THE CRAFTS 
WOOD CARVING AND PYROGRAPHY. LEATHER AND METAL. BASKETRY, ETC. 
Under the management of Miss Emily Peacock, 6 Brevoort Place, Brooklyn, N. V. All inquiries in regard to the various 
Crafts are to be sent to the above address, but zvill be ausivered in the magazine under this head. 
HOW CHASING TOOLS ARE MADE 
Ediih Vail 
THE makiiig of steel tools is not a difficult process if each 
step is accurately and carefidly done. Chasing tools 
for metal work are made from scjuare bars of annealed tool 
steel of varying dimensions, from |, j, x\ down to ^ of an inch 
in width according to the purpose of the tool. 
We begin bj^ placing the long steel bar on an anvil and 
with a chisel and hammer cut off pieces the required length for 
each tool, which is about 4^ inches. If annealed steel cannot 
be obtained, ordinary bar steel maj^ be used as it is a simple 
matter to anneal it^ since annealing, or softening of metals, con- 
sists in heating the metal red hot and allowing it to cool slowly. 
Now place one of the pieces lengthwise in a large vice with 
about two inches of the bar slanting upward so that it will just 
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escape being even with the jaws of the vice, that in the process 
of filing the file will not be injured on the hard steel of the vice. 
To avoid undue noise in filing, the piece of steel must be kept 
as close as possible to the jaws of the vice and not allowed to 
project beyond the ends of the vice. 
We wish to shape the bar down as nearly as possible like 
Fig. I which is called a blank. A blank is the general shape of 
all chasing tools, before the special shaped end of the tool to 
be used on the metal is made. With a large flat cross-cut file 
about 14 inches long by l^ inches wide, proceed to file an even 
slant from about l^ inches from the end of the tool to the 
middle of that end. Turn the tool in the vice to the opposite 
side and repeat the same, being careful to leave the end about 
f of an inch in thickness which allows for the forming of the 
special face to be made on the end of the tool. The other two 
sides are filed in a similar manner except that they are not 
slanted to such a degree, onty about f of an inch being taken 
off from the end of the tool. Turn the tool in the vice to the 
opposite end and file this cone-shaped, leaving a small flat sur- 
face on top for the hammer to strike upon. Bevel off the four 
edges of the tool the entire length. We now have a blank in 
the rough. With a medium sized flat cross-cut file, which will 
be about 8 inches long and f wide, file over the entire filed sur- 
face to remove the deep scratches made by the large file, but 
do not change the shape of the tool. Repeat the same process 
with a very fine flat cross-cut file to remove the scratches left 
by the medium sized file, and with this file slightly round off 
the four bevels from the face of the special shaped end of the 
tool back about half an inch. Now proceed to finish off the 
special end only, by rubbing the entire surface of the four 
slanted sides on coarse, medium and fine emery paper until 
a polished surface is obtained and no scratches are visible. 
This process is made easier bj^ placing the tool in a hand-vice 
rather than holding it in the hand. We now have a finished 
blank (Fig. i). 
The first tool necessarj^ for chasing is a straight tracer (Fig. 2) 
used on all straight lines in outlining a design on metal. This 
tool is made by taking a finished blank and with the finest 
file bevel the long edges of the face of the tool about ^ of an 
inch wide and so that the two bevels almost meet at the center 
as in Fig. 2. Polish off the bevel with fine emery cloth, also 
slightly round off the edge where the two bevels meet, it is 
also well to slightly rub over the ends so there will be no crude 
edges or corners to catch in the metal. 
The tool is now ready to be hardened. This is done by 
heating about an inch of the special shaped end of the tool, 
not simply red hot but to an orange red and plunging it in- 
stantly into a vessel of cold water. The tool must be plunged 
verticaUy into the water, hot end first and at same time rotated 
in a circular manner. If plunged slantingly into the water the 
tool will cool more rapidly on the side which touches the water 
first and hence wiU very probably be bent out of shape. If 
heated beyond an orange red to a yellowish color the tool will 
be burned, making it too brittle and marked with small spots. 
If not heated enough the tool will not become hard. Remove 
the tool from the water and with a piece of fine emery paper 
rub off the blackness produced by heating. The proper hard- 
ness of the metal may be tested by passing the edge of a file 
across the tool near the end. If it leaves no scratches the tool 
is hard, but if scratches are easily made the tool should be 
hardened again. 
The last process is to temper the tool. After the harden- 
ing process the tool is left very hard and somewhat brittle and 
with hard usage liable to crack. By tempering the tool the 
steel is rendered more or less elastic without losing its hard 
qualities. Tempering is done by holding the middle of the 
tool in a Bunsen flame, watching carefully until a steel blue 
color appears on the tool near the flame; simultaneously next 
to the blue appears a rich brown color which fades out to a 
faint straw color. The three colors will be seen to graduallj^ 
creep toward the end of the tool and the instant the faintest 
straw color reaches the end it must be plunged into cold water 
to stop the process. If the brown color is allowed to reach 
the end of the tool, the tool is more than likely to be too soft 
to use. If the blue color reaches the end we know it is too 
soft. Test the hardness with the file as before. 
