Chisels for all woodworkers

 Yes, in this case that you works mainly with or without power tools, you still need a few chisels.

How many and what kind??

Surprise!  

They also comes in a bewildering arrays of chisels types available :-)

A small selection shown.

Mortise chisels (3 different types), Goose neck chisel (to clean bottom of mortise), Paring chisel, Bevel Edge chisels, Firmer chisels, Hollow mortise chisel used as a corner clean up chisel, pair of Skew chisels.  And yes there are more types available.

But since we are talking about a small kit, 3 is probably all you will ever used, maybe even 2...

So lets pare out our "pile".  As for  which kind, the Bevel Edge (BE) chisels are by far the most versatile.

Firmers?  They look similar but have straight edges, versus a beveled edge on our BE.  It is fine for most operations except... when you need to get into tight or angled corners like between the pins of dovetails.  Being straight edges, they will bruised the shoulders of our pieces.  Bevel edges chisels are not all created equal, some have larger bevels, some have a thick or thin landing.

Thin landings are nice but they can also be easily "done" with some judicious grinding.

Caution too thin and you will cut your hands often on them.

From L-R

(Top) Remove Mortise chisels, Skew chisels, Firmer chisels. 

 (Bot) Left with Bevel edge chisels, 2 small piles, pick three chisels.

A quarter inch (1/4), Half inch (1/2) and a large one.  

This one is one inch and a half (1-1/2). 

Why these three?  Of these the 1/2 inch would probably be your most used.  You will need smaller and bigger at times.  The 1/4 in is small enough to go most everywhere, but if you need it, they make a 1/8 inch chisel.  The large one (1-1/2) is very handy to clean up large surfaces, think tenons, the walls of mortise etc.  The first time you used it, you will be wondering where it has been all your life :-)

OK, so now you got your three chisels and you are all set...?

 Not so fast, let's talk safety for a minute.

A dull chisel is a dangerous chisel.  If you don't already know, you have to learn how to sharpen. 

Think your chisel is sharp?  Test it on a piece of end grain pine. 

Not on a piece of paper or shavings hairs off your arm.  That's nice, but how does it cut soft end grain woods like pine??  Tearing or leaving a shiny, burnished face with no scratches?

Always keep both hands away from the cutting edge in use.  That mean in most chiseling operation, we used both hands on the chisel.  Hint, it afford more control and keep your hands away from danger :-)

Sometimes when you have small landings or practically none (Dovetail chisels) or after you initially flatten the back, the edges can becomes somewhat sharp and cut your hands in use (two hands on the chisel remember?) A quick pass with sand paper will fix that, but be aware of it, before you need Band-Aids :-)

Now a word for the chisel safety... 

Not all chisels are designed to be hit with a hammer, others are fine with a mallet, others should only be used by hands, no banging on them.  Examples Paring chisels, distinguished from the regular BE chisels by their longer blade and thin profile.  Often they used a socket to hold the removable handle.

To Bang or not to Bang...on your chisels

They way the chisel is attached to its handle is one big clue, the other is the end of the chisel handle. 

All of these have differences in construction that reflect their intended usage

These two have a plain turned or slightly relieved end.

These details are intended for hand uses mostly but can be used with a proper mallet.

Your typical every day chisel construction.

Tang extend inside handle for rigidity, a small bolster on the lower end of the tang is stopping the blade to get pushed in. There is a ferrule to re-enforce the fragile connection where most of the stress is.

Socket construction are considered one of the strongest.

The handle is push in tighter when hit.  These normally indicate a Heavy Duty chisel, but there are of course exceptions.  Delicate Paring chisel often are fitted with  socket.  Why? Because they have a longer blade, takes more room, take off the handle for storage.

NOTE because the handles can get loose, careful how you handle and store them.

Don't want to drop that sharp blade on the floor...

This truly HD beast of a Pigstick mortiser has a large bolster

NO protection on the top of the handle except for small chamfer.

Very important to make handle last longer,  And yes, the handle get damaged in use 

and is often replaced 

Sometimes they put a leather washer, either at the ferrule end as shown on left

Or on top.  The Stanley 750 has such a feature.  In both cases,

 the use of leather washers is to absorb some of the shock when hit.

The top end of the handle is also a good indicator.

The presence of  a ferrule on top indicate it can be expected to take hits

These more modern chisels have different plastic composition and don't have

 the traditional tang, bolster or socket. In fact they often have a combination of all three.

