[TheForge] Stone Mason chisels

[theforge@mailman.qth.net]

Morning, Dave;

I recently made five chisels that we used on a job requiring a lot of marble 
chipping. I made them out of new 5160 (coil spring steel). I rough shaped on 
the power hammer and then took them to orange and annealed overnight in a 5 
gal bucket of vermiculite.  I finer ground them on the 2x72 Grizzly the next 
morning. I heated up a gal of old oil with some hot iron to about 200 
degrees. Heated up the cutting edges to orange and quenched. After the wife 
went to work I pre-heated her oven to 500 and cooked them in there for one 
hour. They came out a lovely shade of blue and have stood some pretty heavy 
marble chipping and steel cutting. The heads are just beginning to spread and 
will need some trimming. Next time I will try around 450 degree temper to see 
if a little harder still holds up without fracturing. 

5160 is a nice tough, predictable steel that is uncomplicated to temper.

Regards

Don Plummer
Phoenixville, PA