Tool Making for Woodworkers

Book excerpt: Tool making is the traditional province of the blacksmith, and until now it has been shrouded in mystery. This useful volume brings tool-making within the reach of anyone who starts with modest hand skills. Readers will learn about suitable steels, and how to identify them and buy them at reasonable cost. Through sharp photos and drawings, readers will see how to set up a small, basic forge and anvil suitable for making their own tools. They will learn how to forge, heat-treat, and finish common woodworking tools through detailed, highly illustrated exercises. Larsen leads readers step-by-step through the creation of a heavy mortising chisel, a delicate skew chisel, and a curved carving gouge. Along the way, readers will learn dozens of little secrets and time-saving shortcuts that make small-scale tool-making both possible and fun.