Steel selection and source for basic forged woodworking tools?

T

tadakan

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Apr 26, 2024
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tldr:
What steel would you all recommend for these two tools (a scorp aka curved drawknife, and a travisher aka curved spokeshave)? And where would you recommend ordering it from for the best price+shipping/quality/service given that I live in Western Washington state, near Seattle?



I've been getting more into handtool woodworking lately and I want to try some less common tools, but I don't really have the funds to buy nice examples, and cheap examples from Amazon or ebay often seem to be worse than nothing at all. I also love metalworking, and get a kick out of making things to make things. The most immediate tools that I have a use for are a scorp and a travisher for chairmaking. Basically the convex curved equivalents of a drawknife and spokeshave, respectively.

I did some blacksmithing in my teens and early twenties, but the only blades I ever attempted to make were from various repurposed mystery metals (leaf springs, worn out rasps, etc.) and my knowledge of HT techniques is only a little bit better than "anneal, heat until its not magnetic, quench in oil, polish, temper by heating from the thick side and watch the colors to estimate hardness."

I still have a small ~120lb anvil, a selection of hammers and tongs, small oxy-acetylene torch setup, big propane torch, and I can improvise a small forge that I think will work for trying this out. I can probably barter with some locals I know to use their forges if I need to also.

I'm trying to figure out what kind of steel to buy and where to source it. I've skimmed through everything that came up by searching 'drawknife' and found the suppliers list, but there doesn't seem to be a ton of comparison info about the various suppliers.

I'm leaning towards a simple high carbon steel like 1084, but 15n20 and 80crV2 also sound like they could be good options given my skills and equipment. I know that O1 is a very common steel for forged woodworking tools, but I gather that doing a "correct" HT on it requires the ability to control temperature more accurately than I reasonably can with the equipment I have access to.
 
If you want to get back into forging, seeing as how you are in western WA, I'll suggest checking out the Northwest Blacksmith Association (I used to live in Oly and then Eatonville for over 20 years up until 2019). (Google blacksmith dot org)
Our spring conference is in 2 weeks in Longview. There you can: watch demonstrations of different forging techniques from well-know smiths, join hands-on forging classes, compete with other smiths in forging competitions, work in the open forge sessions. purchase tools for blacksmithing, and meet any number of smiths in the Puget Sound area, many who let fellow smiths into their shops (offering to bring a 6-pack often helps...) and this could expand your list of available tools to use.
 
A.McPherson said:
80crv2 is probably the way to go with your equipment, although I'd use your kitchen oven to do the tempering.

Alpha knife supply has it in stock in many different sizes.

Check out knife steel nerds for the heat treating specifics.

Here's a video Larrin put out on heat treating 80crv2

He also put out one on how to HT in a forge.
Click to expand...
Thank you! That knife steel nerds website is an amazing resource for the community! And the 80CrV2 seems like a good way to go for these blades. I need to finish up our kitchen remodel, but *fingers crossed* I'll be able to give these projects a go in the next few months.
 
weo said:
If you want to get back into forging, seeing as how you are in western WA, I'll suggest checking out the Northwest Blacksmith Association (I used to live in Oly and then Eatonville for over 20 years up until 2019). (Google blacksmith dot org)
Our spring conference is in 2 weeks in Longview. There you can: watch demonstrations of different forging techniques from well-know smiths, join hands-on forging classes, compete with other smiths in forging competitions, work in the open forge sessions. purchase tools for blacksmithing, and meet any number of smiths in the Puget Sound area, many who let fellow smiths into their shops (offering to bring a 6-pack often helps...) and this could expand your list of available tools to use.
Click to expand...
Good suggestion! I'm actually in Olympia also, and I've "met" a couple of people through the SeattleMetalheads message board that live in the area and do some forging. I'd like to get back into smithing someday, but I already have too many hobbies and not enough space, so I don't really foresee it being something I do consistently anytime soon. The spring conference would be a lot of fun though. I belonged to the CA blacksmithing association when I lived down there and made it to their meet up in Northern CA a few times. I always had a ton of fun and learned a lot. I'm definitely familiar with the "offer to bring beer" rule of hitting up friendly metalworkers for help :D
 
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