Straightening chisel tang?

Re: Straightening chisel tang?

Warren in Lancaster, PA

Oskar, often the tang (the part inside the handle) is not lined up with the rest of the chisel. With a tapered octagonal handle we can make the handle somewhat over sized and gradually adjust the hole as we are reaming it out to compensate. Then we can finish up the handle so it tapers to near the bolster of the chisel.

It looks like your chisel is bent in the neck, which is a bigger problem. You can probably help partially by making a compensating handle. I have had two chisels that I straightened with hammer or mallet. One of them bent repeatedly and eventually cracked and broke when I straightened it. You don't know the history of the chisel, whether it has been straightened before.

A fine blacksmith might be able to fix it, but I would be inclined to leave it until you have another chisel that could replace it in the event you lose it.

sage advice

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

but I would be inclined to leave it

I snapped one straightening it at the neck. Turned out it was hard there. A stroke of a file would have told me this fact but I didn't know at the time.

i will tell you what I'd do, but it doesn't...

David Weaver

...mean it will be what you'd do.

I would polish/sand a small bright area in two spots on the tang,

hold the business end of the chisel with a wet rag and heat the tang area until it is just a medium brown with intermittent heat from a torch and then tap it or bend it slightly.

Brown is about the point where metal becomes agreeable but it's not spring.

At that point. I'd tap it with a metal hammer until it's straight.

BUT, I don't think you need to do it at all unless it gets worse.

(this process would also involve removing the handle).

The reason that I prefer hammering is that you end up hammering the metal flat. When you bend metal, sometimes it just ends up being wonky in a different way than it started.

Re: Straightening chisel tang?

Wiley Horne

What Warren said. Make the adjustment to the handle, not the tang.

Wiley

I’d do the same as David suggests. Heat and beat

Re: Straightening chisel tang?

Oskar

Thanks Warren,

indeed, I expect to correct the handle for an offset tang in any case (even if I manage to straighten it out). Good point on the history of the chisel, might of course have been bent repeatedly before fatiguing the metal.

Re: sage advice

Oskar

Thanks for the answer Bill, will check with a file. Since one can see the end of the steel bit on the back of the chisel, I expect the neck to be something softer than the edge steel.

Re: i will tell you what I'd do, but it doesn't...

Oskar

Thanks Dave for the method description. Does your method change, if the neck is not tool steel, but something softer? From the back I would say the tool steel is only first inch or so, at the laminated business end.

Would also hammer rather than bend for that reason.

Re: Straightening chisel tang?

Oskar

thanks Wiley!

Re: I’d do the same as David suggests. Heat and

Oskar

thanks Derek!

not a qualified opinion..

David Weaver

..i have hammered a fair amount of spring steel and tool steel - it benefits some from warmth (saws don't usually need it).

I would heat the neck of the chisel a little bit because as far as I know, even mild steel is more malleable with a little bit of heat, but my comment about brown color doesn't matter as much as that's really about the temperature where tool steel retains decent hardness but doesn't break easily.

I don't like to make chisels that soft, and I've had some separate after hardening and tempering (when I straighten the filed bevel type)

Re: not a qualified opinion..

Oskar

Thanks David,

will have to put a file to the neck and see how soft it is. Then try with a little heat as I remove the handle and make a new one.

Re: Straightening chisel tang?

Oskar

to end this story, I´d like to post the finished chisel.

Took a file to the tang, which proved to be soft. Then, before heating I thought I try a few light blows with a hammer, while chisel was lying on my chopping block. It took nothing to remove the light bend, and felt like low risk of snapping.

Removed the old handle and made a new octagonal barrel shape out of pear wood. The ring is an old forged one from another chisel. Finished with linseed oil and wax.

Re: Straightening chisel tang?

David Weaver

Looks good! If the tang is annealed, it can definitely be hammer adjusted a little without issue.

Re: Straightening chisel tang?

Oskar

thank you David!