DIY Billhook

[Emdiesse]

So I have been thinking about getting myself a bill hook instead of an axe or a machete. It seems like it could be a lot more versatile than an axe and apparently far more suited to our country side than a machete.

I am keeping an eye on a few on ebay however there is a huge part of me that would love to have a go at making one!

I have been looking at how people make knifes (Something I'd also like to make myself) and it seems like O1 or D2 steel is the prefered material in that respect. However that has a high carbon content of 0.9% and 1.5% according to good ol' trusty wikipedia. Also according to the ever trustyworthy resource, wikipedia, billhooks are typically made from a medium-carbon content steel 0.3%.

Any ideas what to look out for/where to purchase? EN8 steel (0.4% carbon)?

What kind of thickness would you suggest? 8mm?

 

[DaveBromley]

Cant see why you cant use O1 as long as its tempered down to about 50-55 Rockwell? as far as i can see its only the tempering that matters matey and O! is a damn site easier to get hold of than most other steels.....at least in my experience

Dave

 

[rimmer]

not a clue but would love to see what you come up with

 

[Zingmo]

IIRC bilhooks were traditionally made with a laminated blade - a filling of high carbon steel for the edge in a sandwich of softer steel for toughness.

Z

 

[ged]

Why not get yourself an old lorry spring or something? For something like a billhook I don't think the exact carbon/equivalent matters as much as how tough it is, and it doesn't get much tougher than a lorry spring. Depending on what I wanted to do with it, anything in the 4mm to 8mm range would do for me. You can make up for thickness with extra blade width, or rather you can always make the blade narrower if you find it's too heavy. Or call it experience and make another one. I tend to go for the lightest one which will do the job, if you're swinging it a lot a big blade made of 8mm steel might be fairly tiring. It obviously depends on what you're going to be doing most but I think if you aim for a weight of somewhere in the region of 500g it shouldn't be too bad for most small jobs. Do a few sums to get the steel volume of various shapes and sizes, and multiply by 8kg per litre of steel.

 

[Emdiesse]

Why not get yourself an old lorry spring or something? For something like a billhook I don't think the exact carbon/equivalent matters as much as how tough it is, and it doesn't get much tougher than a lorry spring. Depending on what I wanted to do with it, anything in the 4mm to 8mm range would do for me. You can make up for thickness with extra blade width, or rather you can always make the blade narrower if you find it's too heavy. Or call it experience and make another one. I tend to go for the lightest one which will do the job, if you're swinging it a lot a big blade made of 8mm steel might be fairly tiring. It obviously depends on what you're going to be doing most but I think if you aim for a weight of somewhere in the region of 500g it shouldn't be too bad for most small jobs. Do a few sums to get the steel volume of various shapes and sizes, and multiply by 8kg per litre of steel.

Cheers for the advice. I think I will heed your words of advice. I have been trying to look for the optimum comprimise between hardness and toughness before I bought any steel. I think I will approach this from a different angle and instead of looking to purchase new steel I am going to start keeping an eye out for large enough scrap pieces of steel since at the end of the day I have little experience with tool making let alone bill hooks.

I still have my mind set on trying to make one and when I eventually find myself some suitable scrap steel, i'm going to give it a shot. At least that way I can experiment a lot to find what is right for me before purchasing any nice new steel for the job...

In the mean time I do want to try my hand at some metal work. I have my mind on making a Puukko(Small Knife) and a Leuku (Big Knife) from some O1 Steel. Together it should be able to cover most I need from cutting tools and with the added satisfaction of two home made tools.

Cheers

 

[NathanG]

O1 is the perfect steel to use, easy to get hold of and crucially easy to heat treat, no problems with the heat treatment , just temper it down to a dark gold colour rather than the light straw you would normally see on a knife.