LEAF-VEINING HARDY The CACBOA October trade item was a hardy tool for a one- inch hardy—coincidentally suggested by the only one of us who has a one inch hardy in their . Mine and Garrett’s are 7/8”, and Dale’s giant anvil has a hardy you could reach your hand through. Well… almost.

So I was trying to figure out a hardy tool that was (a) within my skill range, (b) didn’t require having a hardy hole of the target size, and (c) might be halfway useful.

Here’s what I came up with.

1 Take a piece of stock 2 Measure the depth of 3 Add a half inch for clearance, and the size of your hardy and flat- your hardy hole on the cut the stock to length, so that ten the last five inches of it until it side facing the horn. enough square stock remains to extend is about twice as wide as it is tall. completely through the hardy.

4 Heat the metal up, clamp it in 5 Heat it up again and take it to your anvil to your , and make sure the tool will lie flat on the anvil whack the surface. flattened If you are making this for the size part over hardy in your anvil, you can do this in on its the hardy hole, otherwise you have side. to use the anvil edge.

6 Heat it up again and use a hot cut 7 Heat, then use a very blunt chisel to widen out each of the to start some shallow cuts cuts. I tried to where the leaf veins will be make mine about 1/8” wide, and about 1/16” deep. It doesn’t really matter if the bottom of the grooves are flat or rounded. 8 Most important, add your mark! 8 To use, heat the end of a piece of

(Unless it turned small (1/2”) round or square stock, out badly and you and taper the last 3/4” to a square don’t want any of cross-sectioned point. the blame) Over the far edge of the anvil, create a neck just past the taper, then draw the neck up the stock 2-3 inches, leaving a diamond shape on the end of a thin “stem.”

Get the diamond hot, then lay it on the hardy tool so that one of the “edges” of the diamond is sitting directly down in the central vein of the leaf imprint.

A few good blows of 9 Use a grinder to bring the top back the should flat and round the edges. Then use a easily transfer a deep flap disk to polish off the worst of the impression onto your grinding marks leaf.

You can then cut off the stem, round it up, and make a leafy keychain. People sell these things on Etsy for $20-$35. Now you can crank them out in no time. I’m sure you’ll remember me when your ship comes in...