Help me identify this hand tool?
- Thread starter carpenteire2009
- Start date
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It's an Engineer's cold chisel.
Photobucket doesn't want to let me upload a fresh picture but if you look on page 142 of the 1938 Marples catalogue they are listed in lengths from 4to 12 inches, with a diamond point, a half-round point or cross-cut.
The size at the point ranged from 1/8" to 7/16".
Photobucket doesn't want to let me upload a fresh picture but if you look on page 142 of the 1938 Marples catalogue they are listed in lengths from 4to 12 inches, with a diamond point, a half-round point or cross-cut.
The size at the point ranged from 1/8" to 7/16".
Thank you Andy, that catalogue makes a great read! I don't think I'll have much use for this tool but I'll hold onto it all the same, you never know!
bugbear
Established Member
AndyT":3ersos6y said:
(puts hand in air) Ooh, Sir, I know Sir!
BugBear
undergroundhunter
Established Member
They are really good for staking nuts used on car hub nuts or anywhere that there is a stake nut. I use mine all the time.
Matt
Matt
Alvan
Established Member
Without doubt you had it right in the original question. It is a Plugging chisel, used long before such modern stuff as rawlplugs etc.
It is narrow at the business end to root out mortar from between bricks.
Æ
It is narrow at the business end to root out mortar from between bricks.
Æ
Cheshirechappie
Established Member
It's a fitter's crosscut chisel. Properly sharpened, the business end isn't rounded, but has two ground facets at about 60-75 degrees to each other.
Back in the good old days when men were men, such tools were used for cutting slots and keyways, and in the first operation of chipping and filing a flat face on a casting. The rough casting was marked out, then grooves cut parallel to each other with the crosscut chisel, about 1/4" or so apart, to a depth very close to the marked lines. Similar grooves were then cut at 90 degrees to the first set, leaving lots of little squares upstanding. The little squares were chipped off with a straight cold chisel, and the surface left worked down to the marked line with a rough file, then a ******* file, then a second cut and finally a smooth file. This procedure was used when a casting was too large for available machine tools, or when the face to be worked could not be accessed for machining, or when machine tools were not available. It's the sort of skilled work that's common when labour is cheap, but falls out of use as technology advances and wages improve.
The same procedure can be used on mild steel, but you have to be pretty damned determined. Or desperate. Don't ask how I know that.
Back in the good old days when men were men, such tools were used for cutting slots and keyways, and in the first operation of chipping and filing a flat face on a casting. The rough casting was marked out, then grooves cut parallel to each other with the crosscut chisel, about 1/4" or so apart, to a depth very close to the marked lines. Similar grooves were then cut at 90 degrees to the first set, leaving lots of little squares upstanding. The little squares were chipped off with a straight cold chisel, and the surface left worked down to the marked line with a rough file, then a ******* file, then a second cut and finally a smooth file. This procedure was used when a casting was too large for available machine tools, or when the face to be worked could not be accessed for machining, or when machine tools were not available. It's the sort of skilled work that's common when labour is cheap, but falls out of use as technology advances and wages improve.
The same procedure can be used on mild steel, but you have to be pretty damned determined. Or desperate. Don't ask how I know that.
toolsntat
Yep, I collect tools and tat
Great insight into a world unknown for me Cheshirechappie and reminded me of this :wink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcbTXlMSCwk
Andy
Andy
bugbear
Established Member
AndyT":fdi5qxwy said:
Cheshirechappie has said it all.
BugBear
