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Custom built tools

In this tread you will find model builders who have custom made their own tools. to start here are two articles by Harold Hahn taken from his library.

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I made a tiny carving tool many years ago, after a tip from Harold Underhill. It's made from a broken darning needle, broken just at the bottom of the eye of the needle so I got the internal curve of the edge. After grinding the outer side of the edge, I then attached it to a plastic handle I had laying around. I remember using it for carving the ornaments at the first Norske Løve

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The Hahn rope walk design allows for an "endless" length of spun up line (or as long as the length on the yarn spools).
The Jim rope walk is I think its next generation. Nothing travels and the power is an electric motor instead of a hand crank.
In operation - It is a Dennis Moore type situation. I am betting that it is the same with Hahn's design.

When Hahn published his design in NRJ I gained the aspiration to build it or a fixed length style. Pre- internet I was never able to find gears that I could use.

The step with fabricating your own carving tools that I find intimidating is the tempering. Unless hardened an edge quickly dulls. To learn to do proper tempering I would need live one-on-one instruction from someone with the skill. More than a few hours contact time too. There is an art aspect to it that reading does not provide for me.
 
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