[TheForge] Chasing and engraving

[Peter Fels And Phoebe Palmer]

Phlip;
Pure iron if you can get it, if not try for a low carbon or deep draw 
type steel.
If you make your chasing tools from something like  S7, then you can use 
them for hot work too.
A set of curved line( ends in various arcs) tools are good, make them 
both sharp ( for cutting) and blunt  for creasers.
The cutting edges last longer if ground with convex curves ( the 
opposite of hollow ground.) Also radius the edges of  lining or cutting 
tools so you can rock them along a line and not leave jags.
Rounds, elipsys(sp), diamods and squares...both radius edged and sharp 
edged.
Keep your eye out for "found " chasing tools..like small rivet sets, 
nail sets. old time push rods and so on.
Making the silly little things is kinda addictive..if you lean that way.
George Dixon  has written about this subject well.
Norm Larson has a pretty good new book on the subject ( forgot the title 
already, tisk).
Use a soft hammer ..you will spend less time hunting for flying tools.

Chuck;
I used scraper blade for the anvil and hammer faces on my treadle 
hammer. The welding involved in making the faces solid enough to suit ( 
lots) softened the scraper blade much more than I'd like.. except for a 
few areas that didn't get as hot. I hammer out the dings from time to 
time...similar to the areas adjacent to the welded repairs on my anvil. 
Work hardening  (I  started with a small air hammer) didn't achieve as 
much as I'd hoped.
There are often times when I heat an area to work and leave the part 
that bears on the anvil, cold, so as to localize distortion. If it is 
tool steel, it is hard ( literally) on the anvil's soft spots.

Jim: give us a run down on flame hardening as it applies to this 
please...........Pete

Phlip wrote:

>I'm looking for some information about chasing and/or engraving, on steel.
>
>My SCA Cooks have a project, to make tiles for Pennsic, primarily out of
>foodstuffs, so, me being as wrong-headed as I usually am, I thought I'd tool
>a leather tile on a smithing subject- likely an anvil or some such- and make
>a steel (or iron) tile on a leather subject- possibly using one of the
>overly prevalent oak-leaf-and-acorn themes from the Western-style of leather
>carving.
>
>Since the piece will be simply decorative, I imagine I can use any steel
>that will take a tool print, so that being the case, what should I use? Will
>any old mild steel do? And, what kind of steel would I need for my tools?
>How should I shape the tools? Any help you guys can give me will be
>appreciated.
>
>Phlip
>
> If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
>cat.
>
>Never a horse that cain't be rode,
>And never a rider who cain't be throwed....
>
>
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