Good quality chisels and punches

[terrywerm]

I used to have a lot of trouble with pin punches until an old timer taught me something that I did not know: You never start to loosen a pin using a pin punch. Use a drive punch (also called a starting punch) to first loosen the pin, then drive it out with a pin punch. So what is a 'drive punch'?  It looks something like a lineup punch, but is shorter and not as slender. It tapers down to the face which is flat. The idea is to use the drive punch to start the pin moving until the punch starts to contact the sides of the hole. From there a pin punch is used to finish the removal of the pin.


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As for cold chisels, money is well spent when you purchase good ones. I have already re-hardened and re-tempered some of my cheaper chisels with limited success. Too many times the quality of the steel itself is a big part of the problem and they will not harden properly. Up to this point my best cold chisels are my old Craftsman chisels that I bought 35 years ago. I do also have one large cold chisel from General that seems to do very well. I do have one no-name cold chisel that holds up very well; it is the one that I made from drill rod way back in high school shop class. I still have the center punch that I made then too, but I reground it into a prick punch many years ago.