Boy, this is a dumb (chisel) question but ....

Re: Boy, this is a dumb (chisel) question but ....

Gerry Doll Illinois

>Don't know about dulling, but if you use waterstones or water in sharpening, it will contribute to rusting PDQ.

My guess is that's incorrect

Christopher Schwarz

>I'm sure someone will contradict me, but that sounds wrong. Those plastic guards aren't in any way abrasive. I cannot imagine how they would dull your tools.

As to rusting.... I've used those tips on about two dozen tools since 1993 and have never had a rust issue. I use waterstones to sharpen and wipe down the tools with camilia oil after use.

What the tips have done is saved me from injury and from destroying an edge or two over the years.

Chris

No direct experience

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>Sounds like a 21st century workshop tale to me. I'd be interested to hear the metallurgical basis for such a statement - humidity trapped in the plastic causes micro-corrosion?

Actually, as I think about it

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>...I do have direct experience.

My chisel till is a drawer into which I toss the chisels (round tuit deficiency has prevented a more elegant solution, but it's on the list, along with putting handles on the chisels at the bottom of the drawer). To protect the best chisels, I use the little plastic caps that used to be sold by Woodcraft (picked up two bags of them on clearance sometime). I've never seen ANY evidence that they cause dulling - I have a pair of Pexto chisels that I don't think I've sharpened since I picked them up, have used intermittently (on softwood, admittedly) for better than two years and protected between with the plastic caps, and they're still carpenter-sharp.

You will have noticed the courageous exposure of several of my failings above, but the plastic caps aren't among them.

Bill

Re: Boy, this is a dumb (chisel) question but ....

Richard Gillespie

>I'd have to disagree with the premise that the plastic caps dull the chisels. I store my chisels in a mechanics type metal tool chest and felt that the caps were a requirement along with as many bags of the silica descent as I can get my hands on. I've not noticed any dulling after long term storage.

Re: No direct experience

Todd Hughes

>I don't have any experance with these tips either, Personaly I wouldn't buy a new chisel OR put anything plastic on any tool I own anyway.While i don't know for certain I could see how a plastic tip guard if it got dirt on it could abraid the edge of the chisel. Somewhat simular is with the use of Plastic cleaning rods in Rifles. Used to be thought they were safer to use then a harder Brass or Steel Rod since they were softer but then it was found out that being softer they allowed dirt to get imbeded in them which wore the bore much more then a hard metal rod, [think sandpaper].

Again I don't know about these plastic tips , but hey anyway who wants to put plastic on their chisels,.. huh? Get a cloth roll.....Todd

Sources?

Don Thompson, Cutler Ridge, Florida

>I need some more of them. Where do you recommend buying them?

Thanks,

Don

Some direct experience

Adam Cherubini, NJ

>I�m aware of test data that shows soft plastics pick-up grit that abrade mating metal surfaces. Whether this happens to your chisels is another story. Usually, this is associated with something rotating very quickly in a desert from from here.

Adam

Re: No direct experience

Adam Cherubini, NJ

>Bill,

If the caps get fine saw dust in them, that dust will attract water. In theory, at least, the caps could increase rust.

I don't know where exactly you live or how humid it is there. This might be a bigger problem in Seattle or here in soggy NJ, than California.

In England, woodworkers absoultely took steps to protect tools from dust. I think that's telling.

Adam

Cloth roll

Ernie Miller Topeka

>I would think that you would be kinda scared of them surly you have found many such rolls at sales that have gotten wet over the years and the chisels are covered in rust. But there are others in rolls that are covered in for lack of better knowlage a kind of scale that can be removed and have most of the finish in tact. Do you have any ideas as to what causes that? I don't like plastic tips either and if I ever get the time will make leather thongs for my chisels but the seem safe for now in the drawer

Another Urban Myth

jim_reed@marietta

>Sometimes on line tips can be misleading. One person's direct experience does not lead to general truth. The tips on my Marples blue chisels grip from the side and do not even touch the edge. Dropping them unprotected onto a concrete floor does tend to abrade the tips quickly. As for rust, that is a function of moisture which is either on the chisel after sharpening or is in the air of the shop. Don't blame the lowly tip.

I've seen rust...

Bryan Danner - Broad Ripple, IN

>When I first got my Blue Chips, I used the plastic tip protectors religiously. The chisels rusted under the caps, but nowhere else. I don't know the exact reason for the rust, but as soon as I stopped using the caps, the rusting stopped. FWIW, I use scarey sharp, and my chisels have never touched water directly.

-Bryan

Lot's of WW places... *LINK*

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>Here's one. I'm sure Lee Valley and others carry them too.


One example

Boy, I don't know...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>I lost all those little caps for my Marples years ago. Can't see storing them in cloth rolls either. A nice sharp chisle will cut right thru them DAMHIKT.

Scott who keeps his chisles in a rack.

Re: Boy, this is a dumb (chisel) question but ....

Alan Hamilton

>Jim,

I use the plastic thingies on my chisels. I wish I had more to fit my mortise chisels, gouges, and the like.

So far I've seen no evidence whatever that my tools are dulled or got rusty beneath the tips--or anyplace else. I sharpen with waterstones and the absolutely last step, after drying and then cleaning in kerosene, is to put on a nice thin film of camelia oil. After use I clean them with plain kerosene and put the tips on (kerosene too leaves a very thin, oily film on steel). I have had trouble with neither rust nor dulling.

Alan

Thanks, that's what I like about WC!

Jim Stafford in GA

>Thanks to all who have responded so far. A lot of students in my foundations classes buy the Marples (now Irwin, it seems) Blue chisels which come with the little caps. I've never had any rust with mine that have caps nor have most of my students, but one had a bit of rust on one of his under the cap and said he should have thrown the caps away like his friend said to do. Said he was told it would dull the chisel and cause moisture/rust. His Marples (or maybe they were Record, I can't remember) were in a box with a plastic "tray" holding the chisels which had caps on them. However, the chisels had a "frosty" look to them, sort of like the look you see on the newer Starrett squares which makes for easier reading of the scales. Or like when you are at about 800 on a water stone when polishing the back of a chisel. This is the look they had all over. The rust was not pervasive, just some dark spots in places in the area inside the cap.

Anyway, thanks for all the ideas. I also use Cam. Oil on my tools when I finish sharpening them or maybe I'm just lucky, but never any rust.

JimInGA

Tnx, Those look esp. sturdy.

Don Thompson, Cutler Ridge, Florida

>

Re: I've seen rust...

Don Thompson, Cutler Ridge, Florida

>Just for curiositys sake, where do you keep your chisels, and what sort of climate do you have were you live?

Re: I've seen rust...

Bryan Danner - Broad Ripple, IN

>I keep them in the original plastic shell packaging on a shelf. They are in my shop which is humidity controlled to < 45% RH.

Pretty strange, huh?

-Bryan