The red acetate handle  (MF Buck Rogers) has a metal cap.

Both will handle most everything, had my old Marples since 1987.

They last me that long ... 

Been hit with 16 oz hammer, 20 Oz framing hammer, rock, brick, wood you name it :-)

That socketed looking Marples is never coming apart.

BTW be weary of Irwin Record chisels, not at all the same as the older Record Marples.

No where near the quality, feel and action.

After you handled " A few" in your hands you will recognized them right away from a distance 

So what is the proper instrument to bang on them? Mallets.  Wood, metal, composition, square, round etc

Here are some types of mallets appropriate. From L-R CW

Two removable heads, one hard plastic (yellow) use that one.

Both round heads are Carvers mallets, works just as well on chisels, that small strange looking metal hammer is from a friend in Namibia and is quickly becoming a favorite. Then lastly the traditional joiner mallet

The safe way to use a chisel, without hurting yourself.

First listen to your Momma and don't run with a sharp chisel... :-)

Chopping.

Chopping is a no brainier, since one hand is driving the mallet, the other holding the chisel.  No where near the cutting edge.  Of course that imply that your work piece is well secured on something that can take the pounding action.  Think thick workbench top, or over a leg. 

When I am doing a series of cuts like for a mortise, 

I would be rotating my chisel 180 to have the bevel left or right of my cutting action.

Bench top is plenty thick and stout as is, but if I was doing heavy duty mortising, 

I would move my work by the vice, over the leg

Chopping by its very nature is rough work, next to clean up and refined our surfaces, we need paring or slicing cuts.

Paring, slicing

A lot of chisel operations are more of a paring action.  Sneaking up to our baseline. Cleaning up the saw fuzz, so the joint will close properly.  Micro adjust the fit of two pieces by judiciously paring away material. Making or cleaning an opening, closed ( Has a bottom) or open (Through cut).

This is where most accidents happened, because if both hands are not on your chisel.  One to guide, the other to push, you are going to invariably slip and cut your other hand who just happen to be in front of it.  Found it!! ( my other hand )   Anyone has a Band-Aid?? :-)

Here I am paring flat the bottom I excavated with the chisel

Slicing the corner to round it over.

Not much differences between paring or slicing.

But note that both my hands are occupied.

I cannot cut myself.

Notice also that during those operation, my hand holding the chisel blade as a guide is either resting on the wood and act as a swing point or I let the chisel slide between my fingers. You can now appreciate what I said about sharp edges on the blade sides.

Notice also that I have a giant head and small arms.  Must be true, I am a Dinosaur. 

Oh and I am wearing safety socks in the shop  :-)

You will be surprise how often it is easy to end up with one hand in front if not paying attention, just look around you in the Wood shop, or wrongly thinking that it is OK, I' ll just be careful...Wrong, get the Band-Aids I'll wait for you :-)

Want to learn to use your chisel?  Try the Gottshall  block chisel exercise.  

It's an exercise in layout and chisels operations.  Yes, even the round cuts are made with the chisel.  

Here is a video on how the exercise is done ( a bit long, about 1 hour)

Here is another version broken down into smaller parts easier to digest, with another woodworker, Chuck Bender.  The whole idea is to practice your types of cuts.

Pay attention to his hands position while using the chisels throughout 

Bench chisel exercise Part 1 Chopping

Bench chisel exercise Part 2 Paring cuts

Bench chisel exercise Part 3 Slicing cuts

Bench chisel exercise Part 4 Simple diamond inlay

Lastly, you worked hard to get them sharp, protect their edges in storage to keep them like that ready to work.  And NO they are not can openers and you cannot borrow mine, sorry

Next up, Plane and simple...

Bob, the old Dinosaur tool guy

  

A chisel, a jeweler drill and a surform blade

Continuing in my series:

A few small tools

Wood Chisel

That little chisel spoke to me from a distance, its overall shape was saying, I'm Swedish.

And sure enough it is stamped ESTEEL Sweeden.

Swedish chisels (and scrapers and saws plate and etc) are prized for their steel.

There are various steels around the world named from their origins: Sheffield England, Soligen Germany etc, the differences being in the alloy and the quality of the iron ore used. 

Fun fact Sheffield England steel contain Swedish iron ore.

The resulting steel properties are what make the difference in how sharp and edge you can raise and how tough and resilient that edge would be.  Too soft it sharpen fast but does not keep a sharp edge long.  To hard, hard to sharpen and edge break easily.  It is a balancing act.

