How much and who from for a 5mm x 50mm x 900mm piece of 01 tool steel?

[tombear]

Since I've only been able to find it in 500 mm lengths could any one advise where I could get a piece of 5 ( or 6 ) mm x 50 ( or up to 60 ) mm x 900 ( or 1000 if they come in standard lengths ) mm 01 tool steel or similar. Naturally I'd prefer to get it as cheap as possible and in the UK.

My recent attempt to convert a old draw knife into the working end of a cloggers stock knife went horribly wrong due to me doing the newbie ( which I am but that's no excuse ) error of trying to work the metal when it wasn't hot enough so it cracked as I was trying to straighten the bends out of the two tangs after removing the wooden handles. At some later point when i know what I'm doing I'll be able to do something about these cracks but at the mo' I've decided to resort to a method I can do. Stock removal. I did a competent job on the big nessy I made a few years back and have the patience to drill the zillion holes before sawing between them and then filling and grinding them into the final shape. The bevel will be only on the one side and I can either sub contract the heat treating or grovel to someone to show me how.

i wish I could afford to have one forged by one of the many talented folk here but what with one thing and another I can't merit it for what's to me a hobby. It would be different if I was doing it for a living but that's the way it goes.

Cheers!

Tom

 

[mikehill]

Tried Cromwells ? There is a supplier of all kinds of steel On British Blades if you look through the suppliers there

 

[C_Claycomb]

Forgive what may be a pointless question, but why do you need almost a metre of steel? Are you making a sword?

I would be surprised if Cromwell can help, my experience has been that they handle standard lengths of precision ground stock for tool making and engineer, long lengths are not often needed for that sort of work.

Barmond has a number of steels, not precision ground, in 1 metre lengths, some are suitable for home heat treat, most are not.
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/8c23b...09aae02cb/05_Knife_Making_Steels_May_2017.pdf

 

[mikehill]

www.groundflatstock.com for up to 1000mm lengths. Well recommended by BB forum members. And only in Yorkshire

 

[Janne]

I might be stupid, but can you just not buy a machete and use that to make your blades from?

 

[tombear]

Cheers folks, Ground flat stock have exactly what I need for just £20 plus whatever the postage works out at.

its not for a sword but for a stock knife, also known as a cloggers knife or a peg makers knife. In this case imagine a U shaped hook (which will fit under a staple or ring attached to a chopping block) on the end of a 10 inch cutting blade (like that on a draw knife ) with a say two foot long handle with a horizontal wooden bar handle.

Like the one in the foreground here.

http://www.forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/30713/stock-knives.jpg

i need about 3 foot of steel, ideally untempered / hardened so I can work it easily so altering a existing blade would be making myself work I'm afraid.

Thanks again for the input, I'll start a thread when I get started on it.

ATB

Tom

 

[mikehill]

Looking forward to that Tom, sounds interesting. They also do HT too if you need it.

 

[Dave Budd]

5mm is a bit thin for a stock knife! The last one I made was about 12mm thick at the blade and the handle was about 16mm square

 

[Janne]

Excuse a stupid question, but what do you use one for?

 

[tombear]

I only want it for relatively light work, roughing out spoons , the backs of ladles and others green small stuff like that. Imagine one of the converted from a draw knife jobs or the light, often curved towards the hook, continental stock knives. A great big cloggers knife for removing big chunks of elm would be too clumsy for me, I've no where near the skill level to make one of those things dance like they could back in the day. Oh I'd like one as well and if I can turn one up I'll grab it, or if I get another big win on eBay I'll have one made but a home made light one will have to do me for now. Although the handles admittedly quite thin ( even after I've upped it a whole mill to six, wowee! ) it will be quite deep, probably 20mm at the blade end. I'll have to mock one up in wood to get the ergonomics right for me before I cut metal. I'm already thinking a two foot handle is maybe too long.

Mind with the cr@p drill and press I've got, even with new decent drills, anything thicker than 6mm may kill my Black and Decker.

if it goes horribly wrong I'll have only lost the cost of the metal and my time, and the metal would be big enough to make other stuff out of anyway. I think my Axminster belt sander is up to cutting the bevel, about 25 degrees on the one side if I rig some dirt of jig and take it steady and cool.

i won't be ordering the metal this week, had to blow my spendo on spares and belts for my beloved Makita 9920 belt sander. I'm amazed it doesn't need new bushes yet, the amount of hammer it gets!

ATB

Tom

 

[Jared]

If anyone hasn't seen it... series of 4 videos with a clogg maker using one, well worth a watch.

[video=youtube;jCQgkJJz_tI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCQgkJJz_tI[/video]

 

[tombear]

Well look what's on eBay,

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HENRY-CAR...474569?hash=item2127ab8b89:g:GyYAAOSwlY1ZLcYO

And Bacup is about a mile or two up the road, I really only want the one long bladed one but I put as big a bid as I could merit given I wouldn't need to pay postage on it and was instantly out bid. Way it goes!

Still, it means they do turn up around here.

ATB

Tom