Gentle Galoots,

SWMBO purchased a 1/2" firmer chisel (so side bevels) for me at a garage
sale a few weeks ago and was so elated that she found old tools and I
struck out at the MJD auction I did not have the heart to tell her it was
bent. The bend is about 4 degrees, so it is significant enough that I
cannot use it in its current state. Since SWMBO was so proud of this chisel
she has asked about it a couple of times, and I have told her it needs
sharpening before I can use it to put off her inquiries.
Is it worth trying to straighten this out, or do I fake her out by letting
her see me using another chisel that looks a lot like the bent one? It is a
nice gentle sweeping bend (probably used as a pry bar or a vain attempt at
mortising) and is marked on the socket, but I have not cleaned it up enough
to recognize the mark yet.

Thank you all for the help and advice,

Gary Maze

Whos has finally gotten his saw bench to a usable point.

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Why straighten it at all? I have a few chisels in similar straights (Pun
alert), and haven't found them to be any problem for use. I will note that I
don't use them as paring chisels, but for morticing, I just correct for the
bend as I chop.. From your description, I'm guessing that the bend is upward
- meaning that if the chisel was sitting on a flat bench, edge side down,
the contact points would be the cutting edge and some point towards the
handle....

If you do decide to attempt to straighten it, I'd soften it, then straighten
it, then temper and aneal it.....

Good luck, and let us know....

Thanks
-_JD

-----Original Message-----
From: oldtools-bounces@r...
[mailto:oldtools-bounces@r...] On Behalf Of
gmaze@s...
Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2006 9:39 AM
To: oldtools@r...
Subject: [OldTools] Bent chisel

Gentle Galoots,

SWMBO purchased a 1/2" firmer chisel (so side bevels) for me at a garage
sale a few weeks ago and was so elated that she found old tools and I
struck out at the MJD auction I did not have the heart to tell her it was
bent. The bend is about 4 degrees, so it is significant enough that I
cannot use it in its current state. Since SWMBO was so proud of this chisel
she has asked about it a couple of times, and I have told her it needs
sharpening before I can use it to put off her inquiries.
Is it worth trying to straighten this out, or do I fake her out by letting
her see me using another chisel that looks a lot like the bent one? It is a
nice gentle sweeping bend (probably used as a pry bar or a vain attempt at
mortising) and is marked on the socket, but I have not cleaned it up enough
to recognize the mark yet.

Thank you all for the help and advice,

Gary Maze

Whos has finally gotten his saw bench to a usable point.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gary Maze speaks of bent chisels:

If it cannot be straightened, what matter? You have just invented
the compass parer! You could sell it on *bay, but there you would
have to call it a slick. All socket chisels on the bay are called 
slicks.

And all are very rare!

Whatever you do you must encourage SWMBO to continue to purchase
tools for you. Hide them at once, explain that you are cleaning them up.

Take them out later and show her.

It's amazing how with a a month or so of time and bit o spit 'n polish
a rusty ol' 78 can look like a minty 46!

David C
________________________________________________________________________
Check out the new AOL.  Most comprehensive set of free safety and 
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------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi, Gary -

Not to put too fine a point on it - - you've a touchy dilemma.  Allow 
me this, since you know in your heart that it must somehow be salvaged:

You might be able to make a perfectly good paring chisel of it were 
you to simply flatten the back on a belt sander (blasphemy! ... but 
it works and is fast.)  That would make it thinner but still useful 
were you to use a 15-20 degree bevel and reserve it for the very 
special task of paring by hand.  It's actually a "special" 
configuration for a specialized tool, and the conversion might make 
happy campers of you both.

Keep yer tote tight,

---John
------------------------------------------------------
JWPopp "Poppajohn" (jwpopp@p...)

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At 9:39 AM -0500 11/1/06, gmaze@s... wrote:
> The bend is about 4 degrees

At this point, what can it hurt to get out a hammer and anvil? I've
coaxed a couple of chisels back into a condition approximately
straight...

Craig

------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Nov 1, 2006, at 5:05 PM, Craig Treleaven wrote:

> At 9:39 AM -0500 11/1/06, gmaze@s... wrote:
>> The bend is about 4 degrees
>
> At this point, what can it hurt to get out a hammer and anvil?   
> I've coaxed a couple of chisels back into a condition approximately  
> straight...

I strongly recommend against this unless you soften the steel first,  
then re-temper it after it is straight. One day not too long ago I  
wanted to remove a handle from a socket chisel. I held the end of the  
chisel in my fingers and slapped the handle against the table. The  
chisel snapped in half. And it was a VERY nice chisel. It is now half  
as long as it was when I got it.

Jim Thompson, the old millrat in Riverside, CA.

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