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Home made hook tool?

Joined
Nov 26, 2009
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Location
Rockingham, Virginia
I cannot remember, but I think it may have been on this AAW forum about someone making a hook tool from an old butchers steel that sharpens knives. I have an old one that I found earlier today, and was trying to find the thread where a pic and description of the tool was posted. If it was here on this forum, would someone point me in the right direction, please? And of course, thank you much!
 
I think that a butcher's steel would be too hard and probably too much trouble to anneal for shaping and then I would be concerned about hardening and tempering might result in a tool that is too brittle. I'll admit that I'm a real novice when it comes to metallurgy. I have made hook tools using O-1 tool steel. It is easy to anneal and shape and then quench harden in peanut oil and finally temper in the kitchen oven. I believe that Alan Lacer has videos where he uses his vast seat-of-the-pants experience to simplify and speed up the process with usually good results.
 
Would.probably work. You would have to annealed it. I have an article in Americ fan Woodturner about 10 years ago on amatuer ways to easily do the annealing,hardening and tempering. Use the search function of the journal and should find it under my name.
 
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