Have quite a few very old Buck Bros and Chas Buck chisels. A hodge podge of
handles. Turning a uniform set of handles is on my to do list. I love curly
maple and have quite a bit of it. Anybody use it for chisels?  Comments?

Ron-

Lie-Nielsen seems to have a preference for curly maple for some tool
handles-
http://www.lie-nielsen.com/images/products/preview/1-sd-
set.jpg">http://www.lie-nielsen.com/images/products/preview/1-sd-set.jpg

But use hornbeam for their chisels-
http://www.lie-nielsen.com
/chisel-handles/

FWIW-
Phil


On Tue, Aug 26, 2014 at 8:28 AM, Gary Katsanis 
wrote:

> Maple is usually fairly hard, which is good for handles and allows for a
> smooth
> finish.  Maple can be brittle, but the twists in the curly grain usually
> hold it together.
>
> If I wanted a maple handle for impact use, I would insure that it has
> curly grain
> throughout to avoid splitting.  Jim Thompson got where he is with handles
> by
> making a ton of them.
>
> Make your handles.  Make mistakes, make better handles, and use up all that
> maple!! Then come back and teach us all.
>
> Gary Katsanis
> Albion NY, USA
> (Hoping to learn from others' mistakes as I won't live long enough to make
> all those mistakes myself.)
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject:        [OldTools] Curly Maple for chisel handles
> From:   Ron Harper 
>
>
> Have quite a few very old Buck Bros and Chas Buck chisels. A hodge podge
> of handles.
>  Turning a uniform set of handles is on my to do list. I love curly maple
> and have quite a
> bit of it. Anybody use it for chisels? Comments?
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> OldTools is a mailing list catering to the interests of hand tool
> aficionados, both collectors and users, to discuss the history, usage,
> value, location, availability, collectibility, and restoration of
> traditional handtools, especially woodworking tools.
>
> To change your subscription options:
> http://rucku
s.law.cornell.edu/mailman/listinfo/oldtools
>
> To read the FAQ:
> http://swingleydev.com/archi
ve/faq.html
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> OldTools archive: http://swingleydev.com/archive/">http://swingleydev.com/archive/
>
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> http://rucku
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>

What are you going to do with the chisels?
Curly maple will be delicious for moderate duty.

If you plan to pound the things with a circus beetle, you better go for 
something else.

You sure about that uniform handle lineup?
Last chance.
Most people I see in uniforms would give a dollar two fifty to be shed 
of it.
   Not all people. Some do love them.
  But most people would be deliriously happy to just change clothes.
      yours Scott

-- 
*******************************
    Scott Grandstaff
    Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca  96039
    scottg@s...
    http://www.snowcrest.n
et/kitty/sgrandstaff/
    http://www.snowcr
est.net/kitty/hpages/index.html



-----
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Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2014.0.4745 / Virus Database: 4007/8100 - Release Date: 08/25/14

On 8/26/2014 12:18 PM, scott grandstaff wrote:
> You sure about that uniform handle lineup?
> Last chance.
> Most people I see in uniforms would give a dollar two fifty to be shed 
> of it.
>   Not all people. Some do love them.
>  But most people would be deliriously happy to just change clothes. 

Scott: So is it fair to say that if you want all of your chisels to have 
the same handles, you don't have enough chisels?

OTOH, maybe it would be good to have all the same handle shape, but 
stained and finished differently - or would that be too Ikea?

Don, who tends toward Scott's view on this, despite anal tendencies

like this?
http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/hometools/chizracks
3.jpg">http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/hometools/chizracks3.
jpg

On top of everything else, I am lazy. I don't want to have to look at 
whats what.
  When they are all different you are never unsure.

Hey I just now noticed I still have a "dog" in the rack!
   I forgot about that. I guess it's just a trial chisel, still has a 
lame factory handle in it.

