Awesome video! Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge! Also, awesome knife; the stockman pattern is my absolute favorite and what I carry with me almost everywhere!
Just discovered (a year later) that I replied to your comment with my wife's account! Must have been out somewhere and used the 'phone ; we only have one between us as we're always together :D
This is a very clear explanation. I did some google-ing about broaches vs reamers. This scale of work is so much smaller. Thank you for posting. I taught math, it seems like a prior lifetime, so in class we'd occasionally play around with constructions using only compass and straightedge, in the shop I may make some shortcuts. It's always interesting to see how others work. Thanks again.
Glad you enjoyed it John :) And with your other post; blacksmithing certainly is a tools creation trade, making beautiful/functional items with the mind and the hands paramount. Cheers
I made one of these today (2.84mm dia) in silver steel - as an alternative to my usual practice of making D-bit and tri-point reamers. Followed all the instructions but finished up honing the faces on stones. Spent around two hours getting everything just-so. Finally, I heated the steel up to cherry red and dunked it in water to harden it (I don't temper small reamers). Completely gutted to find the heat treatment had warped the blade!! Softened the tool, snipped the end off and salvaged about half of the length of the blade - tweaked and re-hardened it. Semi-promising results on brass tubing, and will experiment some more to see if I can make this style of reamer/broach work for me because the internal surface finish was very good.
G'day Bob, In one of my horology books it mentions quenching long thin parts holding it vertically and going straight down into the quench medium. I'm wondering if doing 80% of the work first, then quenching and tempering, followed by the final shaping and finishing, would help. All the best with your experiments. Cheers Duncan
@@theselectiveluddite Yep, did the vertical quench. It might be worth thinking about a slower dunk...dunno. Ideally you'd make the tool out of pre-hardened steel...but that's a hell of a lot more work! I'll keep at it - it may be that the taper on the blade needs to be more conservative in order to maintain stiffness during the hardening process.
@@bobbobbins8913 A broach shouldn't be full hard; it needs to have small amount of flexibility or you run a risk of breakage in use (not a friend to eyes...). The music wire I use, from K&S Metals at model aeroplane shops, is quite hard and will blunt the teeth of a file (don't ask me how I know...), so I don't do any heat treatment on it. The tapers on broaches is very subtle, and as such when you buy them they come in sets of 6 - 10, or so, so you can find the one that will do the required job. Opening up a hole a fair amount can require more than one broach to complete the job. Hope this helps :)
@@theselectiveluddite Normally I'd agree, but a great deal depends on the application. I've never broken a reamer in 45+ years because I'm going into a tube and cutting tenths of a mm. I found a fully hardened blade keeps an edge for much longer, which is a consideration on cuts that can be as long as 10cm. if there's any taper it's only on the extreme lead-in...which is why D-bits are favoured. But the penta-broach is too intriguing a prospect to pass up :) - it's just that making a more or less parallel blade isn't going to be easy. But..I feel a lathe fixture coming on.. ;)
@@bobbobbins8913 Hmmm, would putting a shim either side of the broach-to-be, for the ends of the abrasive (wrapped with sticky tape so that it doesn't grind down the shims) to slide along, help with getting parallel faces? Because you're going for 5 sides, you'll always have a contact line underneath that's almost the original diameter, so the thickness of the shims should stay relevant for the whole shaping process. Would be interested in your thoughts :) Cheers
Thanks for sharing this. I really appreciate. Such an clever and easy method. I guess a starting material can be a drill bit as well rather than a steel wire?
G'day htc. Glad you liked the video. My only concern would be that drill bits are on the brittle side, and when they snap, they chip, and things get interesting for your eyes very quickly, and you can't anneal HSS drill rod. I speak from experience. I had a drill snap on me and a razor sharp fleck lodged in the border of eyelid between the eyelashes and the eyeball, in line with my pupil. I was squinting at the time. I resolved that day to never drill without safety goggles again. The music wire I use is quite cheap. A 3 foot length, the diameter of the one I used in the video, would be around $4 Australian, and will make quite a few broaches, spade drills, balance staffs, and on and on and on :) All the Best Cheers.
Thanks for your reply@@theselectiveluddite. And thanks for warning about HSS chipping. I got some old watchmaking tools on my hands. On is quite large and rusty broach. I'd like to restore it even I don't really need it as it is quite large. I'll definitively will give a try for the method you shared.
