i love new steel...and a question.

h0tr0d

h0tr0d

Well-Known Member
got in some 5160 1/4x1-1/4 and with using my new GS tongs I've found my new love...travis tritt on the cassette player in the garage, sweltering heat from the forge, and an ice cold coca cola cowboy...anyways, dream sequence over. I do have a question. I need to do a cut on this flat bar. I know about hot cutters for the hardy holes, but alas, no hardy hole for me. I need a field expedient way of cutting this bar without having to take it to the job, using the chop saw on it and delaying me finishing a knife in one session at the forge. The wait sometimes kills me :) I'll post pics tomorrow..
 
Some sort of a hot cutter may be the blacksmith way but don't ignore things like the old fasioned hand held hack saw or an angle grinder. Yes, you will have to pause your work to let the blade cool but it's still going to be quicker than running the piece into the job site. Another thing that you might want to look at, being that you don't have a hardy hole, is a leg vice. These are built to hold things that are being hammered on and are different in construction from a machinists vice, which you will tear to pieces hammering on. You can use the leg vice to hold the hardy tools. They can often be found on Ebay for around $100-$150 with $40-$45 shipping which is a good deal being that the cheapest new vice I've see ran around $850.

Doug Lester
 
I just use a Makita 4 1/2" angle grinder with a cut off blade. You can find very inexpensive grinders at Harbor Freight. They won't last as long but will suffice. Or as Doug also said use a hack saw.
 
I used a piece of 4x4 angle iron and ground down one side to somewhat of an edge and clamped it to a bench and it worked well for the little forging that I did.
 
An old hand ax or hatchet works too.
Just whack it with your hammer to drive it through the hot steel. (reverse hot cut)

Rudy
 
ten four, i ended up using a chop saw at work....but i have a nice old hand axe that i'll give a shot.
 
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