[TheForge] slit & drift question

[Larry Brown]

Are they going through on the square or at an angle?

I would probably use an S series steel.
Scrounge alert; A lot of old star drills (Manual masonry drills) are good 
for this, just grind two sides off.
H series steel may work well also
L Brown

At 09:23 PM 9/20/2007 -0500, you wrote:
>Dear TheForge,
>I have a couple questions that I think some of you my have answers for.
>I have a job coming up where I will have to pass 1/2" square pickets
>through 3/4" x 1-1/2" flat bar.
>I want to use the split & drift method.
>1. How long does the split have to be to be in order to drift it out
>to 1/2" square? even through 3/4" flat bar?
>2. What is the best material that may be commonly found in a machine
>shop to make the splitting chisel from?
>
>thanks in advance,
>dave mudge