Thread: Can't drill the tang....

Crazy... Not even a dent... Hmm I don't have a clue, do you use some kind of cutting oil? Shouldn't need it, but maybe it could help.

On a side note, i'd like to know what steps you take to make sure that your hole gets lined up to be perfectly perpendicular to the plane of the blade. I think many would be interested in this part of your process.

I sounds like a solid carbide drill bit is what you need, (I am assuming that you are using some sort of HSS ). Maybe it is cheaper to buy another DA?

You could try the trick of spot annealing. Set your blade up on the drill press and make ready to drill, but instead of a drill bit use a piece of metal with a flat bottom. (cut off nail). Run the drill press at high speed and press the nail into the blade and let the friction heat up the spot you want to drill. You should be able to get that one spot pretty hot with friction. Let it cool slowly then try drilling again with a HSS bit.

Charlie

+1 on the carbide bit. I've also had good luck going slow with a cobalt bit. Don't forget the oil.

Originally Posted by spazola

I sounds like a solid carbide drill bit is what you need, (I am assuming that you are using some sort of HSS ). Maybe it is cheaper to buy another DA?

You could try the trick of spot annealing. Set your blade up on the drill press and make ready to drill, but instead of a drill bit use a piece of metal with a flat bottom. (cut off nail). Run the drill press at high speed and press the nail into the blade and let the friction heat up the spot you want to drill. You should be able to get that one spot pretty hot with friction. Let it cool slowly then try drilling again with a HSS bit.

Charlie

I tried doing something like this- I wrapped the main body of the blade with a soaking wet paper towel, then hit up the tang hole with a propane torch for a few seconds, hoping to anneal it a bit. Went back to the drill press, and same old story. I may have to be a bit more aggressive.

I would simply move on the another DA, but I have already done most of my mods on this one, so I have a fair bit of effort already invested.

It is odd, as I have never run into this issue on any razor I have drilled the tang on, DAs, Solingen, Sheffield....nada.

one thing youve got to watch, is that it could very well be that this blade was just hardened quite a bit, you run into the problem more with heavy metal generally that has been welded, but if you dont know the way one tempers steel is essentially you heat it up and cool it off really quickly (theres more to it than that but thats basically it) and really youd have to heat it to rather high temperatures (like a good solid red color atleast) and then let it cool very slowly to have any great effect on the hardness of the steel, now as im sure u can image on a razor that would be highly unadvised since it would be almost impossible to get a good temper back to the blade after this (it is very hard to do properly even to experience metal workers)

id have to imagine though a high quality bit a good drill press plenty of oil and patience will go on and punch on through

Originally Posted by center5150

one thing youve got to watch, is that it could very well be that this blade was just hardened quite a bit, you run into the problem more with heavy metal generally that has been welded, but if you dont know the way one tempers steel is essentially you heat it up and cool it off really quickly (theres more to it than that but thats basically it) and really youd have to heat it to rather high temperatures (like a good solid red color atleast) and then let it cool very slowly to have any great effect on the hardness of the steel, now as im sure u can image on a razor that would be highly unadvised since it would be almost impossible to get a good temper back to the blade after this (it is very hard to do properly even to experience metal workers)

id have to imagine though a high quality bit a good drill press plenty of oil and patience will go on and punch on through

As people may have noticed, I have worked on more than a couple of these DA razors...they have always been quite easy to drill out the tang, same as most any other razor I have had to do that to (vintage Sheffield, or Solingen, whatever), and then these last two have had this same issue.

The previous one honed up no problemo, and actually took a very nice edge. So, who knows?

well i more meant if you were heating the metal to extreme temperatures and then allowing it to cool slowly to soften the metal, and the problems in trying to keep the blade tempered correctly
i cant imagine the drilling affecting the temper much beyond right around the whole

it does also soung like a pretty interesting endeavor

Originally Posted by Del1r1um

Crazy... Not even a dent... Hmm I don't have a clue, do you use some kind of cutting oil? Shouldn't need it, but maybe it could help.

On a side note, i'd like to know what steps you take to make sure that your hole gets lined up to be perfectly perpendicular to the plane of the blade. I think many would be interested in this part of your process.

I don't sweat getting it perfect, I just allow for clearance in the hole.

Give the friction way a try the heat is much more locallized than with a torch. Make sure and let it cool slowly

Charlie