Swedish chisels have a well deserved reputation for being excellent performer in that regard.

some rust spot mostly where stamped

Bit of a label left

but unable to read much??

1/4 inch chisel

about 8-1/2 in long

ESTEEL SWEEDEN

all cleaned up.

The edge, as found is sharp, it cuts.

Oh, need a good touch up to bring it up to my standards but well care for that one

Archidemes, Archimedean drill, Double spiral drill, Jeweler drill, Push drill  

All these names described essentially the same tool.

They all have a double twist spiral on a central shaft.  Pushing down/up a bobbin or a side handle cause the drilling implement to rotate CW on the down push and CCW on the return pull.

They came in various forms, some with some sort of weight to give it spinning momentum.

Some variations of the tool

Notice the early spear head bits

Pic from Dictionary of woodworking tools by RA Salaman

The smallest ones, never had them, flywheel or side handle. These would be the jeweler types, such as I found.

From Top to Bottom

Craftsman (Millers-Falls) push drill, fully enclosed mechanism

The one I found, now cleaned up.  Driven by the bobbin.

My previous jeweler drill, a miniature push drill

The driving bobbin is simply kerf in each corner (metal insert) to let the rod twist 

when bobbin is pushed down or reverse when pull up.

The indent in the bobbin would allow the use of a small bow to drive it.

Incidentally the Bow drill is considered one of the more ancient drilling tool, 

the pump drill coming after.

The rod at the top is secured by a screw in nut cover which thread over the captive metal threaded receptacle

Taken apart, notice the nice pointy and shiny end to the rod

That crimp ring retain the nut captive

As far as the nut will go.

The pointy end serve as a friction bearing, just metal on metal contact, 

hence why so shiny :-)

Put in a dab of grease on reassembly.

The business end has a small mandrel 

which seems to be lead soldered to the shaft (?)

The jaw fully close

De-rusted, cleaned, lubricated, works like a charm ??

Hold on, they can be tricky to use for the un-initiated.

Let me explain.

Unlike today's drilling implement which always rotate in the same direction (FWD or REV) on some power tools, these push drills rotate one direction, then reverse direction, while you are still maintaining cutting pressure, but nothing seems to be happening fast...why??

Wrong drilling implement is the most glaring reason, they can cut pretty fast with the right dill bit, in the right material.  NOT necessarily wood!!

First question is, what size bits will it take.

5/64 fits well, next size up I have is 3/32 (6/64) barely fit, tight, not forcing it.

Too small to take my 5/64 push drills Z bits

Because the cutting action can happens in both directions (FWD & REV) a normal twist metal drill such as I have chucked in, is not very efficient.  Ever try to drill with your power drill in reverse?  Not very good is it ?? :-)

Some of the original drill bits would had been spear head,

This 19 century brace bit is a modified form of the ancestral spear bit

The opposite angled groove on each side, makes it cut with 

 more of a shearing action than a scrapping action.

This bit was marketed as a countersink bit for soft metal and iron objects, 

accommodate 90 degree taper screw heads.

and later superseded by more efficient implements: Enter the Gouge bits or the more modern Z bits especially designed for push drills.

More modern Z bits for push drills.

Later Stanley would replace those and supply regular twist drill bit on a Yankee shaft.

A good indication that by then they were not the hand tool powerhouse they once were 

and forgot everything they used to know about tools :-(

The differences, they both cut in both directions, as opposed to the spear bit which is more of a scrapper action.  The spear bit is probably one of the most ancient drill implement.

If you only used a push drill with the ubiquitous metal twist drill bit, you have no idea how well and quickly this thing can drill.

Top, bigger hole drilled quickly with a Z bit.  Had to stop before I drill through :-)

The other hole, with metal twist bit used in the bobbin driven jeweler drill, did cut, but a lot slower, and nowhere as deep with roughly the same amount of driving forces.  

I would had run out of juice before I went thru that pine...

There is the Z bit secret. Two cutting edges, one for each directions.  

YES, that push drill is secured in the newly restored Starrett vise, and NO I am not worry about marring or scratching it.  Does not take much force to grip it securely, its a Starrett :-) 

And I can see the start of rust on my drill chuck.  Damn you rust, don't you ever sleep?? :-)

And finally in comparison, the other smaller jeweler drill.

with the same drill bit used in the bigger jeweler drill.

It barely made a scratch...

Why is that? It is not designed to drill wood but rather thin composite, plastic, metals and etc.  

