OldSilverDigger
New Member
Been working on a couple of new diggers. The shovel/ trowel started out as a Ames mini shovel that I bought at Home Depot for $10.00 bucks. I used a cutoff disk to trim the tempered shovel part down, cut the wood handle section out , split the plastic handle down the part that wraps around the wood, attached the handle over the metal handle, and filled the section of missing plastic handle with melted black plastic to close up the gap, sharpened the edges, and filed notches into one edge. The finished tool now weighs 20 ounces and is 19" long.
The knife was made from a tire iron that I found at an old amusement park that went out of business in the 20s. It is very hard and thick tempered high carbon steel. Had to heat it up using charcoal to orange/red hot to take the temper out of if to file the notches in it. Then heated it back up until orange/red again to be able to bend it for handle and slight curve in blade. used a grinder to sharpen it, heated it up until a magnet did not stick to it and cooled it off quickly in peanut oil to re-temper it. Fun projects.
The knife was made from a tire iron that I found at an old amusement park that went out of business in the 20s. It is very hard and thick tempered high carbon steel. Had to heat it up using charcoal to orange/red hot to take the temper out of if to file the notches in it. Then heated it back up until orange/red again to be able to bend it for handle and slight curve in blade. used a grinder to sharpen it, heated it up until a magnet did not stick to it and cooled it off quickly in peanut oil to re-temper it. Fun projects.
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I didn't even notice your location before but I'm not far from you in joliet/plainfield 55 and 30.
looks like it'll make some very clean plugs 