   I always try out a chisel for a while before I accept it and own it 
for real.
   No type or brand really makes much difference to me.  The guys who 
made them made tons of chisels, and nobody bats 1000. You got good, 
great and dogs coming out of any factory, on any day of the week, 
anywhere in the world, at any time in history. Its a factory.

   Well some of them make a disproportionate share of dogs, but I'll 
skip that.

  So, I want the particular chisel that works good for me.
     So I have to try it out a while.

  Then if its good I'll polish it out and make a handle and keep it for 
my own.
  If I just don't like it for any reason, I'll try out another candidate 
in the same size.
(it happens)
    yours Scott

-- 
*******************************
    Scott Grandstaff
    Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca  96039
    scottg@s...
    http://www.snowcrest.n
et/kitty/sgrandstaff/
    http://www.snowcr
est.net/kitty/hpages/index.html



-----
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Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2014.0.4745 / Virus Database: 4007/8100 - Release Date: 08/25/14

GG's:

Scott's chisel rack does not have the major drawback of other rack designs in
that it can safely hold both socket and tang chisels.
 
Socket chisels should never be stored in a rack where they are hanging by their
handles ! If the humidity drops, so will your precious polished and sharpened
chisel blades!
 
John Ruth
Who, thankfully, did not have to learn this the hard way.
 
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ron asks about handles...

On 26 Aug 2014, at 17:02, Ron Harper wrote:

> Have quite a few very old Buck Bros and Chas Buck chisels. A hodge podge of
> handles. Turning a uniform set of handles is on my to do list. I love curly
> maple and have quite a bit of it. Anybody use it for chisels?  Comments?


What do you use them for, fist off - if you intend pounding on them with a
mallet, then use the traditional, interlocked grain timbers.  Ash, or hickory or
hornbeam.

If you are using them for paring, hand held or with mild persuasion from a small
malet, then use what you like.



Then - what are they - carving tools you may want to be distinguished by touch,
so your eyes stay on the work, and you reach for the chisel, knowing which you
have by its feel. Or if you have to glance, the colour and shape tells you at
once.

I have a set of Pfeil carving gouges, handles all identical, apart from the
markings.  As you work, you have to look at the working end to decide which is
which, or read the marking.

Traditionally of course, carving tools are placed into the roll handle first, so
the sharp ends are out and you can see which is which.


So the answer is - do what you want! 


Enjoy! 



Richard Wilson
Yorkshireman Galoot
in Northumberland

I have just about completed the replacement of all my chisel handles. In the
beginning... well...

I had a bunch of beautiful apricot wood, and I used it to make a mess of
identical handles. That got really boring. And, after 10 or more years, all but
a few of them cracked. So I decided to go for all the beauty I could muster.
Many different woods, white, red, purple, brown, etc,. but just one style.
Schlagring handles. I like this better, and I won't get bored with the
uniformity. I haven't had time to take pictures of all of them yet, but here is
what I have so far.

https://plus.google.com/photos/102358420595488787966/albums/60426466884
33909009">https://plus.google.com/photos/102358420595488787966/albums/6042646688
433909009


On Aug 26, 2014, at 9:28 AM, Gary Katsanis  wrote:

> Maple is usually fairly hard, which is good for handles and allows for a
smooth
> finish.  Maple can be brittle, but the twists in the curly grain usually hold
it together.
> 
> If I wanted a maple handle for impact use, I would insure that it has curly
grain
> throughout to avoid splitting.  Jim Thompson got where he is with handles by
> making a ton of them.
> 
> Make your handles.  Make mistakes, make better handles, and use up all that
> maple!! Then come back and teach us all.
> 
> Gary Katsanis
> Albion NY, USA
> (Hoping to learn from others' mistakes as I won't live long enough to make
> all those mistakes myself.)
> 
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: 	[OldTools] Curly Maple for chisel handles
> From: 	Ron Harper 
> 
> 
> Have quite a few very old Buck Bros and Chas Buck chisels. A hodge podge of
handles.
> Turning a uniform set of handles is on my to do list. I love curly maple and
have quite a
> bit of it. Anybody use it for chisels? Comments?
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> OldTools is a mailing list catering to the interests of hand tool
> aficionados, both collectors and users, to discuss the history, usage,
> value, location, availability, collectibility, and restoration of
> traditional handtools, especially woodworking tools.
> 
> To change your subscription options:
> http://rucku
s.law.cornell.edu/mailman/listinfo/oldtools
> 
> To read the FAQ:
> http://swingleydev.com/archi
ve/faq.html
> 
> OldTools archive: http://swingleydev.com/archive/">http://swingleydev.com/archive/
> 
> OldTools@r...
> http://rucku
s.law.cornell.edu/mailman/listinfo/oldtools

