THE SCHELLERT TOOL - the hard way, part 1

THE SCHELLERT-TOOL –the hard way -part 1-

Welcome back. Today I want to show you how to build the "Schellert-Tool". The Schellert-Tool is basically nothing more than a small tube with a metal-clamp-system on each side, where you can fit sculpting tool tips in. The tooltips could be stored inside the hollow tube (pic. 1). This tool has some advantages over the pencil tool because it is a two-sided tool and the sculpting tips are fixed more tightly in it, so they won’t rotate. You can make versions of this tool for all steel wire diameters (more about that later). I called this tool "Schellert Tool" because I didn’t found another name. "The-two-sided-sculpting-tool-with-exchangeable-tool-tips" was a little bit long for my taste. So I gave it my last name, that’s all.

If you ask yourself why I wrote in the title of this post "the hard way", it’s because you have to do a little metal working like cutting threads for example. There is also an "easy way" to get a kind of a Schellert Tool which is nearly as good as the original one with a minimum of work. I’ll tell you in a later tutorial how to do this.

The basic idea behind the Schellert tool is to grab two of those hobby knifes (like x-acto, excel, proedge, martor or ecobra to name a few), get the clamps from these knifes where usually the blade is placed in and fix them on each side of a small aluminium tube by cutting threads into the tube. Of course you can just use the hobby knife as it is and fix a tool tip instead of a blade in it, but that’s only a one-sided tool, you can’t store the tips inside the handle and hey, it’s not so cool.

Material and tools needed:

Two hobby-knifes (pic. 2):
First you need two hobby knifes to get the clamps. Here’s where the "trouble" begins.
These knifes are produced in different countries and therefore the threads of the clamps of these knifes are different. The knifes from Germany like those from Martor and Ecobra are using a metrical thread-system. In fact they have an "M5"-thread. The knifes from Excel and I guess even the knifes from x-acto and proedge (I guess they are from the US) using another thread-system. They have a UNC 10-24 thread. You have to know which thread your knifes have because you need the right thread-cutter (threader) for cutting the thread. I recommend using 2 knifes from the same manufacturer.

Regarding these knifes it is worth to look a little bit around for the prices, as there are great differences even for knifes from the same manufacturer. So for the ECOBRA-knife for example I found the range from 2.10 EURO to 9.90 EURO and it was always the same kind of knife. So google until you find an acceptable price. As far as I can see (here from Germany), the prices for those knifes (especially EXCEL and PROEDGE) are a little bit lower in the US, so lucky you, if you live there.

Thread cutter and holder (pic. 3):
As I said before, you need a thread cutter (threader) with the right size. Depending on the knifes you use you’ll need either a thread cutter for M5-threads (German) or one for UNC 10-24-threads (US).

You have to take those thread-cutters for cutting threads by hand, not those for machine-thread-cutting.

There are two types of hand-thread cutters around. The first exist of only one drill-like tool, and you can cut the complete thread in just one turn with it.

Then there is also a set available that exists of three drills- like tools. One for pre-cut (marked with one line), one for the second cut (marked with two lines / cuts a little deeper) and the last one for the final cut (marked with no lines / complete thread).

If you have the choice, take the 3-piece-set. It’s a bit more work because you have to cut three times instead of only one time, but cutting is easier with the set because you’ll need less power. And because the forces that work on the tube while being cut aren’t as high, it’s not so likely, that the tube will rotate in the bench vice while cutting the thread.

And of course you’ll need a holder for your thread cutter like you can see in pic. 3.

Aluminium tubes (pic. 4):
You need two aluminium tubes like those you can found in hardware stores or building centres were you can buy them in 1m or 2m length. The 1m size is more than enough.

You’ll need

- one with an outer diameter of 8mm and an inner diameter of 6mm and
- one with an outer diameter of 6mm and an inner diameter of 4 mm.

The strength of the tube walls is 1mm on both tubes (just to make it clear).

