Just as you wouldn't use a butterknife to cut steel pipe, you aren't going
to get anywhere working HSS with tools made to cut softer metals. Your
problem isn't one of skills (necessarily) but one of the proper equipment.
You need tools (or blades, bits, files, etc.) that are harder than the metal
you're trying to work. These aren't the kind of things that you can run to
Wal-Mart for either. g Well, mostly not anyway.

Regular M2 HSS, which your jointer blade probably is) is pretty tough stuff
but there's much much harder stuff to work out there. Many turners
regularly work HSS to make their own tools just like you're doing with the
jointer blade, sure. Do you have a grinder with the grey wheels (silicon
carbide probably)? If so, you can use that to grind your scraper profile.
The wheel will wear away but most people have these so that's why I suggest
it. It's also better than using the good white/blue/pink aluminum oxide
wheels for this application. Of course, for more aggressive work, you can
buy special hacksaw or jigsaw blades and drill bits to do it. But just for
making a scraper, just grind it.

- Andrew



"Joel" wrote in message
om...
I have been turning for less than a year now and other day (feeling
especially full of myself)I decided to try my hand at making some
simple turning tools. I found an old jointer blade and started to
work it into a 3/4" flat nose scraper. A hacksaw won't cut it, a file
can't scratch it and when I tried to make a starting dimple with a
punch, it didn't even mark it...probably can't drill it
either...obviously, this material is from an alien space ship and not
a jointer blade like I thought. Do you think I need to start with
high carbon steel until I grow some skills? Does anyone work HSS
routinely? A search on this site yielded an enormous amount of info on
tool making and a number of sites that have how-to's. I guesss I just
wanted to share my less-than-successful experiences.

Joel Crabbe
Temple, Texas