has been carried out too rapidly, and the bars are said to be flushed. If, owing to a leak in the pot, air has entered, the outside of the bars will be somewhat oxidized, and are called aired bars. If the temperature has been a little too high, so the outside has fused slightly, they are called glazed bars. Blister bars rolled or hammered down at a yellow heat are known as plated bars or bar steel.
The following are various methods suggested or tried from time to time: In Bink's process compounds of cyanogen were specified, and currents of nitrogen, carbonic oxide, and ammonia, or ammonia alone, were to be passed through decarburized molten iron. In Boullet's process iron was to be cemented with a substance consisting of sugar, horn dust or shavings, animal fat or blood, and wood charcoal dried and pulverized. In Brooman's process iron was to be melted in pots with compounds of cyanogen; such compounds might consist of charcoal, salt, brick dust or oxide of manganese, sal ammoniac, and ferrocyanide of potash. Henry Brown's process consisted in cementing iron in a granulated condition in close pots with carbon: iron which was being puddled was taken out of the furnace as soon as it became granulated, and before it was pasty; it was then broken up until it would pass through a 20-mesh screen, after which it was put in long pots with wood and cemented as usual. James Boydell's process was to cement the product obtained by puddling wrought iron melted in a cupola. In Holland's process silk waste of every kind was to be torrifled, i.e., dried at a high temperature without being carbonized, and then ground to a fine powder and used for cementing.