There are two kinds of aluminium tubes that can be found, those with a pure aluminium surface and those with an anodized surface. In hardware stores or building centres (in Germany) most of the times the anodized ones can be found. You can use both versions. The anodized ones have the advantage, that the surface of the tubes has already a finish, so it’s less work later. The "pure" aluminium ones have to be grinded and polished to remove scratches, but this will result in a very beautiful shiny surface.

But one thing is very important about these tubes. The smaller 6mm one should fit easily into the larger 8mm one! That’s not always the case, because those tubes have never exactly the sizes, they claim to have. So before you buy the tubes find a pair that will work. I mean you need a quite large 8mm tube and quite small 6mm one. Try every 8mm tube with every 6mm tube until you find a 6mm one that fits into the 8mm one. If you don’t do that you’ll get into trouble because you have to widen the 8mm tube later, so the 6mm will fit in. And believe me, this is something, you didn’t really want to do if it can be avoided, because it’s really a mess (you shouldn’t make my mistakes).

Bench vice with protection bars (Braces) (pic. 5)
You’ll need a bench vice, where you can fix the aluminium tube in while cutting the threads.
To protect the surface of the aluminium tube, you need some kind of protection bars (braces).
The one you see on pic. 5 I made on my own from strong felt.

Fine metal saw or tube-cutter (pic. 6)
You have to cut off pieces from the aluminium tubes. To do so you will need a fine metal saw or even better a tube cutter or pipe cutter (see pic. 6). The tube-cutter is a very fine tool and not even is cutting much easier with it; you’ll always get a clean 90-degree cut from the tube. So when using the tube cutter you’ll have less work to do to clean up the cut.

Electrical drilling machine (power drill) and 4,2mm metal drill:
If you use the knife-clamps with the M5-thread, you will also need an electrical drilling machine and a drill with the size of 4,2mm. This must be a drill for metal (not for wood) of course. You’ll need this drill to widen the inner diameter of the small aluminium tube from 4.0mm to 4.2mm because for cutting a M5-thread you need a base hole of 4.2 mm.
If you use the other knife clamps with the UNC 10-24-Thread, you are lucky, because for this thread-size a base hole of 4,0mm is fine and that’s the diameter, the small aluminium tube already have. So no need for a special metal drill or the electrical drilling machine in this case.
　
Good glue for metal:
You’ll also need good glue for metal. It’s not important, that it is fast, but it is important, that it is really hard and strong in the end. I recommend those two-part epoxy glues.

Abrasive paper:
You’ll also need some fine coarse grinding paper to clean the cuts on the tubes.

Oil:
When you cut the threads into the aluminium tube, you need to dip the tube cutter in oil before. Otherwise cutting is much harder and the tool might get stuck into the tube, so ALWAYS use oil when cutting threads. When I did the first thread cuttings, I just used ordinary sunflower oil that is used in the kitchen. Later I bought an expensive special super metal drilling and cutting oil. But believe me or not, I found the sunflower oil works better, so I’m now back to that. Maybe some metal-working-professionals will get a heart attack now, but that’s what I found out for me. So there’s no need for you to buy special cutting oil. Just try what you’ll find in your kitchen (and don’t tell your wife).

POLISHING SCULPTING TOOL TIPS

As I promised before, today I will explain how to polish your sculpting tool tips. Because polishing isn’t such a complicated thing, I won’t make many words about it; just some hints.

Before polishing, make sure, that you’ve cleaned up the surface of the tool the best you can, by removing all scratches with fine abrasive paper. Fine scratches can be polished away, but deeper ones have to be removed with the abrasive paper. Even better than abrasive paper are abrasive pads.

For the polishing you need some kind of polishing tool (pic 1).

If you really want to do a lot of tool tips, maybe you should get a cheap polishing machine. That’s a machine similar to the grinding-machine that I’ve talked about before, but just with two felt-wheels instead of the grinding stones. If you already own such a grinding machine, it’s most likely, that you can buy separate felt-wheels to replace the grinding stones on your machine. That would be cheaper than buying a second machine.

But if you just want to make a few tool tips for yourself, you won’t need that.
If you got a rotary tool, you can find small polishing wheels to fit into it that makes the job quite well and they aren’t very expensive.

