ygmir wrote:yeah steel.........I've had an interesting relationship with it.
in my work, I use steel tools, some of them well over 100 years old, some hand forged. And, have some equipment, and even scrap steel, the same age.
When I but a new steel "thing", and especially if it's something I hit, pry with, or weld, it's so obvious!!
some of the old steel stone working tools, and hand drills, ring a a super high pitch, each time you hit them, it's almost musical. And, if working on a nice piece of hard, dense stone, that ring adds to it. You can "feel" the tones, and how the enegergy transmits from arm, to hammer, to chisel, to stone......sort of a "zen" thing, I suppose.
But, buy a new chisel, escpecially if it's made "offshore", and it just thuds.......or at best as a bit of a ring, but short lived.
I have stonecutting hammers, again over a century old, that I've never had to grind a mushroom off of........and they've totally worn out many chisels.
and then pry bars.........Jeebus! I've bent 3/4" hex bars, 6' long. New ones, that is. I have old ones, I can jump on, and all they do is give a little then throw me off to the side.
i hear this so well. i dont think i have a single modern tool that feels well made, even the glasscutters i used 20 years ago were actually better, smaller wheels and more rugged.
