Awls From Engine Parts
Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 8:14 am
I was visiting a good friend of mine at his engine machine shop. We were in the head reconditioning area and I noticed some valves in the scrap bucket. They had the thinnest stems I had ever seen before and I joke with him that he was working on toy engines now. Turns out a lot of the newer engines had thin stemmed valves. A light bulb went on and I said I bet I could make some awls from those and he gave me some to try out. They are so hard that a hacksaw just skated across them so I chucked them in the lathe and used a cut off wheel in a die grinder to get the heads off. I used an angle grinder while they were spinning to start the sharpening process. I was careful of the heat while grinding but was thinking the hot combustion gases they are surrounded by while the engine is dunning. They would discolor as any metal does with heat. I do have an old wet grinding wheel that next to never gets used so I used it just to be on the safe side. After grinding I brought them to a smooth 600 grit finish with sand paper.
These measured out really close to 7/32 inches so I drilled a 13/64 hole in the handle wood for a press fit. I used some brass candle holders for the ferrule after straightening out the inside taper on the metal lathe. I installed the ferrule as a press fit and then drilled for the shaft and hammered the handle on with the shaft held between aluminum jaws in a vise to keep from marring it. Put it back on the lathe to finish turn it. I reverse chucked it to finish the handle end holding it by the ferrule after wrapping it with masking tape to protect it.
These measured out really close to 7/32 inches so I drilled a 13/64 hole in the handle wood for a press fit. I used some brass candle holders for the ferrule after straightening out the inside taper on the metal lathe. I installed the ferrule as a press fit and then drilled for the shaft and hammered the handle on with the shaft held between aluminum jaws in a vise to keep from marring it. Put it back on the lathe to finish turn it. I reverse chucked it to finish the handle end holding it by the ferrule after wrapping it with masking tape to protect it.