Tool History - when was the Bevel-edged Chisel born?

[Cheshirechappie]

Bevel-edged chisels. We all take them for granted, as if they've existed for ever; if you want a 'mass-market' new chisel, you'll be lucky to find anything else. But when did they first become commonplace? In answering Jimi's recent thread on his Buck and Ryan b/e chisels, I (perhaps rather rashly) suggested about 1890-ish, but am I right?

The evidence - actual and deduced - is as follows. In the late 18th century, 'firmer' chisels were much thinner in the blade than modern ones - more like a modern carving chisel. Benjamin Seaton's chisels (see 'The Tool Chest of Benjamin Seaton' pub. TATHS), both cast steel and common steel 'firmers' were of this pattern - and he was a joiner and cabinetmaker, familiar with dovetails. With chisels so thin, dovetails are not too much of a problem; the slightest skewing of the edge, and the bevel will clear the dovetail sidewalls. These thinner chisels continued to be available until very late in the 19th or early 20th centuries - enough examples exist, with enough evidence to date reasonably accurately.

Literature around the turn of the 19th/20th century shows b/e chisels were manufactured, but they seem to be a 'special', the rectangular-section firmer, by now somewhat thicker, being the 'stock' chisel for both joiners and cabinetmakers. Salaman (Dictionary of Woodworking Tools, revised edition, page 131) has an extract from a Brades catalogue of 1905 which shows b/e and b/e paring chisels, but alongside their firmer equivalents, and about four firmer patterns to one b/e.

My hunch, backed by no evidence whatever, is that the b/e chisel developed in the late 19th century. Can anybody pin their introduction down any more accurately?

 

[Jacob]

If you include stone then the answer would be millions of years ago.
I'd guess that the first bevel edge chisel (ish) metal tool would be almost as old as metal work itself.

In fact bevel edges would have been first (knife, axe etc), the straight sided firmer chisel being relatively recent (I guess).

 

[Phil Pascoe]

That's very well, but there is no direct equivalent on a knife of the bevels on the side of a chisel - knives cut on their sides, so are bound to have bevels on the sides.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Well, that's an interesting answer, Jacob. Unfortunately, it's not the answer to the question I asked.

You're not from a family of politicians by any chance, are you?

 

[toolsntat]

There is a 1678 reference with Moxon here on page 77
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=t_IR ... ew&f=false
Not specifically "bevel edged" but could at least be a forerunner :?:

Andy

 

[Cheshirechappie]

There is a 1678 reference with Moxon here on page 77
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=t_IR ... ew&f=false
Not specifically "bevel edged" but could at least be a forerunner :?:

Andy

There is a logic to that. The dovetail was starting to be used about that time, so you'd think the tools to make them easily would evolve at about that time.

However, the b/e didn't seem to become commonplace until much later. I wonder if that is because the regular chisel of the time was fairly thin, and (according to chart in the Seaton tollchest book) had sides that swept outwards from the bolster in a graceful curve, thus giving quite 'sharp' corners which would have cleaned a dovetail easily (and were probably quite vulnerable to damage, too). So, there wasn't a really pressing need for another special tool until chisels got thicker.

 

[lwilliams]

Here's a Dutch one from 1596:

 

[Corneel]

You were quicker then me Larry. This chisel was found on Nova Zembla. In the remains of the expedition from Baerentz to find a passage to the East. They lost their ship in the ice. Survived a winter in a hut made from the wreakage. They managed to escape in the spring with a small boat. So this chisel is just a simple ships carpenters one. It is very well made, rather big and indeed quite thin.

You can find a better image on the site www.rijksmuseum.nl when you search in the collection for beitel.

If i hadn't have to work last night i would have beat you Larry.

 

[Jacob]

That's very well, but there is no direct equivalent on a knife of the bevels on the side of a chisel - knives cut on their sides, so are bound to have bevels on the sides.

Yes but the generally bevelled shape is the more natural as formed by chipping a stone or beating iron on an anvil. A firmer type shape with straight, parallel and square sides, (cut or ground?) would be more difficult to achieve and would be a product of a higher level of industrialisation. Bevels came first, from the very beginning, firmers are the newcomers.
That's my theory anyway.

 

[Corneel]

Now I can look at the rijksmuseum site (I first posted in the train without full internet access), and I see they have exactly the same picture. Sizes of this chisel: 35,5 cm long and the edge is 4,2cm wide.

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/search/objecten?q=beitel&p=1&ps=12#/NG-NM-7667,3

 

[AndyT]

Interesting stuff!

I can't answer the question but I can offer a little bit of evidence, from three old books, all aimed at the amateur woodworker wanting to know how the trade experts did things.

First up: "Every Man His Own Mechanic" - Francis Young, 1882:

This is pretty comprehensive on buying the complete kit of tools, with lots of plugs for suppliers. (It includes those new-fangled American iron planes.) But the section on chisels is very brief; this is it:

Confirmation that paring chisels are thinner than the ordinary firmer chisels (I think he meant to write 'the latter are longer and thinner) but no mention of bevelled edges.

Exhibit B: "Woodworking" by Paul Hasluck, dated 1912, but (as with so many woodworking books) the same material crops up in slightly different editions at various dates.

Another book which goes to great lengths to explain all the tools you will need and where to buy them. This is what he has to say about chisels:

Note the naming on the first picture - the bevel edge chisel is shown as one variant of the Firmer - not as a different tool in its own right. If you count bevel-edged in with the firmers they would be harder to spot in catalogues and lists.

The long, bevel-edged paring chisel is also shown.

