Chisel I.D?

[Phil Pascoe]

I'm hopeless with computers, and don't possess a camera (no, not even on a phone!) so a little help would be welcome. I have just seen a lovely paring chisel by J. Jowett, it's a 1 1/2" wide firmer, and it's very thin - about 4mm. Any info welcome!

 

[tobytools]

if you want it or need it the go for it, just bare in mind you could possible spend hours getting it at its best, flat and establishing your preferred angles, j.jowett is .JOHN JOWETT. an edge tool maker. Albion works, Arundle Lane sheffield for about 1860-1900. i have a few plane iron from him and as all tapered iron are a well made and ive found to retain a sharp edge. good quality steel.
"that is thin"
TT

 

[AndyT]

Hmm ...if it's that wide but that thin I wouldn't call it a firmer chisel. Firmers are reasonably robust bench chisels. You maybe just mean that the edges are square, not bevelled. If it's a paring chisel it would be quite a bit longer than an ordinary bench chisel - probably about 16 -18" including the handle. Paring chisels can be square or bevel edged.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Yes, I meant square edged. It appears not to have been reduced in thickness in any way, but I've not checked it flatness. While we're at it, the same guy has a set of five scribing gouges, all socket and all Marples and up to 1 1/2" - 1 3/4" - who would use tools that size? They are heavy, heavy!

 

[tobytools]

large stock removal, or im sure someone said something about skirting board corners once apon a time.
andy will know
TT

 

[AndyT]

Woodwork isn't all domestic scale and made on a bench!

Have a look around a few churches, hotels, banks, factories etc at the sort of work our forebears did with hand tools. Or look at large scale cast iron in bridges, locos etc and think about the wooden patterns used to make the castings.

 

[tobytools]

Woodwork isn't all domestic scale and made on a bench!

Have a look around a few churches, hotels, banks, factories etc at the sort of work our forebears did with hand tools. Or look at large scale cast iron in bridges, locos etc and think about the wooden patterns used to make the castings.

didn't pattern-makers use those type of chisels to shape whatever they where making to sand cast
TT

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Yes, I meant square edged. It appears not to have been reduced in thickness in any way, but I've not checked it flatness. While we're at it, the same guy has a set of five scribing gouges, all socket and all Marples and up to 1 1/2" - 1 3/4" - who would use tools that size? They are heavy, heavy!

Back in the days before electric drills and core bits, trades such as shipwrights and railway wagon builders often cut large (say, over 2") holes in timbers such as oak, elm and teak by chain-drilling inside the line, knocking out the core, and finishing with in-cannel gouges. The gouges they preferred were a heavy type, often socketed, that you describe.

Patternmakers, who usually used mild, softer straight-grained timbers such as yellow pine and jelutong, preferred a lighter, more delicate gouge, often with a cranked handle.

 

[DonMc]

Phil et al,

Thought I'd add a little more information concerning the John Jowett firm. The earliest mention I've found is in the catalogue for the Great Exhibition in 1851, where it is listed as being located on Arundel Lane. For what it's worth, the firm appears to be the successor to the short-lived firm of Marshall & Jowett, at the same address. The firm continues at the Albion Works, 60 Arundel Lane address until 1879, when it "removes" to 82 Countess Road, still in the Albion Works. The latest directory listing I've found for the firm is 1925, by which time it has become a Limited enterprise. It may well have survived longer, but I don't have specific primary information to trace that.

As a general rule, I think one can trust the quality of any edge tool made by a longer-lived 19th century Sheffield firm. Early in the century, the edge tool companies agreed to set prices and discounts, which meant that they tended to have to rely on their reputation for quality, rather than price, for their long-term survival. Undoubtedly, some short-lived companies went out of business for reasons other than their quality reputation, but few firms could have survived for any length of time without being able to consistently produce tools which people could count on. A surviving tool, today, may have been compromised at some point in its tenure, but if that hasn't happened, it has quite a good chance of being usable.

Don McConnell
Eureka Springs, AR