>I have read about heating the tang of a chisel and driving the handle on to get a good fit but so far I've only split the handle(just tried twice).This last time it was an old pig sticker style mortiser and a large rectangular piece of cherry.I predrilled a 3/16 hole to full depth, reamed the hole with a tapered reamer and chiseled a bit where the widest part of the tang was.Then I held the chisel in a vise,tang up,heated the tang with a propane torch til I figured it had to be hot enough to burn wood and pushed the handle on.It burned nicely but the final tap with a mallet to engage the bolster split the handle down one side.Can anyone who has done this give me a few pointers on how to succeed in this? ---Jack
>The only worthwhile drill here is sizing the pilot hole so's you can get a drive fit without splitting. That means a stepped hole with 3 or 4 counterbores to match the taper.
Cook the handles first for a few hours in hot sand like you would chair parts to get them very dry.
>I have done it successfully while fillling the shop with smoke. The deposit of pyrolyzed wood where the flames shot out of the hole is still on the top of my machinist vice to remind me that there are better ways.
The idea is the hot tang burns its shape into the handle. Tap, tap, tap the handle as the tang burns away, ( while smoke and fire shoot from the hole). Its tap tap, not pound pound. If the handle stops moving with the taps then the tang is too cold to burn any more wood away. Remove handle, Heat tang and tap some more. Ideally the tang cools just as it finally seats.
I found it easy to get the handle cocked with this approach.
>...but I gotta try it anyhow. So after I find out it's not worth the trouble,I'll probably drill/shape the hole and try marine epoxy. Thanks Jim and Bob ---Jack
>This reminds me of a trick I heard recently from a finish carpenter. He used a power drill to install round nails in step boards. The process would heat up the wood, which would expand a little. He would then set the nail normally, and as the wood cooled, it shrunk back around the nail, helping to prevent squeaks in the future.
It's possible the wood is expanding TOO much, and that's driving it to crack up. Maybe the tang is too hot, and the inside part of the wood is expanding so fast that you're creating pressure both from tapping the tang in, and from the heat. The inside expands faster than the outside, and it's not so much splitting as releasing pressure? I'm talking directly from my backside here, this is a new technique to me, but if I was to analyze this, that's where my mind wanders.
How wet was the wood? Steam has a lot of power.
Have you tried this in different woods?
I'm not sure I understand the theory behind this technique. Is it supposed to cause the handle to shrink back around the tang? Is it supposed to burn away wood to make a hole that fits better?
This sounds like an idea that came from a production shop, where things were probably assembled while still hot, in the name of getting things done in a timely fashion. That makes me wonder how well the handle fit to begin with... if it swelled the wood, and it shrank back to form a similar, no-squeak fit around the tang, maybe the hold didn't fit so good to begin with. That might explain your problem... hole too small, wood say "OW." And I also wonder if it was being held in a collar or some other sort of shop fixture to facilitate an easy insertion. Some sort of collar... even just a cheap, screw-tightened pipe clamp... might help hold the wood stable while it was being violated with this particular hot poker. Kinda like the dental assistants holding my jaw while he wrenched out my tooth last week. So maybe the bolster should already be on? If I recall, Bolsters are there to keep handles from splitting in use. Maybe they're also there to keep handles from splitting during assembly.
Like I said, talking completely out of my ass, but it's an interesting technique I hadn't heard about... tell me more, if you try to do it again.
For this to work you need to get the tangs red hot. I have done this successfully with a dozen or so carving tools and firmer chisels. You should be able to push the handles on with just hand pressure. I push them on so that they are just a hair away from the bolster and then remove them to let the tang cool. With pig sticker mortise chisels it is much more difficult. The blades do not neck down before the bolster and they have so much mass to draw the heat that it is hard to get the tangs hot enough with a propane torch. In my experience it is easier to use epoxy with these large chisels.
>I've used this method, many times. It works very well, unless you try to burn away too much wood because you got the hole sized too small, and lots of carbon builds up inside, or get impatient and try to drive the handle on too fast, and split the handle.
Bob's right, if you've got it, use West System. It doesn't take nearly as much skill to do right, and will result in a quality joint, with zero chance of splitting the handle, or of overheating the tang and annealing the first two inches or so of the file.