@@htchtc203 Nice. I also have quite a lot of antique watch and clockmaker's broaches, a fair proportion of which have dull edges. You can see this by rotating the broach under a light. A dull edge will reflect light between the facets, where as a sharp edge will not show up at all. I used the method in the video (but with a hardwood block with fine tapered grooves at one end and holding the broach in my fingers) to sharpen a bunch of super fine watchmaker's broaches (like the one I show early on), using a very fine diamond hone (only about 5 strokes per face) followed by a small piece of slate. I used the method of pressing down firmly with the hone/stone to keep the face being worked on level.
That seems like a lot of work... I’m sure a broach turned down to a taper from soft steel, hardened and one flat ground in would work just fine (that’s what the broaches from my Seitz jeweling tool look like
G'day Jonas, Watch and Clockmaker's broaches are different to jewelling reamers. I was making mine based on commercially produced ones I own. It would be faster using soft steel, but I don't have the set up yet to do case hardening; I could have annealed the music wire, and then re-hardened and tempered it after shaping, but I don't feel that my skill level with those processes is quite up to snuff yet. Cheers
I'm sure there's some reason I'm wrong, since you seem to know what you're talking about, but isn't that a reamer rather than a broach? I thought a broach was a tool that (let's see . . .) removes metal with an action that is parallel to it's own axis. Make sense?
G'day BLenz, Yes, terminology between trades can get interesting; where a tool like this in another field would indeed be called a reamer, in Horology it's referred to as a broach, and the action of using it is called 'broaching': eg. "Broaching out a pivot hole". I don't know why there's the difference, but all the Horology books I've got, dating back into the 1800's, refer to them by that term. Are you into engineering? All the Best
Also, @johndilsaver8409, at the bottom of the comments, mentions googling the difference between broach and reamer, and it seems to be a size thing. Cheers
Make a tool to make a tool...been stuck in that loop for 5 years now, and loving it!
I made one for 1.7-2.0 mm today for my incline plane clock project, took about 2 hours but it works a charm. Thank you for the instructions.
Great to hear it was of use to you :) All the Best with your clock project.
Awesome video! Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge!
Also, awesome knife; the stockman pattern is my absolute favorite and what I carry with me almost everywhere!
Glad you liked it Wilson. Cheers
Brilliant video thanks.
I carry one of those knives at all times, it was a present from an uncle 60years ago.
Thanks jonka1, glad it was useful.
Yes, the knife is a good one :)
Just discovered (a year later) that I replied to your comment with my wife's account! Must have been out somewhere and used the 'phone ; we only have one between us as we're always together :D
This is a very clear explanation. I did some google-ing about broaches vs reamers. This scale of work is so much smaller. Thank you for posting. I taught math, it seems like a prior lifetime, so in class we'd occasionally play around with constructions using only compass and straightedge, in the shop I may make some shortcuts. It's always interesting to see how others work. Thanks again.
Glad you enjoyed it John :) And with your other post; blacksmithing certainly is a tools creation trade, making beautiful/functional items with the mind and the hands paramount. Cheers
As a blacksmith, making a tool to make a tool is everyday.
I really like the stick/paper idea :)
Glad it was useful Anthony :)
I made one of these today (2.84mm dia) in silver steel - as an alternative to my usual practice of making D-bit and tri-point reamers. Followed all the instructions but finished up honing the faces on stones. Spent around two hours getting everything just-so. Finally, I heated the steel up to cherry red and dunked it in water to harden it (I don't temper small reamers). Completely gutted to find the heat treatment had warped the blade!! Softened the tool, snipped the end off and salvaged about half of the length of the blade - tweaked and re-hardened it. Semi-promising results on brass tubing, and will experiment some more to see if I can make this style of reamer/broach work for me because the internal surface finish was very good.
G'day Bob, In one of my horology books it mentions quenching long thin parts holding it vertically and going straight down into the quench medium. I'm wondering if doing 80% of the work first, then quenching and tempering, followed by the final shaping and finishing, would help. All the best with your experiments.
Cheers
Duncan
@@theselectiveluddite Yep, did the vertical quench. It might be worth thinking about a slower dunk...dunno. Ideally you'd make the tool out of pre-hardened steel...but that's a hell of a lot more work! I'll keep at it - it may be that the taper on the blade needs to be more conservative in order to maintain stiffness during the hardening process.
