G. I. Mix & Co.

[swb58]

Unusually the name of a chisel manufacturer doesn't provide any hits on the 'search' facility here. Apparently it's a well regarded American maker from around about a 100 years ago.
Just wondering if anyone has something lurking in their workshop. I saw a quite short (worn down?) socketed mortise chisel, just shy of an inch and a quarter wide this morning. As soon as I picked it up I knew I couldn't leave it behind, the £5 price tag was a bit much but I just know somehow I'm not going to regret buying it.

 

[D_W]

Middle of the road american maker. Can be found here, but not as often as stuff like stanley or pexto, etc. Should be decent quality like stanley or pexto, etc.

 

[swb58]

Thanks for that, I'll settle for middle of the road quality. It's a better way to spend money than having a couple of pints down the boozer anyway!

Cheers.

 

[ED65]

If it's quite short from being used there's a good chance the steel you're down to won't be fully hardened so it may be disappointing in how it holds an edge. But if that is the case you can easily re-harden it with a simple setup should you want to bring it back to its full potential.

 

[D_W]

Thanks for that, I'll settle for middle of the road quality. It's a better way to spend money than having a couple of pints down the boozer anyway!

Cheers.

Agree with that. I think the "middle of the road" stuff is often the best to use. You can use it without fretting about sharpening it a lot and wondering how long it will last, it is amenable to just about every sharpening medium there is, and usually around the hardness that works really well with a strop.

At any rate, if it is full length and in good shape, it wouldn't be found for 5 quid in the US unless you were lucky at a flea market. Most of the resellers at flea markets here are somewhere in the neighborhood of ebay price, which is a bit higher in the US for most things than the UK ebay (except for a few things like Stanley US tools, etc - those are cheaper here, I suppose, but not as cheap as many of the record planes can be found there).