If you haven’t got a rotary tool (Dremel or Proxxon or something like that), you can also find such a polishing wheel made of felt to fit in an ordinary electrical drilling machine (power drill), that can be found in most houses.

I prefer the polishing machine or the rotary tool over the drilling machine because of the higher rotation speed (and the lesser noise they produce).

Second you need some kind of Polishing Agent. For the small rotary tools, it is usually available in small plastic boxes. For polishing with the larger polishing machine, they are also available in form of a bar, like you can see on pic.1. If there are different types of those polishing agents in the shop and you are unsure which one to take, ask someone from the store which is the best for polishing steel.

All the tools and the polishing agent can be found at hardware stores or building centres.

If you got your polishing tool, let it rotate.
Then first press the polishing agent slightly onto the rotating wheel, so the felt can take up some of it.

Now take your tool tip and slightly press it onto the polishing wheel (pic. 2). Be sure, the tool tip point into the same direction as the rotation of the wheel. If you have problems to hold the small sculpting tool tip in your hand without letting it fly around, you can fix it in some kind of pin vice to get a better handle.

Soon you will see that the polishing agent gets fluid and turns into a dark grey colour because of the steel particles that were polished off. That’s good because it means that it works.

Once again, wear safety glasses and NOT your best shirt while polishing, because this black fluid drops (and sometimes even the tool tip) tends to fly around.

Check your progress from time to time, by whipping off the black fluid from the tool tip with a tissue or some fabric to see the surface under it. If the surface is perfectly shiny and no scratches can be seen anymore, your tool tip is done and you can start polishing the next one.

That’s all about polishing from my side.

Tool tips from 1.5, 2 and 3mm steel - part 2

THE ANGLED CONE TOOL TIP
This is a tool you might also find among the tools for dentists or dental technicians even in small sizes. So you don’t have to forge this tooltip necessarily on your own, if you can find it somewhere else. But if you want, this is how you can do it:

You can do this tool tip from 1,5, 2,0 or 3,0mm steel wire, but I think, the 3,0 wire would make a tool tip, that’s a little bit too big. For me, the 2mm v2a steel wire works best for that tip.

So first give your steel rod a long pointed tip. Make the tip, like I’ve explained for the long probe tool tip. But this time make the pointed tip shorter (about 5mm).

You can make the pointed tip like a cone (pic. 6a) or more like a bossed cone (like a cone that has been "blown up" with rounder edges, pic. 6b).



Then cut in a circular furrow under the tip. Don’t make this furrow too deep but just enough to form the cone-like tip. You’ll have to bend the steel later. If you make the furrow too deep, it will break. To get this furrow with an even depth is a bit tricky. For me the best way was to use two rotary tools (or one rotary tool and a power drill). The first rotary tool with a cutting wheel was fixed into a bench vice, while the other rotary tool holds the steel rod with the pointed tip. Then, while rotation both, the cutting wheel and the steel rod, touch slightly the edge of the cutting wheel with the rotating steel rod at the right point. Don’t press too much and try to avoid the steel rod starting to vibrate (pic. 7). The space between the tip and the furrow should be about 4-10mm, depending on the steel rods diameter.

In the next step you have to bevel the edge of the furrow that faces away from the tool tip. You can do this also by slightly touching the rotating cutting wheel with the rotating steel rod, but be sure, not to accidentally damage the already shaped tool tip (pic. 8).

After that clean up the surface of the tool tip and remove all scratches with abrasive paper and abrasive pads (keep the steel rod rotating in the rotary tool and drag it slowly over the abrasive paper).

At last you have to bend the tooltip, because then it’s easier to reach difficult areas on your sculpt. Do it like you can see on pic. 9.

Finally polish this tooltip and you’re done.

This tool is quite good especially while working on drapery and wrinkles.

THE DIAGONALLY CUT TOOL TIP (or "the eye tool")
This kind of tool tip I first saw on sculpting tools made by the German sculptor Stefan Niehues.
You can do this tool tip with every steel rod diameter you like and it always makes a nice addition to your tool set (even the 3mm version), because every size can be used for different sculpting needs.