My favorite pig sticker mortise chisel came with a tiger stripe maple
handle.  It looks like in the long long ago a chip came off but that area
has the same patina as the rest of the handle.

I like to use a Japanese timber framing mallet when mortising and this
handle had stood up to many hours of severe beatings without showing any
effect.

I do concur with every chisel having a district handle to make putting it
in hand easy.

Don Williams has some neat info that will be in his Studly tool chest book
about chisel handles.  I don't know if I can share what he told me and I
don't want to be rude.

Bob

Ron Harper wrote:
"Have quite a few very old Buck Bros and Chas Buck chisels. A hodge podge of
handles. Turning a uniform set of handles is on my to do list. I love curly
maple and have quite a bit of it. Anybody use it for chisels?  Comments?"

Hi, Ron, 


In general I prefer harlequin sets, different makers and different handles, but
I'm not rabid about it. I've been trying so assemble a set of Buck butt chisels
for four or five years now, so I've given some thought to the issues.

Are your blades uniform enough to constitute a set? Not just maker (by the way,
I too am happy with cast steel Buck Bros. and Charles Buck chisels in the same
set), but style (square edge vs. bevel edge and tang vs. socket), blade length
within reasonable limits, say plus or minus a quarter inch or else a regular
increase in length with increase in width or possibly vise versa)and age (all
noble cast steel period or all degraded modern blades that aren't cast steel).
Do you have all the sizes in a reasonable progression? (all by eights or all by
sixteenths or all by quarters, or a traditional set with smaller gaps in the
smaller widths and larger in the larger widths). Do you have them over a
reasonable range of widths? Are some of the hodge podge handles original Buck
handles, or are they all replacements? are some of them good, handsome working
handles taken by themselves? In short: when you have finished the effort of
making uniform handles, will you
 still have a hodge podge of Buck chisels?


I had/have four NOS Best London Octagonal boxwood chisel handles in a size
comfortable for my hand, and a few years ago I chanced into Buck square edged
tanged blades with about 4" of blade remaining, in 3/4", 7/8", and 1-1/4". They
go together very nicely, and I will have a very nice set someday, I hope. I will
have to decide on the wood to use for additional handles, and that preyed on my
mind for a bit. Only--- I've been looking for at least four years, for dogsmeat
chisels I can improve rather than good chisels that don't need work, and I
haven't yet filled in any of the missing sizes, not even the 5/8" or the 1". It
may be a while before I have to face the problem of what wood to use to fill out
a boxwood set.