@@bobbobbins8913 A broach shouldn't be full hard; it needs to have small amount of flexibility or you run a risk of breakage in use (not a friend to eyes...). The music wire I use, from K&S Metals at model aeroplane shops, is quite hard and will blunt the teeth of a file (don't ask me how I know...), so I don't do any heat treatment on it. The tapers on broaches is very subtle, and as such when you buy them they come in sets of 6 - 10, or so, so you can find the one that will do the required job. Opening up a hole a fair amount can require more than one broach to complete the job. Hope this helps :)
@@theselectiveluddite Normally I'd agree, but a great deal depends on the application. I've never broken a reamer in 45+ years because I'm going into a tube and cutting tenths of a mm. I found a fully hardened blade keeps an edge for much longer, which is a consideration on cuts that can be as long as 10cm. if there's any taper it's only on the extreme lead-in...which is why D-bits are favoured. But the penta-broach is too intriguing a prospect to pass up :) - it's just that making a more or less parallel blade isn't going to be easy. But..I feel a lathe fixture coming on.. ;)
@@bobbobbins8913 Hmmm, would putting a shim either side of the broach-to-be, for the ends of the abrasive (wrapped with sticky tape so that it doesn't grind down the shims) to slide along, help with getting parallel faces? Because you're going for 5 sides, you'll always have a contact line underneath that's almost the original diameter, so the thickness of the shims should stay relevant for the whole shaping process. Would be interested in your thoughts :) Cheers
Thanks for another very informative video. I really enjoy these.
Glad I'm achieving my goal Phil :)
Excellent instruction, thank you.
Glad you found it informative. :)
very nice indeed.
Thank you kindly
Thanks for sharing this. I really appreciate. Such an clever and easy method.
I guess a starting material can be a drill bit as well rather than a steel wire?
G'day htc. Glad you liked the video. My only concern would be that drill bits are on the brittle side, and when they snap, they chip, and things get interesting for your eyes very quickly, and you can't anneal HSS drill rod. I speak from experience. I had a drill snap on me and a razor sharp fleck lodged in the border of eyelid between the eyelashes and the eyeball, in line with my pupil. I was squinting at the time. I resolved that day to never drill without safety goggles again.
The music wire I use is quite cheap. A 3 foot length, the diameter of the one I used in the video, would be around $4 Australian, and will make quite a few broaches, spade drills, balance staffs, and on and on and on :)
All the Best
Cheers.
Thanks for your reply@@theselectiveluddite. And thanks for warning about HSS chipping.
I got some old watchmaking tools on my hands. On is quite large and rusty broach. I'd like to restore it even I don't really need it as it is quite large. I'll definitively will give a try for the method you shared.
@@htchtc203 Nice. I also have quite a lot of antique watch and clockmaker's broaches, a fair proportion of which have dull edges. You can see this by rotating the broach under a light. A dull edge will reflect light between the facets, where as a sharp edge will not show up at all. I used the method in the video (but with a hardwood block with fine tapered grooves at one end and holding the broach in my fingers) to sharpen a bunch of super fine watchmaker's broaches (like the one I show early on), using a very fine diamond hone (only about 5 strokes per face) followed by a small piece of slate. I used the method of pressing down firmly with the hone/stone to keep the face being worked on level.
Great vid! Been looking for Broach making info.
Glad to help Benny.
good work :)
The reason the tip was fatter is because the file only went half its width past the end so less material was removed on each stroke.
HTH
That seems like a lot of work...
I’m sure a broach turned down to a taper from soft steel, hardened and one flat ground in would work just fine (that’s what the broaches from my Seitz jeweling tool look like
G'day Jonas, Watch and Clockmaker's broaches are different to jewelling reamers. I was making mine based on commercially produced ones I own. It would be faster using soft steel, but I don't have the set up yet to do case hardening; I could have annealed the music wire, and then re-hardened and tempered it after shaping, but I don't feel that my skill level with those processes is quite up to snuff yet. Cheers
I'm sure there's some reason I'm wrong, since you seem to know what you're talking about, but isn't that a reamer rather than a broach? I thought a broach was a tool that (let's see . . .) removes metal with an action that is parallel to it's own axis. Make sense?
G'day BLenz, Yes, terminology between trades can get interesting; where a tool like this in another field would indeed be called a reamer, in Horology it's referred to as a broach, and the action of using it is called 'broaching': eg. "Broaching out a pivot hole".
I don't know why there's the difference, but all the Horology books I've got, dating back into the 1800's, refer to them by that term.
Are you into engineering?
All the Best
Also, @johndilsaver8409, at the bottom of the comments, mentions googling the difference between broach and reamer, and it seems to be a size thing. Cheers