Dovertail chisels

'nother view 

Frank D. in Montreal

>

Very nice...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>They look real good. How'ed you pick the handle style and how'ed you shape them?

Re: Dovertail chisels

mikew

>Very nice there, Frank!

Take care, Mike

Re: Dovertail chisels

bill tindall

>nice work. Would you describe how you beveled the sides?

Re: Very nice...

Frank D. in Montreal

>Hi Scott,

I modeled them on my most comfortable chisels, which are Sandviks. When I saw pics of Adam's chisels I knew I was on the right road. Now I call them my improved Seaton pattern handles. ;)

I used a bandsaur, rasp, file, and hand sanding to shape.

Re: Dovertail chisels

Frank D. in Montreal

>Hi Bill,

For the chamfers I started the bevel with a spokeshave (one-handed, kind of like using a potato peeler), then finished them off by hand with sandpaper and a sanding block.

Frank, he's asking how did you

Wiley Horne--Glendora, CA

>get the taper on the sidewalls of the blade. Heck of a spoke shave if that's the question you were answering.

Wiley

Re: Frank, he's asking how did you

Frank D. in Montreal

>Thanks Wiley,

I'm having an off day today!

Sorry Bill, I just used my 6" grinder with the tool rest, and eyeballed it.

Thanks Mike, HNY!

Frank D. in Montreal

>

Eyeballed it?!

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native now in Jax Fl.

>Holy Cow Frank, you did good for eyeballing! What degree are the bevels and what type and what diameter of stone on the grinder did you use? What's your grinder rpm?

Was over heating a problem? How'd you cool? Air or water?

Did the stone leave the bevels hollow? Did you leave them hollowed,or file them flat?

Dang, Frank, you're killing me this morning! Nice job.

How they working so far? As expected? Better than expected?

Wish you had done anything different now that they are finished?

Todd O.

Re: Eyeballed it?!

ThomD

>Excellent job for sure. Ever see a custom knife?

Dang! nice eyeballing

bill tindall

>they look great. I was hoping for some magic technique that would enable clutzes to do it.

Re: Eyeballed it?!

Frank D. in Montreal

>Hi Todd,

"What degree are the bevels and what type and what diameter of stone on the grinder did you use? What's your grinder rpm?"

The bevels are at 30� (from the backs). I use a 6" grinder, I have two (low & high speed) but I used the high-speed grinder for shaping, with a coarse white wheel.

Was over heating a problem? How'd you cool? Air or water?

I dunk the blades in water, but I don't let them get too hot. The water shouldn't fizz (or just a teeny bit) when you dunk, at least that's what I was told. Cooling takes as long as grinding, and water dunking goes faster and when the blade is wet it gives me more time on the wheel before it gets too hot.

Did the stone leave the bevels hollow? Did you leave them hollowed,or file them flat?

There is a hollow grind but for bevels it really doesn't matter. I tried stoning and filing one of them flat but decided not to do the others.

How they working so far? As expected? Better than expected?

So far so good, but I've only tried a few on some scrap. It's a little early for a review, and after a few sharpenings they'll get sweeter and hold an edge longer.

Wish you had done anything different now that they are finished?

I wanted chisels in A2 steel, but now I have leftovers that I'm not sure what to do with. The minimum charge for heat treating is $90, so that limits A2 to big batches, or sets of blades. I want to make some blades for my wooden planes so I'll probably buy some O1 and do the heat treating myself. Thia makes O1 handier for one-shot little specialty blades. It's also a lot cheaper than A2, so the savings are substantial. It's all trade-offs but I like A2 steel too. The chisels take a great edge, they cut my fingers quite cleanly.

Happy New Year and thanks for all the kind comments.

Frank

Re: Dovertail chisels

dave jeske

>Nice job Frank!

I know what it takes to make chisels, especially by hand, and it is a lot of work. You have some that will be a delight to use for years to come. For many of my one-off stuff I use O-1. It will take a very keen edge and is easy to hone compared to A-2. Maybe not quite as tough but still makes for some nice tools. Tjanks for showing your work.

dave

Re: Eyeballed it?!

ThomD

>There is arguably a 5-10 fold range of edge endurance available in simple tool steels, depending on heat treating profile. I'm talking about at the same RC number. Unfortunately when people get that much into heat treating, they also tend to get equaly into specialized objectives, so getting real data is difficult. Point being that O1 can be tweaked and massaged significantly. One can also buy Hitachi steel though the only size I have seen would mostly require forge welding.

With the A2 and D2, there is doubtless variability also, but some of the people working it appear more focused on letting the steel do the work in simple form. And anyway, getting around the adds is going to be difficult. I think if one wants easier sharpening it is a lot easier to just motorize.

If you have any hefty O1 you need heat treated let me know, I'm set up for it. I hope to be able to HT anvil sized pieces by summer, but most WW blade size stuff I can already handle.

Re: Dang! nice eyeballing

Norman (Ottawa, Ont.)

>Frank,

Very nice work...

I notice that the chisel blades for the ivory-handled regular chisels don't taper into the socket as most manufactured chisels. Is this your design to increase strength? Or simplify construction?

I never paid much attention to that end of the chisel blade since the business end is what counts, but your design has me wondering about the methodology behind it.

Norman

comments on tang design

bill tindall

>We made some similar, but more ugly (at least mine were), chisels some time ago. They were designed to be pounded upon, for example dovetailing. There was much discussion as to whether the design would hold up as a pounding-upon chisel, compared to the traditional socket design which is impratical for most of us to fabricate.

It appears that what we did is similar to Frank's design. The tang is rectangular in shape and flat across the end, formed by sawing two retangular pieces from the edges of bar stock. Two attributes to this tang design led to sturdiness. Both the flat end of the untapered tang seated into the handle as well as the shoulders engaging the ferrule result in great impact resistance. I have wacked them vigorously with no ill results to the dogwood handles. In addition to being sturdy, this design is easy to fabricate.

Shown is a shallow sweep.

Re: comments on tang design

ThomD

>If you do something like the above, drill a nice sized hole, and fill it with epoxy, it is probably as stong as any other. You want a butch shank or it seems to buzz when you hit it.

I'm working on setting up for sockets, but so far the options aren't cheap.

Re: comments on tang design

Frank D. in Montreal

>Bill described the process well, I burned my handles in, it worked much better than I imagined and it's also, at least for me, much quicker than using epoxy (1 to 2 minutes per handle, no clean up, no mixing glue, and the hole sizes for the tang are not critical). The only problem I have with burning the tangs into the handles is drilling the pilot holes, since they are small the can wander with the blade. I left extra wood on the handles to compensate, but I lost one chisel because it was too crooked. Actually I didn't like it (it was a paring chisel) so I tested the strength of the tag where it meets the shoulder of the blade by trying to bend it into line instead of making a new handle. I thought that heating the tangs would draw enough temper to make them tougher, but I was wrong; after applying considerable prying force on my bench the tang just snapped. I could not apply this kind of sideways force on the tang while using the chisel with a mallet. I gave my chisels a spin with a mallet today and there seems to be no problem with rigidity.

I still have 5 more handles to finish on 5 chisels. On my BIG mortiser (5/16'', the blade is over 10'' long) I used a bolster. For heavy pounding the bolster just gives the shoulders of the blade more support and evens out the pressure on the handle. I don't think bolsters are necessary for anything but heavy chisels that are meant to be pounded over and over. Time will tell.