Making Tin Can Toys by Edward Thatcher 1919

Chapter 3

Making a Biscuit Cutter from a Small Can part 3

Forming the Handle - After the hole is punched in the top of the biscuit cutter, a suitable handle is the next thing to be made. This handle may be made from the piece of tin cut away when cutting down the can for the biscuit cutter. Cut away any rough or jagged edges and then place this piece of tin on the bench or a flat anvil surface and flatten it out with light mallet strokes. Heavy strokes with a mallet will dent the tin.

Trim away all rough edges including the rolled edge at the top and square up the piece of tin as described on Chapter II. Mark off a strip of tin 1 1/4 inches in width and 4 inches long. Cut this strip out and be sure that it is square at the ends. Open the dividers and set the divider points 1/4 inch apart and scribe a line 1/4 inch inside each of the long sides of the strip. The edges of the strip of tin thus marked off must be turned or folded in so that the edges of the handle will be strengthened and will not cut the hand. These edges may be folded over with a mallet or by the use of a folding machine. The mallet should be used for this first folding operation; the folding machine and its use will be described further along in the book Chapter XI.

To fold the edges over with the mallet, proceed; as follows: Secure a block of hard wood, maple preferred, the block to be about 3 inches square and 6 inches in length. See to it that the block is cut cleanly and squarely across so that the edges at the end are sharp and at right angles. A maple block of this sort may usually be picked up at any lumber yard or carpenter shop, or a maple log may be secured from the wood pile and trimmed up square. One end of the block may be used to punch on.

The block is held in the vise as illustrated in Fig. II and the tin to be folded is held on the block in such a manner that the line marking the folding over the edge of the block. Use either a light wooden mallet or the special forming mallet, and with light blows proceed to bend down at the edge and up to the line as illustrated in Fig. II, a. Begin at one end and work along the line to the other end of the strip of tin. Do not try to turn the tin down at a right angle at once or in one place and then proceed to turn it down at another, but rather hammer lightly along the whole length at the marking line, turning the tin down at a slight angle from the line to the edge and then going back and starting to hammer where you began, turning the tin down at a greater angle and so on until you have turned the edge at right angles as shown in Fig. II, b. Always bend tin over very gently and evenly, never forcing it violently into place.