I used it a lot to drill my own PCBs back in the days, for which a regular twist drill is fine, and even a nail would work (acting like a spear bit).  But you do not have the rotational forces nor can put on as much down pressure to it compared to the bigger jeweler drill which managed thru the wood, albeit nowhere as efficiently as the Z bit.

Of course they are limitations on how small a gouge or Z bit you can make...

One last thing, do not confuse these double spiral drills with the more common Yankeee Automatic screwdrivers.  They both works similarly, pushing down cause rotation, except a screwdriver does not rotate on the up stroke, otherwise you will be screwing and unscrewing.  You have to reverse a mechanism to unscrew.  Biggest tell tale are the spirals on both tools.  Henceforth not all bits found to fit your spiral drill are drilling implements.

STANLEY Surform blade

One of the most exciting  for me was perhaps, the less expensive of the pieces I picked up.

An original Stanley Canada Surform blade still in its original cellophane wrapper.

How old is it?  We have a few clues on the package

Stanley operated the Canadian branch at Roxton Pond from 1907-1984

Pat No shown is 2769225  awarded Nov 1956.

That Patent makes it just about as old as I am :-)

Well preserved for its age, just like me :-)

Original price sticker from Simpson's store

Was Robert Simpson, Simpson, Simpson-Sears, Sears Canada.

The price Cdn $1.70 sounds like late 60s

That one is staying put inside its cellophane wrapper, as is :-)

Bob, running out of rusty implements?? Have no fear !! :-)

Day two on the Hall table

Last nite, I sneaked back into the shop and put more tool holders up on the wall.
These holders I made years ago for a previous shop, but I kept them.  I had them modified in another shop to be held on my pegboards, by screwing L hooks into the back, spaced for the pegboards.
On the holder for my scraper burnishers, I removed the hooks in the back then screwed it on the side of my plane till, using its original screw holes.

Had to remove a few things on the till side to install it

For another to hold chisels, screwdrivers and etc, I left the hooks then tried just drilling two holes in the wallboard. Then I just rotated the holder as if it was thru pegboard. Took some finagling, but that worked.  It did not took long to load it.

Add a picture with a led flashing candle and a carving

and we are done :-)

Back to the hall table, first order of business was to cleaned up last nite mortise walls then checked for squareness before fine tuning my dummy tenon blank to fit.

Problem was, took me a while to find were I put that small Veritas square, which is just the right tool to check for squareness.  Looking for it, I of course came across many tools which I took back with me for storing in my tills, which also meant cleaning up the small joiner chest, so it could close, and...

Did some clean up in there, it was overflowing

And now that the cover close, you just knew 

it was begging for something to be put on top :-)

Opened up the spokeshave tray to find, 

and round up a few more of my spare blades.

Still no sign of that gauge... but...

Found the other part of my Veritas small plow, which I have yet

 to put back together  after its modifications at the factory.

Ok, finally found the tool, got my walls quickly cleaned up using a large  1-1/2 inch bevel edge chisel, then using my Veritas 1/2 inch measuring block, I made sure I had a good fit.

Found it...

Squaring the ends of the mortise were easily accomplished using a block of wood clamped on my line.  Then it is just a few taps with the1/2 inch chisel to do it.

Once satisfied, I then trimmed my dummy tenon plug, made sure it went deep enough, and repeat same mortising operation as before. I trimmed my dummy plug a bit narrower than the mortise length, so I could wiggle it out without damaging my walls

Dummy plug in place, ready to mortise from the other side

It would be easier if the dummy tenon plug was a different colour than the wood I am mortising.

You can just make out the dummy plug peeking thru

A little while later, I had two legs done (8 mortises) and a new mess on my bench to clean up.

Now what did I do with my other leg blanks??

These are the tools I used for my mortise layout and checks for squareness after. 

I did a quick sand and strop on my 1/2 inch chisel, what I'm doing with it, is murder on the edge :-)

The first time I reach in for a tool in there the carving fell off, 

then I knocked over the picture. Both are banned from that spot

I stop there, and finished putting away a few more things I dragged out, looking for that square earlier.

 First order of business was to lower my mallets holder, it is too close to the Boring till

Before, my bigger mallet does not fit anymore, this is the small guy

After, more than enough room

I think I may have to look for more holders somewhere :-)

My two legs are joined together with the dummy tenon plug

Bob, who should have his tenons done next time... whenever that would be
IF I find my leg blanks.. a suivre.