Lastly, into the twentieth century with Charles Hayward and "Tools for Woodwork" from 1946:

He says that the Firmer Chisel is the ordinary bench chisel, that bevel-edged chisels "are of considerably lighter build and should never be struck with a mallet" and that both types can be obtained extra long. He describes how dovetails should be tackled:

"A bevelled edge chisel will be found handy for cleaning out [ie after chopping away most of the wood with a firmer] because its thin edges enable it to work close into the sloping corners. Men in the trade frequently keep an old nearly worn-out bevelled edge chisel for this purpose. Its shortness makes it less liable to snap."

But then - always keen to help you do without an unnecessary tool - he also shows how you can manage without one by grinding the tip of your firmer chisel like this:

I guess this all confirms what has been said and reminds us that we don't get bevel edge chisels strong enough to be hit until comparatively recently, so where a joint needed to be chopped, the square-edge stocky firmer chisel was the first choice.

(Interesting too that the Nova Zembla chisel was broad enough to be quite strong, even though it was slender. I doubt that it would have been possible in a 1/4" size!)

EDIT: - here is another from the same source - it's a bit hard to tell what shape it was but it does look quite slender - what's the Dutch for Corro-dip? :wink:

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/search/objecten?q=beitel&p=1&ps=12#/NG-NM-7779-1,7

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Regarding the ground off corners in the drawing - I've done that for thirty odd years, but I've not noticed anyone else do it.

 

[bugbear]

Regarding the ground off corners in the drawing - I've done that for thirty odd years, but I've not noticed anyone else do it.

One of my favourite chisels - a rather massive, and quite long firmer (in the modern sense) by I Sorby - was ground like that when I bought it.

BugBear

 

[bugbear]

Here's an interesting (but not conclusive) ***-bit.

It's from the 1897 C.A. Stelinger & Co. catalogue (they were pretty much the USA Buck and Hickman).

"Chisels with bevel edges are a decided
improvement over the regular style.
In this form of chisel the edge are thinner,
which enables one to work with greater accuracy
in mortises and close places. Besides this,
the tool is made lighter, without sacrificing
strength to any extent."

Now, one shouldn't put too much credence
in the claims of someone with something
to sell, but (to me) the use of the phrase "the regular style"
is rather telling. It implies that bevel edge is NOT the regular style.

This speaks (of course) to the widespread adoption
of bevel edge chisels, not their birth (which was the OP's question)

BugBear

 

[AndyT]

Thanks BB - that's a useful resource, the Strelinger catalogue of 1896 - more chatty and informative than many. (In case anyone doesn't know already it's readable online at http://www.old-woodworking-tools.com/) where you can see that having bevelled edges on your Ward & Payne firmer chisels raised the price by around 50%.

Next to it in my bookmarks was this catalogue from the Viennese firm of Franz Wertheim a bit earlier, in 1869. Their magnificent full colour catalogue is available to browse from this link:

http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/qr46r156v

Volume 1 is the text (in French) Volume 2 is the pictures. This is the page for chisels:

As you can see, their range is wide - they cover big hefty carpenter's chisels, lighter ones for joiners and a full selection for turners and carvers. But even though these here are listed as they show nothing that we would recognise as a bevel edged chisel.

(The odd tool at Fig 154 is described as a German chisel, adapted to get into tight corners, but it's a one-off in one size.)

So this supports the suggestion that bevel edged chisels did not appear until the late C19th.

 

[Jacob]

........
So this supports the suggestion that bevel edged chisels did not appear until the late C19th.

Except for the bevel edge chisels such as the one above from C16 and all the other variants from the year dot.
I can't see why anyone thinks there were only firmers, and then bevel edged as a later development. This might be true of a particular firm or catalogue but certainly not true of tool making as a whole as we see clearly from the evidence.

 

[AndyT]

Ok, I should have said:

So this supports the suggestion that parallel-sided bevel edged chisels (ie of consistent width along the whole length) did not appear as a readily available tool until the late C19th.

There is perhaps another related question to be looked at - when and why did the flared shape of chisel go out of use in western Europe? (Rutlands used to list some of this shape as 'Chinese chisels' so maybe they are still used there.)

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Interesting - and thanks to all who have contributed positively.

Conclusions so far:

1) The origins of the bevel-edged chisel are old, and certainly before 1596.

2) Despite which, in Britain and North America at least, the type was not as common as the square-edged firmer until about the end of the 19th century.

So, why did the type apparently not catch on in Britain and North America until so late? Where they more common in Europe before the late 19th century?

To try to answer AndyT's question about chisels becoming straight-sided, the chart on page 66 of 'Benjamin Seaton's Tool Chest' suggests early in the 19th century. Benjamin's late 18th century chisels all have a distinct flare from shoulder to edge, though not curving sides. The Chinese chisel (straight sides, thin blade, strong flare from bolster to edge) is listed as a special chisel in Ward and Payne's 1911 catalogue, as reprinted in Salaman's Dictionary of Woodworking Tools. Salaman states that they were made for export, though he doesn't say where to.

 

[Corneel]

In Felibien, you can find both chisel types, straight sides and tapered sides. Alas, my French is very poor, so I don't know whta the text sais.
This is from 1690 or so. Tapered sides you also find on old paintings. I guess this is the earlier type.

Page 189:
http://www.toolemera.com/bkpdf/felibienexcerpt.pdf

In Roubo you can find some straight sided ones. Roubo is around 1770

http://www.toolemera.com/bkpdf/roubomichaudBK.pdf

So at least in France, they switched somewhere early 18th century, when you look at just these two sources.

 

[bugbear]

There is a handy things called the Illustrated Sheffield list, which was agreed jointly by the Sheffield tool makers
(and published jointly as a cost savings exercise - they also agreed the prices ... ).

The tools listed/shown can be reasonably assumed to be the ones they were making in significant quanties.

The 3rd edition, 1855, shows chisels but none have bevelled edges.

The situation is unchanged for the 11th/12th edition (1885).

BugBear