Tool Making

Part of Metalworking

Tools multiply human capability. A single well-made axe lets one person do the work of ten without one. Tool making is where all metalworking skills — smelting, forging, heat treatment — converge into objects that directly accelerate civilization rebuilding.

Why Tool Making Matters

Every other skill in this knowledge base depends on tools. You cannot build shelter without an axe, till soil without a hoe, cut timber without a saw, or work metal without hammers and tongs. The quality of your tools directly determines the quality of everything else you produce. A poorly made axe wastes energy, produces rough cuts, and breaks at the worst possible moment. A well-made one lasts years and makes every task faster and safer.

Essential Tools Priority List

Not all tools are equally urgent. Build them in this order:

Priority	Tool	Why First
1	Knife	Universal cutting tool, needed for everything
2	Axe	Wood harvesting, the foundation of all construction
3	Hammer	Drives fasteners, shapes metal, builds everything
4	Tongs	Required to make all other forged tools safely
5	Chisel	Woodworking joinery, stone work
6	Punch	Making holes in metal and leather
7	File/rasp	Shaping and sharpening
8	Saw	Efficient wood cutting once axes are available
9	Hoe/mattock	Agriculture — breaking ground
10	Nails	Construction fasteners

Knife Forging

The knife is the most versatile tool and the best project for learning forging fundamentals.

Materials

• Steel bar stock: 20-30 cm long, 2-4 cm wide, 5-8 mm thick
• Handle material: hardwood (oak, ash, hickory), antler, or bone
• Fasteners: copper rivets or iron pins

Forging Process

1. Draw the blade — Heat the bar to bright cherry and hammer the blade section thinner, working from the spine toward the edge. Leave the spine 3-4 mm thick for strength.

2. Form the tang — Draw out the handle end to a narrower section (the tang) that will insert into or be sandwiched between handle scales.

3. Shape the profile — Use a hot cut to trim the blade to your desired shape. A drop-point or clip-point is most versatile for general use.

4. Refine the edge geometry — Forge the cutting edge thin but not to final sharpness. The edge should be about 1 mm thick before heat treatment.

5. Normalize — Heat to cherry red three times, letting the blade cool in still air each time. This relieves forging stresses and refines the grain.

6. Harden — Heat evenly to cherry red, then quench edge-first into oil (preferred) or water. The blade should be glass-hard.

7. Temper — Polish the blade bright and heat gently until a dark straw to brown color appears on the edge (240-260C). Quench immediately.

8. Grind and sharpen — Use progressively finer stones to establish the final cutting edge. A 20-25 degree inclusive angle is good for general use.

9. Handle — Fit wooden scales with rivets, or burn/drive the tang into a drilled handle block and peg it.

The File Test

Test hardness after heat treatment by running a file across the edge. A properly hardened blade will resist the file — the file skates across without cutting. If the file bites in, the blade is not hard enough. Re-harden with a hotter heat or faster quench.

Axe Making

The axe is the most challenging common tool to forge because of the eye (handle hole) and the need for a hard cutting edge on a tough body.

Forging the Eye

The traditional method:

1. Start with a bar of iron or mild steel, 20-25 cm long, 4-5 cm wide, 2 cm thick
2. Heat the center section and punch a slot with a rectangular punch
3. Open the slot over the anvil horn or a drift (a tapered steel mandrel shaped like the desired handle hole)
4. Work the drift through from both sides until the eye is the correct size
5. The material displaced by the drift forms the cheeks of the axe — hammer these smooth

Adding a Steel Bit

Historical axes used an iron body (tough, shock-resistant) with a steel cutting edge (hard, holds an edge):

1. Forge a steel insert (high-carbon steel if available)
2. Forge-weld the steel into a split in the iron body at the cutting edge
3. This gives the best of both worlds — the iron body absorbs shock without breaking, and the steel edge cuts

Alternative: Wrap Method

1. Heat the bar to welding temperature
2. Fold it around the drift, overlapping the ends at what will become the bit
3. Forge-weld the overlapping ends together
4. This creates both the eye and the weld zone for the cutting edge in one operation

Heat Treatment

1. Harden only the cutting edge — heat the last 3-4 cm to cherry red and quench in oil
2. The body stays soft and tough (it was never heated to hardening temperature)
3. Temper the edge to brown/purple (260-280C) for toughness — axes take heavy impacts

Hammer Making

Head Forging

1. Start with a heavy bar (800g-1.5 kg of steel)
2. Punch the eye using the same technique as the axe
3. Shape the striking faces — one flat, one cross-peen (wedge-shaped)
4. The flat face should be very slightly convex (domed) to avoid leaving sharp-edged marks
5. Harden and temper the faces to dark straw (240C)

Hammer Face Chips

A hammer face tempered too hard will chip, launching steel fragments at dangerous velocities. Always temper hammer faces to dark straw or brown — never leave them glass-hard. If a chip appears, grind the face smooth before using the hammer again.