But, you've got to realize that we haven't always had epoxy, and it gets real expensive if you you have to mix up one pump of 105 and one pump of 206 and a spoonfull of colloidal silica for just one file handle. I use the 5 minute 50/50 stuff if I've messed up the hole in the handle and it won't hold. It's good enough for this application. One more problem with epoxy: In the case of files, the handle often outlasts the file itself, and you want to preserve the handle for another file, especially after you've trained yourself to look for a particular file pattern by recognizing the handle. If you've burnt it in, a couple taps with a mallet removes the old file and a tap or two on the bench top seats the new file.
>Mix epoxy by weight. I haven't mixed a whole pump stroke since I glassed the canoe paddles. Gram quantities are easily prepared with acceptable accuracy; probably better than the pump provides.
Digital scales are cheap now days and the one I use for measuring baking ingredients finds use in the shop for mixing small quantities of epoxy and shellac, and determining moisture content of lumber.
>The hot (like in red hot) tang can trap pyrolyzed wood gases as it burns its way into the handle. These gases eventually burst out and they can self ignite sending a jet of flame and smoke shooting out the handle. It would make a great picture, but for best effect snap it before the smoke obscures the flame(vise, bench, shop,smoke alarm...). Blacksmiths that invented this technique probably had well ventilated shops. Maybe my first attempt should not have been on a 1 1/2" roughing gouge. The flame was smaller on chisels.
>Bill, I've tried to get a picture of the flames, but so far have been unsuccessful. My digital camera just doesn't respond to the shutter release in a timely manner, and all I get in the image is smoke. One problem is that it takes two people, both very familiar with the procedure: one hand on the handle, one hand on the torch and two hands on the camera. If you miss the shot, you have to go turn another handle and try again. This is as close as we've gotten, so far. That's Mike DeHart performing the alchemy,
installing a mahogany handle on a #50 cabinet rasp.
>I've successfully burned in drawknife handles, where the hole runs through the handle.As others have said, it doesn't work as well in a blind hole like a chisel handle.
i think the reason your handle split was that you used cherry. Cherry is a beautiful wood, but it is brittle and splits easily.I would suggest you use a less brittle wood, like ash or maple, both of which were used for chisel handles.
>Sure quality chisels have been made and used for 100s of years with nothing more then friction fit and it's true you can glue your chisel together like those that probably secretly pine for plastic handle chisels but don't you really deserve a better method....a method used by True Craftsmen?
......By the use of simple and easly obtainable Black electical tape in just a few min. time you can make sure that your chisel doesn't fall out and damage it or you. I was showed this method by an old boat builder who started using it after a tragic accident where his son lost a leg after a 1/2 in. parring chisel felt out of it's unrestrained socket. Just wrap the tape in a figure 8 pattern while maintaining tension on the roll as you do. When finished I like to tuck the end under a winding.While I'm not a collector I still like my tools looking neat and business like...just another sign of a True Craftsman.When done that blade is not going anywhere
....Though a little hard to see If you look at the photo close you might notice the finish on the steel looks a little different. I store my tools in a screen porch on a barge on the Chesapeake Bay so rust is a major concern of mine.This is why I went with this Pink Parkerizing. Devoloped by the French Military noted "Flower Brigade" for use on thier weapons in wet enviroments it provides optimum protection from rust.Also gives it a nice no nonsence all bussiness look too I think just like what a True Craftsman wants.
......This chisel has been in my family for the past 100 years, sure the handle has been replaced a few times and the blade at least twice but still I want to pass it down in the family.By taking these steps you won't have to worry about the handle coming off and your chisel can be preserved for future True Craftsmen to enjoy as well .....Todd
>Ah...the justly famed Flower Brigade...noted for their stalwart defense of...well, apparently not much of anything.
I will tell you from first hand experience that the French Spec Ops guys have the second best cooks an any outfit I've seen. The best were with the Belgian Paracommandos...but then, I could eat waffles all day long.
>Yea,I figured that. Part of my troubles I'm sure has to do with the fact that this chisel has a very wide tang.It just doesn't get hot enough to be of any help.I'm going to just call it good and shape the hole to fit the tang,glue it in.If I get any more grief from it I'll try Todd's advice and electrical tape it.I'll try the burning technique another day on something more appropriate.I have some old carving chisels that need handles.---Thanks all---Jack
>I had to stop at least three times to catch my breath and wipe the tears from my eyes before I could even finish reading your scholarly explanation. This one is a real classic, Todd.
So, did you win it in a box lot? How did you hide that bright pink patina? Must have been a lot of rusty old planes and saws piled on top to keep it from the notice of your competitors.
