Swan neck chisel sharpening

[Rhossydd]

I recently bought a bundle of wood carving tools from eBay. Most of them never seem to have been used in anger and most were unsharpened.
Amongst them is a Marples M21 swan neck chisel. Now I've never used a swan neck chisel before and it seems a bit of a curious tool as the handle is effectively perpendicular to the cutting edge, so it would seem that it will need rather a lot of leverage to use.

In particular can someone with more knowledge of these confirm that it should be sharpened by grinding the bevel on the inside curve of the blade ? I assume I'll also need to tidy up the outside surface to a decent standard too.

 

[rxh]

Mine has the bevel ground on the inside of the curve. I use it for cleaning up the bottoms of blind mortices.

 

[Billy Flitch]

The swan neck chisel or to give it the name that truly describes it the swan necked mortice lock chisel is probable the most misunderstood tool I`v ever come across.
To understand it better you must go back to when the middle rail on a door was known as the lock rail but this was when most locks where rim locks.
So move forward now and Architects are still asking for the lock to be fitted on the middle rail but with a mortice lock.
Many of us have done this and know just what a disaster it is because you are chopping into the end grain of the tenon on the middle rail and all that happens is you just split the tenon to pieces.
If you use a normal chisel you use it as a lever to get all that stuff out of the mortice and you just take the edge right of it .
the edge of the chisel ends up looking like a hack saw blade.
The mortice chisel has a rounded side on it so you can use this as a lever and clean a mortice out, but on a lock mortice it just rags every thing out. Some one came up with the idea of the mortice lock chisel that you use the swan neck to lever the chisel and and cut across the grain to remove the waist.
So it is sharpened like a mortice chisel 30 degrees on the inside of the curve with a stone or a slip stone and a stone or a slip stone used on the outside curve just to take the swarf away.

Its not normally used on a normal mortice but if you want to just go ahead its a very specialized tool.
Hope this is of some use. Billy

 

[Rhossydd]

Billy, as in the opening post, this is described as a wood carving chisel and is only 3/16" wide.

 

[Billy Flitch]

Sorry Rhossyydd my mistake done in good faith,but I think it is still sharpened the same way.

 

[swb58]

I've got a set of Marples carving chisels and it contains a chisel like that. I've never used them much and the chisel like that is the least used of them all. Perhaps I should have a look at the book which came with them and see if it gives any clues as to it's use.

 

[mtr1]

Whilst it may of been described as a carving chisel, I think it's a mortice chisel check out the profile. I think from memory mine is beveled on the inside, and I just used a slip stone to sharpen it. The size of this one indicates it is used for cabinet locks. I cannot think how you would use it to carve?

 

[Rhossydd]

I cannot think how you would use it to carve?

I think it's meant to be a swan neck No1* 3/16" and used for tidying up ground in difficult to access areas.

*I'd guess you might also be able to sharpen it to be a No2, 3 or 4 profile too.

 

[swb58]

Do an ebay search for a Marples 152 carving set, you should find a set like the one I've got and its sharpened the same way.
It can be used to cut in a restricted space much like a mortise chisel, pity it's taken me 40 years to realise that!

 

[JohnPW]

I've got 2 lock mortice chisels, they're longer than normals chisels. As bought, they both have a bevel on the inside of the curve.

 

[NickWelford]

Mine is certainly sharpened on the inside

 

[Rhossydd]

Thanks all.

Now fettled and sharpened on the inside as recommended. Not an easy thing to get a really good edge on though.

I can't see this being a very frequently used tool in my workshop, but it was effectively free so worth keeping in reserve.

 

[Billy Flitch]

Well done Rhossydd I think you did right by honing the inside of the curve, I took a look at a small carving chisel of mine and it is honed on the inside of the curve 5/ 16" wide but more of a sweep than a swan neck.


Interesting to note the pic John Pw sent it looks like some one was beating on the socket of the mortice lock chisel that's the misunderstanding that I was talking about the guy probably got frustrated with it and started to beat it.He did not understand that the chisel is all about leverage.
I have two mortice lock chisels the one in the middle is blacksmith made and 3/8" wide and the other is by T Ibbotson and 1/2" wide.I use slip stones to hone them all on the inside of the curve.