Made some chisels

Re: Made some chisels

David Barnett - Venice, FL

>Pretty nice and hefty. I like the large handles, too. You said these are mortise chisels (and they sure look like it), yet from the reflections in the photos they look almost hollow ground. If so, why did you choose HG instead of convex? (you got me thinking of buying some square drill rod for a couple larger mortise chisels)

HG

jim_reed@marietta

>They are indeed hollow ground, but that is due to the grinding wheel. I ground a second bevel to reduce the angle and used a flat plate for the final sharpening. There is alot of metal and I chose the easiest way to remove it. As you can see from the handles, appearance was low on the list. Used them again today and had to smile. There is nothing better than a good sharp chisel than holds up to a pounding.

Re: Made some chisels

Brad in Ottawa

>Couple of questions that are pretty basic...

1) What is high carbon bar stock? (O1, A2 etc...)

2) Where do you send your chisels/blades for heat treating?

I am thinking of making some O1 blades this summer and am fairly comfortable with heat treating small blades.

Seeing your chisels makes me wonder if I could make my own. I wouldn't be comfortable heat treating a thick chisel by myself.

Thanks!

Brad

Re: Made some chisels

jim_reed@marietta

>These are O-1. I send them out, but cannot recommend my heat treaters because they *lost* half of my last batch. Making your own chisels is really not a hard project and it is very easy to best the retail offerings. Good luck with yours.

Re: Made some chisels

Brad in Ottawa

>Thanks Jim,

I have seen your postings and have always admired your work. It has inspired me to do a little fettling of my own.

Thanks for the inspiration and the chisels look great!!!

Brad

Re: Made some chisels

Todd Hughes

>I would think that larger chisels would be easier for you to heat treat yourself then smaller ones because you will have less worry about getting them to hot and burning them....I would really recomend that if you are going to make any chisels, but esp. mortice chisels, that you have some type of bolster on them because i don't think they will stand up to very much use otherwise......Todd

I had the same thought on bolsters.

Joe Rogers, Northern Virginia

>

not sure yet

Dennis

>Me i like the bolster and leather washer and yes i like to pound on them but if you have followed Adam's threads on using a mortise chisel then maybe they are ok. And I'm not sold on the hollow grind either.

Maybe we need to have Jim send us all one to road test for few years........roflmao

One thing for sure,where would we be if people like Jim didn't take the time to make a tool and for that i respect him.

Dennis

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As for the bolsters...

jim_reed@marietta

>I bought some brass tubing to use for bolsters, but it is too small for the 1/2". Need to buy another $80 tube (!). They would dress up the tool, but I am not sure a bolster is needed on such a thick handle. The iron is imbedded up about 2/3 of the handle (about 2 1/2"). It will take alot of force to cause a crack. My use testing will show what is needed. Thanks for your kind comments.

Round Robin Testing Offer

jim_reed@marietta

>I would be happy to make one of the sample blades available for round robin testing. How about this:

1) I send chisel to #1, who agrees to test and post results.

2) #1 sends to #2 and so forth.

3) At the end of testing, the chisel will be offered for sale with the proceeds donated to Ellis and WC.

Anyone interested???

Ferrules and bolsters

Bob Hackett

>I may be wrong here but I always knew a bolster to be a flat surface running 90 deg to the chisel shaft.It kept the shaft from being driven up into the handle and splitting the handle thru the top portion.I`ve seen bolsters that were backed by leather washers.

A ferrule,on the other hand,attaches to the handle(a ring of brass pipe for example)and keeps the handle from splitting at the point where the shank of the chisel enters the handl

Some folks call the metal ring at the striking end of a chisel a ferrule also.I`ve always known these to be called hoops,as in a hooped framing chisel.

I`m sure that,like everything else,these terms differ geographicly.

BTW-all my mortising chisels have hoops,ferrules and bolsters(some call them "pig stickers").The only exceptions are my socket mortise chisels,which have hoops.I like to give handles all the help they can get.

Mainely,Bob

U R Correct

jim_reed@marietta

>About the F&B. I meant ferrule. I think early chisels had bolsters because of the sharp tang. Kinda like a knife where the tang is hot driven into the handle until the bolster stops it. On these chisels, the end is squared off and inserted into a mortise. Chisel is highly unlikely to move. Thanks for the correction.

Re: Round Robin Testing Offer

Dennis

>That is a interesting offer on your part Jim,might be fun in fact. Would be fun to road test it and see.

Dennis

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Re: Round Robin Testing Offer

Brad in Ottawa

>Great idea, bet if you posted this as a new thread a lot more people would jump in on it! Great little benefit to Woodcentral too!

Brad

Neat idea...

Scott in Douglassville, PA

>Just make the handles bigger. I'm guessin' there'd be plenty of initial-scratching going on as the chisels moved from shop to shop...