"John B Slocomb" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 23 Nov 2016 17:13:22 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

...
We often made boring bars for one off jobs from "drill rod". Takes
very little time to forge and temper grind it to shape. Even keeping
the cutting speed down to carbon steel speeds it was still a quick
way
to get a job done :-)

I make custom tapered drill bits from O-1 rod, for instance a 20
degree taper for a convergent air nozzle. They cut well enough if
slowly when milled half round into D bits. A thin coating of Ivory
soap minimizes scaling loss when hardened.
--jsw