With the smallest version, you can also form eyes, because with its special shape you can work out eyeball and eyelid quite well (if you got a calm hand of course). That’s why this tool tip is also called "eye tool".

Basically the tool is just a steel rod that is diagonally cut, so it gets an angular (bevelled) tip. And that’s how you can do it. For a larger diameter tool tip, just make a diagonal cut into the steel rod with the cutting wheel and the rotary tool. If that doesn’t work well, you can also make a straight cut and grind it down with the cutting wheel, so it gets an angular shape (pic. 10).

For the smaller diameter tool tip, it might be a good idea, to take a larger diameter steel and to grind it down so it gets a long tip before shaping the angular tip from the narrowed rod (pic.11).

Then you have to clean the surface from the scratches as always.
But be sure to leave the edges at the narrowed tip "sharp".
So don’t use the abrasive pads here, because they will round the edges.
Just take fine abrasive paper, place it on a hard surface with the grind-side facing up and drag the narrowed face of the tool tip over it, so it gets perfectly flat (pic. 12).

Finally as always polish your tool tip but be sure not to round up the edges while polishing.

Stefan Niehues told me, that this tool tip is even better, if its narrowed face isn’t just 100% flat, but a little bit concave (dished). To achieve this, you would have to work with a ball-shaped grinding stone on a rotary tool and a very calm and firm hand. But if you like, just try this.

THE LONG SCULPTING KNIFE TOOL TIP
There’s one last tool tip that I want to explain for now. I call it the long sculpting knife and some sculptors told me, that they prefer to work with a tool tip like that.

Basically it looks like a knife blade. Maybe you’ve seen sculpting tools with similar tips among the tools for dental technicians. Even Games Worksop sells such a tool, but I didn’t like that so much because it’s quite rough and not shaped tidily (at least the one I bought some time ago).

To build a long sculpting knife tool tip, basically you have to start like I’ve explained for the straight spatula tool tip. But this time flatten the steel over a longer part of the steel rod. Remember, not to make the tip too flat (thin) because you also have to grind some material off for a good surface. After flattening the steel, just give it a knife-like pointed tip like you can see on pic. 13). Then "sharpen" the curved edge of the sculpting knife.

Keep a smooth rounded surface while doing that, so that there are no edges on the flat sides of the "blade". Remember: "Sharp" doesn’t mean razor-like here. Just give it a thin edge. You could leave the straight edge of the sculpting knife (the backside of the "blade") blunt or you can also sharpen it. After that remove the scratches from the surface and do some polishing and you’ve got another tool tip.

So I think, for now, there are enough tool tips for you to build, and I think it might be good to stop here for now. I guess, from time to time I will present some more tool tips in my blog. If you have made a special tool tip, that you want to share with the community, just send me an email.

Next time I will tell you about polishing the tool tips and then I will explain how to build handles for the tool tips.

Tool tips from 1.5, 2 and 3mm steel - part 1

In the last tutorial, I told you about how to use 1mm spring steel wire to make quite small sculpting tool tips. But you don’t have to stick to this very small tool tips. As I told you before, I also recommend tool tips made of 1.5-1,6mm, 2mm and 3mm steel.

Basically you can build all the shapes of the 1mm-tool tips I’ve explained before also with those steel wires with larger diameters. All these tool tip shapes are also useful if made a little larger with maybe the exception of the curved needle tool tip and the mini-knife. In my eyes these shapes make only sense in very small versions, but you have to decide for yourself. Also those spatula tools in larger sizes can be found around, as they are used by dentists, so maybe there is no need to build them on your own if you can buy them cheap somewhere else. But if you want to make all your tools on your own and if it’s not too much work for you, just do also the spatulas from steel wire with a larger diameter.

Personally I think the 3mm steel wire is a little too big for making most sculpting tools for 30mm sculpts. So I only made a few tool tips from 3mm steel wire. The sculpting knife tool tips made sense if made from 3mm steel, because sometimes you need a larger flat surface for getting the putty into shape (especially in the beginning while "blocking out" the basic shapes on the armature).

