Timber framers slick with 12" socket

So I have been working on a timber framers slick, the blade is going to be 2 3/4-3" when finished and is 12 inches long. The socket I modeled after the antique ones made by the Pennsylvania Deutsch here in my area, these were considered the highest quality and were dentified by the very long and slender sockets, usually up to an eight inch socket. So I took it a little further and this socket is right at 12"... Most antique makers made a 3-5 inch socket, modern smiths are making 3-4" ones.

The whole thing is O-1 tool steel and will get hardened and tempered in my heat treating furnace......then I will turn a nice handle with a taper to match the interior of the socket.

There seem to be a few timber framers here, let me know what you think.....

Some more process photos

And this last photo is it cooling next to a socketed mortise chisel made by the buck bros with an African blackwood handle a made......size difference is humorous!

Looks real good, looks like a clean forge weld, what kind of forge are you using?

I have a coal for welding and a small propane for general forging.....I want to figure out a rocket driven forge, I've been kicking that around in my head.

This is for doors and windows, I got tired of the short bladed short socketed ones when working these areas specifically, so the 2 ft slick was born!

There is actually a couple of poor spots in the weld, but the entire socket is 3/16" thick tool steel so the reality is it didn't really need to be welded.

Got the blade domed out today, ended up a 2 3/4 inches wide, just right for a 3 inch notch or the like. Now it's a 1/2 inch in the center and about 3/8 on the edges. Teat treated in oil and tempered to a ver dark straw color....had to do it the old way as it wouldn't fit in the heat treat furnace!

Next step sharpening and handle

Ok the second handle worked out, the first was the same design but narrower all around and looked too dainty. This again is a hand turned handle in cherry that I milled a couple of years ago. Turned to look like the antique slick handles in my area.

So, it finished out at 33 1/2 inches with the handle, only thing left is final sharpening and away we go!

That is some fine work, Chadwick!

Have an apple.

Thank you very much Bill! I am pleased with it!

All the commercially available slicks are really just timber chisels on long handles, and getting to the middle of a long paring job is always a hassle....no more I say!

Hahahahaha

Why not a before and after!

i just made a slick and boy are my arms tired!

Oh, that's right it cost me about $60 forge fuel included, so......

A real beauty, how much fuel did you use in the forge? I bet that your $60 would multiply fast if you had to buy one!

Very cool. Nothing like some judicious overkill!

I'd love to hear more about the process; what steps are involved, and how long did you spend on this?

About three coffee cans of coal for the weld, give or take, and I figure about 1/2 of a grill size propane tank.

The commercial and antique ones available go for between $200-500, but still don't have the reach into a joint or log.

So I'll explain briefly the steps, and try not to be too wordy, trades tend to have their own way of sounding pretentious through jargon and slang that I try not to fall into.

Starting with a bar 2 1/2 x 18x 1/2 inches in size, I heat up the one end and begin by reducing down a spot 6 inches from one side with a fuller, a tool that puts round depressions on both sides at the same time, this takes about 2-3hours to do well, if I had a better fuller it would go faster mine s stiff. Then I have the short and long ends separated by what will be the shoulder of the blade and beginning of the socket.

Next I heat and draw out the socket materials making it both longer and shaping it into the pyramid shape that becomes the tapered socket. I'd say we have about 10 hours of drawing out in the socket area, again if you had a power hammer you could do it in two, but this is by hand so.... Also if you did the body in mild steel and welded in a tool steel edge you could go much faster!

Then the pictures start up, I heat the socket and fold it into a roundish shape so that it can go on that mandrel, I beat it around the mandrel to form it to a nice round shape and to bring the edges around to ready them for welding. This takes about two hours if you are picky! Then I heat the whole socket as evenly as possible to a welding heat ( white hot ) adding borax for a flux, and tap the weld on the mandrel till it welds. Back in the heat and harder hits on the mandrel till the weld is hidden and shaped. Welding about 30-45 min not including starting the coal forge.

Then I spend about 30 min making the socket to blade transition shaped well

Then blade is really just beat a dome into it and keep the edges square and straight shape the end like its been sharpened so there is less to remove later, maybe 5 hours.

