fixing a bent tooth of a pitchfork

[Alan Calan]

I know this sounds lame but what is the best way to straighten a tooth on you pitchfork, bent by a rock or two or three?

Alan

[dpb]

Hammer and anvil if it's kinked, a torch and heat is easiest by far if they're sprung.

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[David Nebenzahl]

On 5/24/2008 11:23 AM dpb spake thus:

Except that heating it will anneal it, making it soft and wimpy. If you do this, you might want to consider re-hardening and tempering it (not easy, as you have to heat the entire tine red-hot and quench it, then re-heat it to a lower temperature).

[dpb]

I've done it a time or two and it didn't seem to be a problem. Guess it depends on how hot one heats it and how the fork is used...theoretically, I'll agree but... :)

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[willshak]

on 5/24/2008 2:19 PM Alan Calan said the following:

I use a bench vise. Another was is to lay the fork on the ground and slip a piece of pipe over the bent time and then push or pull the tine back into the correct position.

[bq340]

I clamp mine to the workbench & slide a length of steel pipe over the tine & bend it back.

MikeB

[Oren]

How big was this " rock or two or three"? All the replies are good.

Sounds like the wrong tool for the job.

[SteveB]

Asking is how you learn, Grasshopper.

You bent it cold, straighten it cold. Put a piece of small diameter pipe over it and use that to straighten it. If you heat it, you will change the properties of that heated area, making it very susceptible to bend there again. If you did use heat to bend it and straighten it, to treat it uniformly after that, you would bake it at 500 degrees for about an hour, and slowly cool. Either that, or quickly quench it while hot by dumping in water or oil. This would depend on the properties you want it to have. They are already there, and cold straightening will lose the least of these properties. Hot straightening will lose the most. Knives are heated to a certain color, then dumped into oil, resulting in a blade that doesn't bend easily.

HTH

Steve

[SteveB]

Yeah. I use a pry bar on my rocks, but they're UTAH rocks. A small one is the size of a VW.

Steve

[Starlett H]

replying to SteveB, Starlett H wrote: Awesome! I am just a new home owner who knows how to google enough to be dangerous. This worked perfectly, and I can stop moaning about the previous homeowner leaving scrap pipe around!

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Sat 01 Jul 2017 09:14:01a, Starlett H told us...

Or you could have taken it to an orthodontist. :-)