What I definitely recommend is to have the finger tool tip and the sculpting knife in every size (I mean made from 1mm, 1,5mm, 2mm and maybe even 3mm). Especially the versions with 1,5mm and 2mm I found very useful.

While you can build all the 1mm tool tip types also with larger diameter steel, there are a few tool tip shapes, that make only sense if they are built with larger diameter steel. Some of those I will discuss now. I’m sure, you will discover more tool tips for yourself if you work a little with hammer and anvil but don’t make too many different tools or you might get lost between them all. Remember that not the tool makes a good sculpting, but the sculptors hand and mind. Even the best tool isn’t a guarantee for a good sculpt. But on the other side it’s also true, that bad or the wrong tools make it even harder to get a nice sculpt. So that’s why I want to point out some ways to make useful tools that at least doesn’t make sculpting harder as it is anyway.
So enough of small talk now, let’s go on to a few more tool tips.

THE LONG PROBE TOOL TIP
Another tool tip, I call the long probe, makes a lot of sense when it’s made from 2mm steel. It’ a long curved rod that gets thinner the more it comes to the tip and ends in a little rounded tip (not sharp or pointed). In some ways it’s a bit like the curved needle tool.
To built this tool. You have to place the 2mm steel rod into the rotary tool. Be sure, that the rod sits tightly into the tool. Then it would be best, if you’ve got a GRINDING MACHINE like you can see on pic. 1). This can be bought quite cheap sometimes. But if you haven’t got one, you can also use a belt sander or an electrical drilling machine (power drill) with a grinding stone. If you use the drilling machine, be sure, it is fixed securely.

Be sure to wear safety glasses when doing the next step!
Set the rotary tool with the steel rod into rotation and press it slightly onto the grinding stone from the grinding machine or the drilling machine. Be sure, that the grinding stone rotates in the direction the rod points. That’s important, because otherwise it could be dangerous, as the grinding stone might "hit" the rod away. So slowly grind down the rod over a length of about 2-2,5cm so it gets a long point. Be sure, NOT to give it a sharp pointed tip like a needle. The tip that's left should be still rounded (pic. 2).

After grinding down the wire rod to the right shape, as always, you have to smooth the surface and remove all scratches. You can do this quite easily if you leave the rod into the rotary tool and drag it slowly over abrasive paper. It would be better if you place the grinding paper on a soft surface (like rubber for example), so the paper can be pressed down a little bit. Even better would be the use of an abrasive pad, if you got one. It might take a little while to smooth the surface, but don’t hurry.

I recommend grinding the rod before bending it, because a smooth surface can be achieved easily and fast by using the rotary tool and the abrasive paper as long as the steel rod is straight. After you’ve bent the rod, you can’t use the rotary tool anymore that way and it would be much more work to do all the grinding by hand.

After cleaning up the surface, you have to bend the tool tip to the desired shape. For me a kind of "S"-shape works best, but some people just prefer a simple curve (pic. 3).Here you have to try for yourself, what fits best for you. You can do the curve with hammer and the cone-like end of the mini anvil or by carefully bending it with pliers.

At last again do some polishing and there it is your new tool tip

THE POINTED SCULPTING KNIFE TOOL TIP
The pointed sculpting knife is quite the same as the sculpting knife I’ve explained for the 1mm steel, but instead of the more rounded point of the sculpting knife, the pointed sculpting knife has a sharp point.

To make such a tool tip, you first have to do the normal sculpting knife as described before. Then you have to cut or grind away a small half-circle like shape from the back of the sculpting knife, so it will get a shape that is similar to that of a Bowie-knife-blade (see pic. 4). You can do this by using the cutting disc in your rotary tool or a tiny grinding stone that is also available for those rotary tools.

