Re: make - forge? - wedge for feathers-and-wedge rock-split

"Richard Smith"  wrote in message news:m1v856w8d2.fsf@void.com...
How would you go about producting wedges about 2mm to 3mm thinner than
the current ones?
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The wedges in my 1/2" set are 0.50" thick at the large end. When a set is placed in a half inch drill gage hole the wedge freely enters about 1/4 its length.
Without annealing them 2-3mm isn't an outrageous amount to grind off, relative to the alternatives. With annealing it's easy on a milling machine (again), and they are small enough to reharden without a proper forge. Mine from T&H mushroom slightly with use, they definitely aren't brittle hard.
Do you plan to make or buy them? They should be a fairly easy shape to forge from round stock which is more available than bar in higher carbon grades. I made my first wedges from mild steel which doesn't hold up well, they do need to be hardened. Wedges can be bandsawn from plate by shifting the guide fence to half the angle and flipping the stock after each cut. The difficult part may be finding hardenable steel bar stock in a small, inexpensive quantity. Perhaps the worn cutting edge from a road plow or bucket loader?
I took a night class in blacksmithing to gain access to instruction, a larger anvil and a better forge than my woodstove, which isn't really hot enough. I have the parts for a forge but not a safe place to use it.