Chisels

[speeder1987]

After seeing the beautiful London pattern handles that dodge recently made, it inspired me to get off my backside and finally make the handles for the chisel tangs I had bought just for this purpose.

So far I have completed four handles. Handles are made from ash with a Danish oil finish and a final coating of liberion wax

From smallest to largest we have a lovely Robert sorby 6mm chisel

Then we have a 10mm chisel can't make out makers name

Next a 12mm chisel, no name. Not happy with this chisel as the handle and blade aren't afraid, not sure why, either hole isn't straight or the tang is bent

Finally a 1" hale brothers of sheffiels , this is a really lovely chisel also

Now I just need to get some more to fill in the gaps

Hope you like these, again any comments criticisms welcome, and any questions, shout.

Cheers
John

 

[speeder1987]

Sorry for some reason tapatalk has put the pictures in a stupid order, will try and fix now!!!

John

edit: photo order now correct

 

[L2wis]

lovely job! Nice one

 

[speeder1987]

Thanks pleased you like them

John

 

[bugbear]

Might I assume with their narrow, ferruled ends, these will be mallet only (not hand paring) ?

BugBear

 

[speeder1987]

Might I assume with their narrow, ferruled ends, these will be mallet only (not hand paring) ?

BugBear

I ferruled the the ends as I thought it more likely that I would be hitting these with a mallet. Though the steel on some of them isn't that thick so i will probably have to be careful if levering on them. I don't have any dedicated mortice chisels yet, so these will have to fulfill that job for the moment.

I have a set of Kirschen bevel edge chisels which I use for paring, these are ferruled each end but I don't like hitting them

John

 

[AndyT]

I think you might end up swapping those handles a second time.
The only chisels I have with handles like yours are lightweight 'sash' mortice chisels (lightweight compared to an oval bolster 'pigsticker' that is.) As far as I can see from the pictures your chisels aren't that sort, and you have just confirmed that.
The trouble is, the end ferrules will be really uncomfortable for anything except mallet work.
An ordinary rounded-end handle made of boxwood or ash will be perfectly ok to hit reasonably hard with a wooden mallet (not a hammer) or push by hand.

 

[speeder1987]

OK thanks andy, the reason why i did them like that was because the kirschen chisels I have, use ferrules either end and I find them quite comfy. However these were my first chisels, so I don't really know any better. However there is one important difference which I hadn't noticed, the kirschen chisels ferrule isn't flush with the top, there is still a wooden round over which could make all the difference

I haven't used these yet as I still need to regrind them. If they are uncomfortable then they will need to be rehandled again!!

Actually the smallest chisel is a sash chisel, as it has a much thicker blade

Thanks for the suggestions

John

 

[AndyT]

So why do German chisel makers favour a different style of handle?

- I guess that's just another unanswerable woodwork tool question, alongside 'why do French moulding planes not have spring?' and 'why do many European countries favour framed saws for general woodworking and joint making?' ;-)

Perhaps all tradespeople have a strongly ingrained resistance to change, and so once a difference was established, it stayed there, with each generation of apprentices taught to follow the way their master had.

 

[speeder1987]

Hmm, intersting thought Andy, I hadn't thought of the origin of the chisels, are they the typical german style chisel handle then. A quick look on the Dieter Schmid Fine tools website shows that the MHG chisel have a very similar handle design:

http://www.fine-tools.com/stemmeisen.html

Is ther a standard british pattern handle? or is this the London Pattern Octagonal handles. The reason I ask, is that as sheffield steel was so popular a large amount of the worlds chisels must have been manufactured here. but nearly every sheffield steel chisel I own has a very different pattern handle

John

 

[AndyT]

Is ther a standard british pattern handle? or is this the London Pattern Octagonal handles. The reason I ask, is that as sheffield steel was so popular a large amount of the worlds chisels must have been manufactured here. but nearly every sheffield steel chisel I own has a very different pattern handle

John

As far as I know the London pattern octagonal handle was normally only used on a top of the range tool - something expensive and a bit delicate, used by a cabinetmaker. Carpenters' and joiners' chisels had simpler handles. Checking back into handy photos, I found this picture of a corner of my workshop:

The shiny chisel in the middle marked BD is from Bristol Design and uses the pattern of handle that you had - as used by MHG and other German makers, so is a bit of an odd one out here. (Good chisel though!)

The chisels to the left and right of it have the 'carver' pattern which seems to be pretty common for boxwood handled chisels whether square- or bevel-edged. Moving to the right again, the shape with a bit of 'neck' to it is, I think, the commonest for wooden handled chisels in ash, which probably means the ordinary bench or site chisels.

The yellow and black handled Footprint brand chisel dates (I think) to the 1950s and is quite close to the Marples plastic handle next to it. Finally, the back row shows some 'registered pattern' mortice chisels with the ferrules top and bottom.

 

[speeder1987]

Thanks andy, informative and thorough comments as always

Tolls and there histories are something I'm starting to find really interesting. I'm currently reading "woodwork tools" by William fairham from toolemera and its really interesting. I thought it would be difficult to read, but its actually quite easy

John

 

[AndyT]

One afterthought about the common 'waisted' design of handle.
It makes good sense if you are using the chisel as a knife - the waist provides a secure place for your thumb. These pictures are from Hayward's book on veneering (1949) but the same principle applies if you are using a chisel against a tee square to knife a cut line.