After getting the right shape, you also have to sharpen the new edge that you’ve created with the grinding stone. Because this edge is concave, it’s a bit tricky to sharpen is. One way to do it is to wrap fine abrasive paper around an object with the same diameter as the half-circle you’ve cut out (like a screwdriver or a larger nail or something like that).
This you can use now as a kind of fine file to sharpen the concave blade (see pic. 5).
As I said before, "sharp" doesn’t mean here it has to be like a razor blade. You don’t have to cut something with this tool tip. "Sharp" means here, that the tool gets thinner, as it gets to the edges.

Again do some polishing and you’ve got a new tool tip.

By the way: If you combine this pointed sculpting knife tip and the finger tip, both made from 2mm steel wire on one handle as a double sided sculpting tool, you got something, that is quite the same as the famous "Wax 5".

Some miniatures I've made with my tools

Before going on to explain some more sculpting tool tips made of steel wire with 2mm and up in the coming blog entry, I just want to show some of the miniatures, I've made with my tools as an intermezzo.

Just a halfling...


and the cast version



A dwarf ...



and the cast version



An elf with a pet dragon...


and the cast version


Something different




Give-away for a Coffeeshop (cast in lead free pewter)
Height including base: 2.5 cm

Making 1mm Sculpting Tool Tips - Part 4

THE SCULPTING KNIFE TOOL TIP
The next tool tip is one of my favourites in its 2mm version. I call it the sculpting knife because even it is not "sharp" it looks and you use it a little bit like a knife.


To start making this tool tip, you have to prepare your spring steel rod in a new way. This time you have to give the end of the rod the shape as it would be cut diagonally but with a light curve. I guess, that sound cryptic so I hope, pic. 21) can make it a little bit clearer.



If you god your steel wire prepared that way, you have to flatten it with hammer and anvil until it looks like in pic. 22. Take your time and work carefully, because this form is a little more difficult to achieve. And again: work equally on both sides. It’s the same as I said about the spatula tool tips: Don’t make it too flat, because you need some material left for grinding it later.

If you got the right shape, you have to grind the tool tip like you did with the spatula tool tips. I recommend giving this sculpting knife tool tip not a completely flat surface, but a slightly rounded one. The "edge" of the sculpting knife should be sharpened, but not as sharp as a real knife or the mini knife tool tip, I’ve explained before. You don’t have to cut things with it, just to push and smear putty from here to there. A "too sharp" edge might be a disadvantage here because it could leave marks on the putty that you do not want. After all it should look like in pic. 23).

THE FINGER TOOL TIP
This tooltip I call the finger tool tip because you use it like a small finger on your sculpting.
To start making this tool you have to prepare the end of your spring steel rod again. This time you have to give it a tip, but not a sharp, pointed one, but more a little rounded one like you see on pic. 24.

When you got this, start flatten the end of the steel wire with hammer and anvil after heating it up, like I explained above. But just flatten it a bit and not too much. Don’t flatten it as much as the spatula tool tips. The flattened sides will be rounded later and you need to have some material left for grinding to give it the rounded shape. After that you have to give the tool tip a shape like an "S" by first bending it in the one and after that into the other direction. Pic. 25a) and 25b) will explain better what to do.

If you got the right shape it’s time again for some grinding. You have to round the edges of the tool and also the flattened surface should have a slightly rounded shape. This time it is a little bit more work and it’s a bit more difficult, because of the form of the tool tip and because the edges should be much rounder as on the spatula tool tips for example. Once again an abrasive pad would make this job easier.

Again after completing the shape, clean all scratches from the tool with fine abrasive paper and polish it.

I found this tool really useful and it’s the other one of my favourite two tool tips (beside the sculpting knife). So it would be a good idea to have this both tool tips on each side of a two-sided tool holder. In a later tutorial I will show you, how to build such a two-sided-holder/handle.
　
THE CURVED BURNISHING TOOL TIP
The next tool tip is a quite simple one. You just have to start with a rounded end of the steel wire rod like I explained for the round edge spatula tool tip. This time, you have to do the round shape very carefully so it is really symmetrical and looks like the half of a ball. Then you just have to bend the top of the tip a little bit like you can see on pic. 26. You can do this with heat, hammer and the cone-like end of the mini anvil or with pliers. If you use the hammer be aware not to flatten the steel, but just bend it. While using the pliers, be aware not to leave too many scratches on the tool tips surface.