Then hardening, heat the blade up till a magnet does not stick, dunk it in oil (peanut) to quench it, now it is hard but brittle, heat up a 2x3x7 inch slB of steel and put the blade on that and let it sit on there till you see the metal change colors, this is tempering and removes some brittleness from the hardening.

Then I took a piece of cherry and turned the handle on the lathe, making a taper on one end that matches the taper of the mandrel I worked the socket on. Food grade flaxseed oil mixed with turpentine spirits is my go to finish it works well on wood and metal. It smells silly for a week or two but the oil soaks in deeply with the spirits added. I am a fast turner so I got both handles made in about an hour, one worked aesthetically.

See what I mean about wordy! Also I didn't realize how long I spent on it till I wrote it down!

Pretty Slick !!
That's a tool you can be proud of for a long time.
Thanks for the pictures and the description.

Thanks! I appreciate that! And yes, if any man can sharpen this one down to a nub he needs a post crown!

Thanks for the expanded version! Definitely something I'd like to learn more about, down the line.

So when tempering this, the whole tool has been tempered to the same hardness? I wondered if it was necessary(desirable? practical?) to temper the blade to be harder than the rest?

If it was able to fit into my furnace it would have been all one temper, because I can scientifically control exactly how hard the steel is to the degree. This got the blade hardened and the last six inches tempered by letting heat flow from a heater steer bar, so the edge and about three inches back are harder than the middle of the blade where the heater bar added more temper.

If you are the type that can build without plans ( more artistic) and are a bright minded fellow blacksmithing is easy to learn, there are only five possesses that you can use on the metal, so it really is about your creativity

Awesome work! I'll have to add a Forge one day. Thanks for the inspiration.

Ok she's sharp finally! Why is it when I hand sharpen things I always let the red out of the metal??

Well no matter how much I sharpened it it still had a crown and I wanted it nice and flat, so I took it to my friends sharpening shop and he machine sharpened it. Then over to another friend who makes tack for horse drawn equipment and we played around with a sheath for it......I think it is officially done now! The pouch that it fits into has Branding mark in the leather, I thought that was cool, they won't use that for tack so......

Would you call this a slick too?

Yes, that is a joinery slick, I think those are more German influence, where mine is the English tradition.

I call that a mortise slick. And both have their strengths and weaknesses, but I prefer the English pattern as it is more of a multitasker around any carpentry.

I heard the old guys calling that a stab slick when I was a boy....

If you look at the geometry of the tool, they are the same, the only difference is the orientation of the socket and handle.....

One of the most beautiful things about hand tools is that there are so many regional differences in history, each area met the same challenges in different wood and with different materials to make tools with. However the similarities to how the different regions answered the same questions with how they constructed the tools that were used by tradesmen is remarkable.......

Chadwick, in France we call this one pontache, or demie bisaigue. Bisaigue, would mean "twice pointy" in English. It's the same kind as this one, but one pointy bit each side of the handle/socket.

One side being a chisel/slick, and the other end being a mortice chisel.

https://www.google.fr/search?q=bisaigue&rlz=1T4SAVJ_enFR550FR551&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjcq_D1zeHKAhUK2xoKHXQwASwQsAQIFA

I don't even have one of the twin sided ones. But i would love to try the ancestor, the piochon. Close to a twibill, it's a bit like a pick axe, but sharpened. The old geezers used those realy like a pick, to mortice the wood.

I very much like that double ended one! Do you know how long each side was? Some of those pictures look like they are quite long!

Chadwick Holmes wrote:I very much like that double ended one! Do you know how long each side was? Some of those pictures look like they are quite long!

4 feet for the shortest, usualy, 5.5' for the longest may be 5.10. It all depends on your size and what you do. Because you rest the upper arm on your shoulder as a guide. So you can whack or punch the wood with the working end. So the depth of the mortice or other joint is at play, and the height of the tretsles. We often use "chantiers" over here, for big pieces of wood. They are in the 18">24" range. So you can fit an 8 inch piece of wood on top, and be at the right height.

You can see the short oes and the long ones here. Tho, no twybill!