Sunday, February 26, 2012

A Small Handmade Carving Knife

This may be a gunsmithing tool. The blade must have been made from a length of rod that was heated and hammered to shape, then ground and sharpened. It's not pretty, but it was quite nicely done.

It can go in the drawer I keep chisels in.

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A Curved Cutter

The handle looks hand made, and the blade appears to have been curved and ground by hand. This may be a gunsmithing tool.

The name Herberholz is etched at the base of the blade. Herberholz GmbH is a German firm and a going concern, but they only make valves and associated gear.

I'll stash this in a drawer where I keep chisels; perhaps a use will suggest itself someday.

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An X-ACTO Razor Saw

This one has about had it -- its teeth are a ruin.

I got the handle off and apart.














The saw can go in a scrap metal bin; it might be useful as shim stock if nothing else.

That handle could make a fine file handle with a bit of work. I'll stash it with some other file handles I have that I've yet to install on files.

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Saturday, February 11, 2012

A Salvaged 1/2" Garden Hose Fitting

It's a pretty rough-looking bit of gear. I'll chuck it in the lathe and see if I can tidy up that torn ferrule remnant.

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A bit of lathe work and some solder and voila.

No one will ever accuse it of being pretty, but it's not too shabby considering what I started with.

Into the hose fittings bin with it.

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A Really Cheap, Plastic, Female Garden Hose Fitting

I appear to have found the mate to this one.

This can go in the hose fittings bin as well. At least I'll never have to say to myself, "If only I had a really cheap, plastic, female garden hose fitting."

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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

A 12" Spade Bit Extension

It's pictured with the type of boring bit that it's meant for. It's an Irwin E88, 12" extension. It's in fine condition, except for some minor surface rust.

It's dawned on me that this blog might be a bit more interesting if I'd make little restoration projects out of some of these items. I'll give that a try with this one. I'll chuck it in the lathe and give it a good polishing with steel wool and/or fine abrasive paper.

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And here's the head end of it after some polishing.

There's still some scoring and pitting here and there that won't be easily gotten rid of; this will do. For an old, long-neglected piece of tool steel, it looks pretty darn good.

There's something very odd about the setscrews. The setscrews are two different lengths, pitches and styles.

The frontmost one is 1/4"-20 x 1/4" with a cup point. The one behind it is 1/4'-28 X 3/16" with a flat point. The female threads appear to be unmodified factory work. I have no idea what to make of that. It seems like a needless complication.

I looked up 'Irwin', and they're still a going concern, but this item appears to be obsolete, so I could find no specifications for it. (It seems that Irwin now only makes 'quick change' bit extensions.)

In any event, it deserves a good home. I'll install clips for it, and it can be a neighbour to my other 12" bit extension that's up on a joist.

Exposed joists are great for hanging things on. If I designed houses, there'd be a lot less drywall in them.

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