Taking a Quarter and making an Eigth

Sort of

Derek Cohen (in Perth Australia)

>Dan

I have a set of Berg chisels that I have put together over a few years (they are particularly nice for paring). And, yes, I have a 1/8". I am afraid that you will not be able to turn a 1/4" Berg into a replica 1/8" Berg since the 1/4" is bevel edged and the 1/8" is more like a mortise chisel.

On the other hand, I have indeed ground Berg chisels without losing their temper. I took some spares (goodish blades and poor handles), and ground the side bevels to a sharper side angle to use as paring dovetail chisels. The main bevel is ground at 20 degrees. These were then re-handled (my rather amateurish early turning of Jarrah). The set of four (below) include 1/2", 3/8" and 1/4" Bergs and a 1/8" Triton (a vintage Aussie chisel with excellent rep for steel). This 1/8" was bevelled more dramatically than the others here. I did this on a disk sander (very carefully!), which is attached to my bench belt sander (that I only use to grind blades on).

I have also included below a picture of the Triton 1/8" alongside the Berg 1/8".

The third picture is, from right to left, a Berg 1/4", Berg 1/8", re-ground Triton 1/8", and re-ground Berg 1/4".

I hope the details of the pictures can be seen - very difficult to photograph.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Sort of

Bruce, a MN Galoot

>My 1/8" Berg chisel is more like a regular paring chisel. I have a 1/8" mortise, and the cross-sections are different.

Bruce

I might have one?

Ernie Miller

>I will look tonight I know there are several 1/8" ones but don't know if there is a berg? I'll check and let you know

Have some

Jim Reed @ Tallahassee

>I made a bunch a while back to go with some mortice chisels.

Re: Sort of

Dan Clermont in Burnaby

>Hi Derek,

Nice chisels!!

I like narrow pins and find my 1/4" Berg and my 6mm Berg sometimes bruise the tail shoulders cause they are so narrow.

I agree withthe idea of tapering the sides to a 1:6 or 1:8 and think that would definitely help but I would like to take the sides down slightly as well. When I measure some of my dovetails on 3/4" tails I find a 1/4" is prety muchj fperfect. If I was to try and use 1/2" material on the tails I would need 3/16" sides.

Now I could just have narrower tails which is probably what will happen for now but in the past I have found every now and then I make them two narrow.

Nice chisels!!! Never heard of Titan before on this side of the pond. How do they hold up against the Berg's???

Thanks

Dan CLermont

And a picture to boot

Jim Reed@Tallahassee

>Here is the set of mortice chisels. 1/2, 3/8. 1/4, and 1/8. Shown below is a 1/8x1/4 little guy morticer. Shown in the rear is a full set of #444 dovetail blades under construction.

I'm still working on mine...

Frank D. in Montreal

>This project is dragging on but ''ll be finished some day...I have 1/16" and 1/8" mortise chisels in there...

Re: Taking a Quarter and making an Eigth

Frank D. in Montreal

>Hi Dan,

It's not difficult to do. All you need is a solid adjustable rest (you can make one with a few bolts and some plywood) on your grinder, or just atatch some ply cut to the correct angle and attach it to the tool rest if you only have a cheap non-adjustable rest. A white wheel helps (Bill Tindall has written some great stuff on cool-grinding wheels) but it's not absolutely necessary. Just doN,t press down like a madman, don't grind for too long, and dunk the chisel in water very frequently. The water shouldn't fizz when you dunk the chisel in it, if it does then dunk more frequently or press less hard. It's also good to scribe some reference lines on the back of the chisel, so you keep a straight edge and so you don't overgrind. You can put a bevel on the sides but I'm not sure what you want it for and I doN,t quite see why you'd need bevels (do you make such small dovetails?). The sides are easily smoothed out with a file clamped to your bench or work surface (I find it easier to move the chisel on the file, not vise-versa). The top or any side bevels don't have to be shiny anyways, a good grinding job will probably be good enough.

It takes a while to grind cool but anyone can do it.

Just my 2¢

Frank

Purdy chisels

Jim Reed @ Tallahassee

>That's some good looking stuff.

Re: Purdy chisels

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>Thought they just made shotguns

Re: Purdy chisels

Frank D. in Montreal

>They also make excellent paint brushes.

Jim, you helped me out more than anyone on these chisels, not just by answering my questions but by all the other stuff you post too. Thanks!

PS Did you ever get a hold of that batch of blades that was sent to the wrong address?

MIA blades

Jim Reed @ Tallahassee

>I am sorry to report that batch #14 is still MIA and has been declared lost. Interesting to note thatit was really #13, but I thought a marker with that number would be unlucky. Bad luck found it anyhow. I found a new heat treater who charges more, but provides better service. In fact, I have a new batch to send next week. It has some custom blades as well as a new product (#444 dovetail blade sets).

Re: I'm still working on mine...

Dan Clermont in Burnaby

>Nice chisels Frank!!! Are you using O-1 adn are you going to heat treat them yourself.

How did you make the nice bend in the crank neck chisels?

Take Care,

Dan Clermont

Re: I'm still working on mine...

Frank D. in Montreal

>Hey Dan,

I used A2 steel, so will be sending them out for heat treating. I just put the crank necks in a vise and banged on them with a hammer (I put a rag over the bar stock so it wouldn't have any bang marks). It only took a minute.

A few more...

Frank D. in Montreal

>Dovetail chisels

Took a Quarter and made an Eight

Dan Clermont in Burnaby

>I did it today.

Started out trying to do it with my 1000 grit stone and that was pretty slow and hard on the stone. I then switched to a file on my granite reference surface (protected the granite of course) and that was much faster

I took the chisel down to 3/16" and was quite pleased but something got into me and the next thing ya know I was at the Delta slow speed wet grinder at work (it has a tail) removing more metal from the sides.

The chisel is actually 0.134" wide but it really doesn't matter as it is my user and I don't really need an actual 1/8" chisel. The sides are tapered and have a 1:6 angle so they will fit into the narrowest of dovetail and be good for spot cleanup

I had so much fin I may turn another Berg into a 3/16" and a 1" Berg into a 7/8"

What I found was most Berg's seemed to have been ground by hand as the chamfers and Bevels are not always equal on both sides. Really though who will ever know the difference or care. This is my set of Berg's and when I do die my wife will have a set of Berg's in 1/8" increments

By the way, I am 37 years old and healthy so you are all going to have to be patient ;)

Dan CLermont

Good for you!

Jim Reed@Tallahassee

>I think all tools, especially chisels, should be viewed as *not ready for prime time* when first purchased. If we can spend hours *tuning up* a handplane, then why not spend some time *tuning up* the chisel set. Thanks for your posts.