To Temper Or Not To Temper?

[zsoutendijk]

Ive been making my own picks for about a year, and just recently started making jiggler picks. some of my older picks slightly bend over the wear and tear of their use, and i was wondering if this will be worse for jigglers.

Im worried that if i do not temper the jiggler it will bend because it acts as a pick and tension tool.

Then i was thinking that if i temper it too much it will snap off in the keyway.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

(im using high speed carbon hacksaw blades)

even further, should i slightly temper my thinner rakes?

-Zack

I do realize this might have some connection to the advanced section but i think it belonged in this one. If not feel free to delete this post

[Lockdown27]

Well.. If they are good hacksaw blades its unneccesary. Good hacksaw blades being ones that will not bend when you snap them. If the do you can either temper them or just buy better hacksaw blades.

[raimundo]

don't temper any thing until you find that you have had the problem you anticipate at least once. temper is a word that means the metal has been hardened and then 'drawn' at a lower temperature for a period of time and slow cooled, but as used commonly on this site, it means that heat has been applied, which may leave the metal hard and brittle or annealed and soft or a combination of the two in the same strip of metal. applying heat can also permanently remove carbon or other alloyed metal elements so that the metal will never regain its original properties.

Save the 'tempering' as a solution until you have seen what problem you are trying to solve. I often 'set' the metal memory on some small pieces of metal by just putting a bic lighter under the particular spot like a bend for about 30 seconds til the surface blues, this is gentle heating that should not radically change the metal. It also is not always neceessary.

[raimundo]

also, you are making jigglers, the metal is subject to twisting, more likely than bending and this will not happen unless you are applying way too much pressure,
the preparation that would be most helpful in making such things would be to sand the edges round and the surfaces smooth, so that you are not damaging the tumblers.

[freakparade3]

In my opinion hacksaw blades are much to fragile to use as jigglers. If you have a hardware store near you they sell all kinds of sheet metal. Usually located near the welsing section. They will have stainless settl sheets of many sizes and thicknesses. You could also purchace a cheap set of steak knives and use the blades.