Another retired garden tool back in action (pictures)

[JohnC]

There must be a lot of old shears out there....

I'd been working on a knife from an old pair of shears, I finished the handle today....

It seems (so far) to hold a good edge, the original shears were pretty old, possibly 40 yrs..
The handle is a micarta like board...
I also had a go at a mosaic pin with fair success, but need to get a better dispersal of the resin...

Still got the other leaf of the shears, various ideas from another knife to awls...

 

[Imagedude]

Nice, the handle material is probably Tufnol.

 

[Gill]

That looks great john its amazing what can be made from scrap.

 

[geordienemisis]

Well thats really good I'm so impressed I might try this for my self. Excuse my ignorance but what are the hot coals for? tempering ? real beaut tho.

 

[spandit]

I'd been waiting for this after I saw your initial photos in another thread - good job!

 

[AussieVic]

Great idea. I really should be on the lookout for old or broken gardening tools like this as a source of steel.

Thanks

 

[JohnC]

what are the hot coals for? tempering ? .

Yep, the blade is in there, its glowing away at about the 8 o-clock position, I got it to non-magnetic then it went into oil to quench, and then the oven.

 

[Toddy]

Nicely done, that looks very sound

The handle scales do look like Tufnol. We had pulley blocks for the boats and they were made from that, the colour is very characteristic.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Peanut]

That's pretty cool, nice one

Am I right in thinking that a mosaic pin is just a normal pin that's had a design filed into it and the gaps filled with resin? Or is it something much simpler that I'm over-complicating in my mind?

 

[JohnC]

Hello, the mosaic pin was a wide brass tube with 7 smaller tubes pushed into it. I used short lengths, about 2" or so. I used a mix of precision araldite and glow-in-the-dark powder to make the resin fill and forced it in from one end till it came out the other. I have read that a wide bore syringe helps with this but didnt have one to hand. I left it to set and trimmed off the ends and fitted it as normal to the scales and knife.
I've seen other pins where the smaller tubes are filled with a contrasting colour ( I think it was a paint powder) before fitting in the larger tube, to make a more colourful pin, may try this next time as I was pleased with the result of this one.

 

[Peanut]

Thanks for clearing that up. I've always wondered how exactly they're done

 

[cowboy]

hey john, thanks for sharing your master piece with us!! If you dont mind me asking, how did you get the affect on the blade at the end? and at what point did you put the edge on?

 

[JohnC]

Hello,
It's unintentional, but I *think* its reticulation, that I've only seen it before in silverwork I did where the surface "melts" and flows slightly. Possibly because I was using a hairdryer as a blower to the charcoal, it got very hot. In the past I've melted a work in progress ruining it completely, so this was possibly getting close....
Anyway its a nice effect.
I'd not sharpened the edge completely as I believe a fine edge will get burned off easily during the heat treating, so it was just beveled. I worked away on the edge after the handle went on.