Car & Truck "Spring Tools" Never Lose Their Edge

Car & Truck "Spring Tools" Never Lose Their Edge FARM HOME Cars 34-4-18 Check out Richard Johnson's handmade tools and you'll notice a common theme ù they're all made from car and truck leaf springs. "You put an edge on leaf spring metal, and as long as you're not banging it on stones or concrete, it's sharp for life," says the retired foundry welder from Morrisonville, N.Y. He still has the first car spring tool û an ice chisel - he made more than 50 years ago. It got plenty of use on Lake Champlain when he was younger, Johnson says, and he's never had to resharpen it. He sliced the end of a 3/4-in. pipe to slip in the 1 1/2-in. wide car spring and brazed them together with a brass-welding rod. He topped the pipe with a coupling for a handle. Johnson slipped the eye of another car spring over a wooden handle to make a froe to split wood. He sharpened one edge with a grinder. He uses it to lop off small branches. "It gives a good clean cut. Anybody who makes one will find a lot of uses for it," he says, adding that it could also be made into a drawknife with a longer blade and another handle. For a pickaxe, Johnson started with a 2-in. wide spring from a truck and used a chop saw to make a sharp bevel cut at both ends. He welded a metal pipe in the center for a handle. It works well to cut small tree roots and level off small rises in the yard. Among Johnson's car spring inventions is a snow sled he built for his three daughters when they were young. He used a long truck spring with eyes in each end to attach to runners and added a seat. "I like to putter," Johnson says, noting that the tools he made cost almost nothing. "The good Lord's blessed me with metal working and wood working skills." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Richard Johnson, 102 Banker Rd., Morrisonville, N.Y. 12962 (ph 518 561-2587).

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