Awl makers

[Frodo]

Watch this video  pretty good explanation of what happens when you quinch

 

 

[Spyros]

1 hour ago, chuck123wapati said:

I have to disagree plastic won over simply from a manufacturing cost savings and profitability. Find any tool you have thrown away or is broken and if there is plastic used its usually the broken part. It was "sold" to the public as better and many believe it because it is all they have known but in reality was a way to switch to disposable to sell more product cheapr. Its all about money simply if a drill will last a lifetime you only buy one.

The broken part on drills is usually the chuck or the planetary gears for me, or the battery goes and it costs almost the same to buy a new skin+battery set.  I go to great lengths to find light drills and usually go 12 volts for that reason.  I would never touch an all metal drill but each to their own I guess, swollen wrists have been very convincing for me as to the merits of plastic.  I love plastic on the handle, casing and battery, I cringe when I see plastic gears though.

To be honest with you unless we're talking about some cast iron machine, or the type of hand tools whose design has been the same forever, I don't really want my tools to last a lifetime.  I had drills 30 years ago, they were crap.  Technology moves on and I want the new features every now and then.

[paloma]

and I can't afford to buy often cheap, so I prefer to put a little more at the beginning and be quiet for a while.

[chuck123wapati]

3 hours ago, Spyros said:

The broken part on drills is usually the chuck or the planetary gears for me, or the battery goes and it costs almost the same to buy a new skin+battery set.  I go to great lengths to find light drills and usually go 12 volts for that reason.  I would never touch an all metal drill but each to their own I guess, swollen wrists have been very convincing for me as to the merits of plastic.  I love plastic on the handle, casing and battery, I cringe when I see plastic gears though.

To be honest with you unless we're talking about some cast iron machine, or the type of hand tools whose design has been the same forever, I don't really want my tools to last a lifetime.  I had drills 30 years ago, they were crap.  Technology moves on and I want the new features every now and then.

The drill was only an example in a more complex thought.

[Frodo]

Just because it is old does not mean it is a good product,   30 years ago they made good drills and they made crap drills

You can not say everything that is old is better ,  It all boils down to what did you buy 30 years go? did you cheap out or buy top of the line?

But I will say this.  Metal gears in equipment instead of plastic gears is a MUCH better quality product.

I have 2   timberwolf 1/2'' angle drills    the older one is still a badass and the yellow POS has been in the shop 3 times  STRIPED GEARS

This is NOT a picture hanging drill,  this will hurt you

 

[chuck123wapati]

1 hour ago, Frodo said:

Just because it is old does not mean it is a good product,   30 years ago they made good drills and they made crap drills

You can not say everything that is old is better ,  It all boils down to what did you buy 30 years go? did you cheap out or buy top of the line?

But I will say this.  Metal gears in equipment instead of plastic gears is a MUCH better quality product.

I have 2   timberwolf 1/2'' angle drills    the older one is still a badass and the yellow POS has been in the shop 3 times  STRIPED GEARS

This is NOT a picture hanging drill,  this will hurt you

 

lol how true! 

[Spyros]

14 hours ago, Frodo said:

Just because it is old does not mean it is a good product,   30 years ago they made good drills and they made crap drills

You can not say everything that is old is better ,  It all boils down to what did you buy 30 years go? did you cheap out or buy top of the line?

Average.

[paloma]

before we used to design and manufacture for a lifetime, now we design and manufacture to renew frequently.

[jcuk]

1 hour ago, paloma said:

before we used to design and manufacture for a lifetime, now we design and manufacture to renew frequently.

Exactly that's why Dixons and others went out of business built to last a life time and some. When saddlers retired they sold their tools on to the new apprentice or someone else that may have  needed them and so on again after they retired, i have some tools over a hundred years old still work as well as the day they were made me thinks.

Many moons ago when i left school my first job was in a traditional iron mongers they sold good quality tools, knives, kitchen knives, scissors even cut that razors. I can remember the makes too if you want. Even to this day day i still like to go into traditional iron mongers and sadly a lot of those tools makers have gone replaced by makers of less quality tools but perfectly functional but not built to last also some of the better makers of days gone by are guilty of this maybe that's why they have survived and others didn't. We live in a throw away world, if there are old tools that can still do the job why not use them instead buying new ones which are manufactured using fossil fuels and sent thousands of miles around the planet.

  

JCUK

 

[Frodo]

..Altho i agree that quality tools from yesteryear should be,  And i AM pretty certain they ARE handed down and used by the next generation.  I see no evidence that this does not occur  I see posts where what not being taken into account is the fact that their ae more people in the world today than yeasteyear and that said, their are more leather workers .  their is not enough old tools from yesteryear to supply all the workers of todays society.

So we are now back to the beginning of the conversation and talking about  making an awl from steel and what steel should be used and what method used to shape the steel..  The below is just my opinion and i have no science to back it up,  It is what the ""Old Man said" 

2 kinds of steel,  high carbon and low carbon

you want to use a high carbon steel, 

heating process ,  you want to heat [anneal]  high carbon steel then let it cool, you do not want to quinch it

toss it in a box of sand, cover it with the sand. this will hold some of the heat and let it cool slowly, / evenly, 

Handles.  The Japanese laugh at Americans.  They say we spend our time and effort on the handle but neglect the blade, They spend there time on the blade and neglect the handle .  I think they are a tad bit more enlightened as to what deserves the attention 

 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2020 by Frodo