That’s all. Just clean and polish the surface and you got a fine tool that makes a good job when it comes to smoothing out the putty, because it’s a burnishing tool.

THE RIVET TOOL
The last tool tip for in the 1mm size I call the rivet tool because you can make rivet-like structures with it while using it like a stamp. Even it is not really a sculpting tool, but more a sculpting aid and even you don’t have to do any bending or forging here, it fits perfectly into the 1mm tool tip-range and that’s why I explain it here.

The base of this tool is not steel wire, but a cannula. There are cannulas (hollowed needles) out there in different sizes and you have to get one with a 0,9 mm (or 1mm if you can find one) diameter.

First cut off the sharp end with the cutting wheel and the rotary tool. Be careful, the edge is very sharp and wear safety glasses for that. Then cut the other end so you got a tiny tube with a length of about 4 cm. It is important to use the cutting wheel or even a very fine saw if you got one. But don’t use nipping pliers or pincers for that, because they would press the sides of the tube together and make it worthless. All you have to do now it to refine the cut and to clean the edges of the tube. For that use very fine abrasive paper and maybe a needle that you slightly push into the tube and rotate it to remove all sharp metal pieces. I’ve found a very small cone-like grinding stone for the rotary tool for that (it’s from a dentist), but I guess, not everyone out there has such a thing.

On pic. 28) you can see the final rivet tool tube.

As I said, with this tool, you can create a rivet like structure while pressing the end of the tube into the putty like you see on pic. 28. So basically it’s the simplest form of a "stamp-tool". In a later tutorial I will tell you a little bit more about the use of stamp tools for sculpting miniatures.

Making 1mm Sculpting Tool Tips - Part 3

THE MINI KNIFE TOOL TIP
The next tool tip I call the mini knife tool tip because that’s just what it is.
If you already made a straight edge spatula tool tip, this tool tip will be quite easy for you to build. You have to forge the spring steel rod as if you would build a straight edge spatula tool tip. Then you have to cut off a bit of the flat end of the flattened steel like you can see on pic. 17). You can just grind away the steel with the rotary tool and the cutting wheel or you can cut it off with nipper pliers or pincers and then refine the edge on the cutting wheel (which might be easier).

After that just make sure, to get a smooth surface on your tool tip without scratches by using the abrasive paper like I’ve explained before. If you are pleased with the surface, all that’s left to do is to sharpen the edge of this mini knife. To do this, press the knife tip along its edge on abrasive paper with a fine grind in a 45-degree angle. Then drag it in a direction of 90-degrees to the direction of the edge, like you can see on pic. 18).

This might sound a bit complicated because it’s not easy to explain it exactly but simple at the same time and because of the lack of my English (sorry for that). But it’s exactly the same thing as if you would sharpen a (real) knife on a sharpening stone.

Again you just have to polish the mini knife tool tip and your new tool is done.
This tool is much better than using a hobby knife (like x-acto) in some cases because you can work more precisely in very small areas without blocking the view on the details with a large knife blade.

THE ANGELED SPATULA TOOL
The next tool is also a kind of spatula, but because it’s a little different to build, I give it a separate description. His kind of tool you can find quite often among the dentist tools, but not in this small size as we'll do it.

To build it, just prepare your spring steel and give it a rounded tip, like I explained for the rounded spatula tool tip. Then you have to bend the end of the tool two times, like you can see on pic. 19).

This time you can use pliers to bend the steel. Because it’ not flattened and wasn’t heated by now it should stand the bending. Because spring steel wire is quite strong, it took some strength to do the bending, but take your time and be careful not to hurt yourself. I found out, that the steel from the safety pin could be bent much easier this way than the conventional spring steel.

If you bent the steel rod the right way, you have to flatten the bended parts like you see on pic. 20). Again make sure to work equally on both sides of the tool tip to keep it symmetrical.

Again remove all scratches from the tool tips surface with the abrasive paper and you’re done.