Wood Turning Parting Tool From a Power Hacksaw Blade, + Optional Old School Metal Scriber.

When I first started turning wood and got my own wood lathe I read an article on some wood turning site that you could make a nice thin parting tool from a power hacksaw blade.

When I was working as an engineer we often used old power hack saw blades to make our own scribers with. 

I have been meaning to make one of these parting tools since i got my wood lathe but just never got round to doing so.

A few weeks ago sniped a nova chuck for 12 quid under the buy it now price, I was going to buy it anyway if I didn't win the auction one.  I had also bought a small screw chuck for doing small decorative knobs too and decided to make the thin parting tool as it could also be used for fine lines and decorations on small scale turning projects.

To make the parting tool you first grind the teeth of the old power hacksaw blade with a bench grinder or and angle grinder.

I marked out the tang in pencil and then using a thin metal cutting disk in an angle grinder. a block of scrap wood was used as a cutting board.  the tang could also be ground out on a bench grinder but would take much longer and would require frequent cooling. the tang was cut about 2 - 3" long and had to be trimmed to about 2" to suit the handle I had.

Leave the as is until you get the blade hammered home into the handle of your choice, when you bang the tang home in the handle the thin blade cuts into the scrap block about and inch as is and that's with out a sharp point ground on the end.

Once the blade is fitted to the handle you can mark the angles and cut them with the grinder and then use a bench grindr to sharpen the tool to the standard parting tool profile.

My Mum bought a job lot of wood turning chisels in the market one day I got them or £1.00 each, good quality tool steel but very short handles of only about 10',  I turned up my own handles all around 18-24" and reground some of the profiles to give me a full range of chisels. I have a few spare gouges that have yet to use so i had a ready made handle for my parting tool.  The short handle is perfect for this parting tool as it will be used only on smaller stuff running at higher speeds so there is very little leverage required.

The parting tool used about half of the hacksaw blade so I decided to make an old school metal scriber for the fun of it.  for those engineers who use overalls that have a pocket for a folding rule this type of scriber is great as it fits the rule pocket perfectly, they also are designed as a pulling tool so they are very comfortable to use and they feel natural in you hand when you are marking out steel for cutting.

Thanks for looking and I hope you find these ideas useful.


===================UPDATE======================

I made a second parting tool today and used the second profile that leaves the cutting tip at a better height to suit my tool rest for parting work. 

This new parting tool cut so much better and much cleaner cut without any over heating, it is still a little bit to high but the next few sharpenings will fix that.