1. So far you have been working with annealed or softened tool steel which you will now harden by heating the business end to red/orange or non-magnetic and quenching vertically in water. Don't stir, swirl or move it.



2. Your tool is now hardened and ready to sharpen. Use a light touch and avoid over heating by quenching frequently in a can of water. If you can, keep the face flat and true to the original angle. If it cuts your finger nail, it will cut mild steel or annealed tool steel.



3. To cut steel, hold at a steep angle and enter the metal with one tap. Continue tapping with a light hammer while lowering the other end until the face starts to cut through the metal.



4. To cut continuous lines hold your tool at a constant angle. Too high and it dives into the metal and too low causes it to surface. With a little practice you can cut a straight line at even depth.



5. To cut curved lines you must either rotate your vise or move around the work piece as you tap the tool through the metal

IS IT RIGHT?: If your tool has developed a mushroomed tip and won't cut it is too soft. If the tip has chipped or fractured it is too hard. Anneal & re-harden. The nail will stand this a good number of times as long as you don't overheat and burn out the carbon (emitting sparks during a heat).

SPARK TESTING TOOL STEEL: Take the suspect stock and grind it hard enough to create a shower of sparks. If the sparks are straight and not too bright you have non-tool steel or iron. If the sparks fork and fan out in a bright pattern you have tool steel. Use a wood nail and an old drill bit for comparison. Compare a wood nail (bends) and a concrete nail (breaks) for spark patterns. This is a scroungers' test and will not provide an alloy number or hardening information but can lead to results with a little trial and error experimentation. Junk is cheap, high tech tool steel ain't!