Handle Fitting

1. Carve a handle from straight-grained ash, hickory, or similar tough hardwood
2. Shape the top to fit the eye with a slight taper
3. Drive the head onto the handle from the bottom
4. Insert a wooden wedge into the top of the handle to expand it in the eye
5. Optionally add a cross-wedge of metal for additional security

Tongs Making

Tongs are essential for holding hot metal safely. You need them to make other tools.

The Bootstrap Problem

You need tongs to hold metal to make tongs. Solutions:

1. Forge the first pair from a single long bar — Hold one end while forging the other. The bar’s own length serves as a handle.
2. Use green-wood tongs — Clamp hot metal between two sticks of green (wet) wood to hold it temporarily
3. Use a vise — If available, clamp the workpiece while forging

Forging Process

1. Start with two bars, each 40-50 cm long
2. Forge one end of each bar flat and wide for the jaw
3. Draw out the other end for the handle (rein)
4. Punch a rivet hole where the jaw meets the rein
5. Rivet the two halves together with a loose-fitting iron rivet
6. Adjust the jaw shape to grip your most common stock sizes

Nails

Nails are consumed in enormous quantities. A single building can require hundreds.

Nail-Making Process

1. Heat a rod of nail-stock iron
2. Draw a taper — the nail point
3. Cut almost through at the desired nail length
4. Insert the rod into the nail header (a plate with a hole slightly larger than the nail shaft)
5. Snap off the nail, leaving the head protruding above the header
6. Flatten the head with two or three hammer blows
7. Drop the nail into a bucket and repeat

A skilled nailer can produce 200-300 nails per hour.

Nail Header

The nail header is just a thick piece of iron or steel with a tapered hole punched through it. Make one before starting nail production — it is the key to fast, consistent nail making.

Files and Rasps

Files are difficult to make but essential for precision work, sharpening saws, and fitting parts.

Basic File Making

1. Forge a flat bar of high-carbon steel to the desired file shape
2. Harden fully (quench from cherry red)
3. Using a sharp chisel, cut teeth into the surface at a consistent angle (about 70 degrees to the file axis)
4. Re-harden after cutting teeth
5. Mount in a wooden handle

Rasp Making

Same as files but with individual pointed teeth punched in with a sharp triangular punch. Rasps remove material faster but leave a rougher surface.

Sharpening and Maintenance

Every edge tool needs regular sharpening to remain effective.

Sharpening Stones

Stone Type	Grit Equivalent	Use
Coarse sandstone	100-200	Repairing damaged edges, reshaping
Fine sandstone	400-600	General sharpening
Slate	800-1,000	Fine sharpening
River-tumbled quartz	1,000+	Finishing, polishing edges

Sharpening Technique

1. Establish the correct bevel angle (20-25 degrees for knives, 25-30 for axes, 30-35 for chisels)
2. Work on the coarsest stone needed — do not start coarse if the edge only needs touching up
3. Maintain consistent angle throughout each stroke
4. Work both sides equally to keep the edge centered
5. Finish by stropping on smooth leather to remove the wire edge

Common Mistakes

1. Wrong steel for the job — Not all steel hardens. Mild steel and wrought iron will not hold an edge no matter how you heat-treat them. Test steel before investing forging time: if a file skates off after quenching, it is hardenable.
2. Overgrinding — Grinding generates heat that can ruin the temper of a hardened edge. Dip in water frequently. If the edge turns blue from grinding heat, you have lost the hardness and must re-treat.
3. Loose handles — A tool head flying off mid-swing is extremely dangerous. Always wedge handles tightly. Soak wooden handles in water before heavy use to swell the wood and tighten the fit.
4. Neglecting tempering — A hardened but untempered chisel or axe bit will chip or shatter on impact. Always temper after hardening, matching the temper color to the tool’s intended use.
5. Making tools too thin — Beginners tend to forge blades and edges too thin, which makes them fragile. A working tool needs sufficient mass behind the edge to resist bending and chipping.

Summary

Tool Making — At a Glance

• Build tools in priority order: knife, axe, hammer, tongs, chisel, punch, file
• Knife forging teaches all fundamental skills: drawing, shaping, heat treatment, handle fitting
• Axe eyes are formed by punching and drifting — use iron body with forge-welded steel bit for best results
• Nails require a nail header for fast production — a skilled nailer makes 200+ per hour
• Always normalize before hardening, and always temper after hardening
• Match temper color to use: straw for cutting edges, brown for impact tools, blue for springs
• Maintain tools with regular sharpening using progressively finer stones