Of course, it wouldn't be that hard to fill the set if I were willing to ride
roughshod and also to spend significant money. I used to work for a man who
decided that he wanted a set of good chisels, and settled on long Witherbys.
Bought individual chisels on eBay. When he had the commoner sizes filled in he
found he had to buy mixed batches to get the one Witherby he wanted in the
batch, and threw all the others into a "trash chisels" box. Bought a belt sander
to flatten the backs and sharpen, and learned to use it by practicing on the
"trash" chisels. Destroyed a lot in the process, and didn't care: they weren't
Witherbys. Bought a mini-lathe with a duplicating attachment so that he could
make uniform handles, though last I heard he hadn't made the handles yet. At one
point he gave me a box full of "trash" chisels that he didn't consider even good
enough to practice sharpening; God knows what he destroyed and threw out,
because the twenty or thirty
 good chisels in what he gave me (some were indeed genuine trash) included Buck
(that's where I got one of my potential set), W. Butcher, Pexto, Stiletto, old
Stanley, and I forget what-all. Bit by bit I turned most of them into good,
sometimes eccentric, tools: I made several with extra-short palm handles like
engraving tools, a pair of short 3/8" skews, a special chisel for opening out
tight wooden screws (that had a foot-long handle to brace in the hollow of the
shoulder), and a bunch of plain-Jane spares. Anyway, I want to fill in my set of
Bucks by bringing chisels back from the grave. Battered ones, corroded ones,
short ones. Cheap ones. Real bottom-feeder, me.


Back to the point: You might want to get your hodgepodge Bucks to a state of
uniform set in blades before you make decisions about uniform handles. Or maybe
not. I'm not saying good or bad about anything her, just pointing to different
options.

Tom Conroy
Berkeley

I have several sets of chisels.  The oldest set (the one I've had the 
longest)
is the one I use at Sutter's Fort.  Mostly Butcher, Buck Bros, and 
Barton.  All
cast steel.  The tanged chisels get octagon handles per the 
illustrations in
Aldren's Country Furniture.  I like the octagons because they don't like 
to roll
and the flats let me know how the blade is angled.  The eldest of these 
I gave
an ash handle, and it's held up to 40 years of service.  These run from 
1/4 inch
to a full two inches wide, all square edged.  The socket chisels mostly 
have
decent original handles.

For Civil War I have a set of heavy socketed firmer and framing chisels, 
all
socketed.  These all got new handles that I turned out of ash, 
duplicating an
original handle I have.  Since these would have been all issued by the 
Ordnance
Dept, they need to look like a set.

A few years ago, it looked like all my chisels had been stolen. Most of 
my
blacksmithing hand tools as well.  I pretty much freaked.  SWMBO dropped 
me
off at a reenactment, and when she picked me up at the end of the event,
she handed me a box.  She had found an antique store and had bought me a
bunch of chisels -- a big bunch.  Some Buck Bros, some Bartons, a couple
of Butchers and a lot of Stanleys and Pextos, and one Sandvik marked
Stiletto butt chisel.

All the Bs were set aside for Sutter's Fort use.  Well, they're ones I 
can
use there, but they work in between times, too.  The rest are all good 
tools
that work in the shop.  All totaled up, there's well over a hundred 
chisels.

What sits out on my bench is a small group of Swedish (Sandvik, Berg) 
chisels
that I've learned to trust for quality, from 1/8 inch to three full 1 
inch.
One has a trash handle and that one will get replaced in time with a 
birch
handle to match the rest.  Eventually.

The ash handles are sturdy and take a lot of abuse.  So that's my 
standard
handle material.  The first one I made from part of a broken hoe handle 
from
one of my grandfather's tools.  Worked fine, so I pick up broken ash 
handles
mostly for nothing to use as stock.

This is a place where I diverge in taste from Scott.  The fanciest 
handles
I have on chisels are the beer barrel handles on the socket chisels I
have for Civil War events.  For the rest, I just want what looks like a
typical workman's bunch of chisels.

Cast steel?  Nothing like it for dependable, hard, and tough.  If I read
cast steel on a tool, it comes home with me.  Extra points if it's 
marked
D.R. Barton, W. Butcher, Buck, or Buck Bros.

Oh, and the chisels and blacksmith tools (some of which I had replaced 
at
the same antique store) turned up.  Somebody had moved them to a dark 
corner
of the basement where they were stored.

Mike in Sacto

Mike- I, too, use ash for chisel handles.  Broken shovel handles provide my
source for raw material.I wish that youth baseball teams still used wooden bats.
But aluminum seems to be the bat of choice in the 21st century.  I wish that
hickory was available to me from a common broken household item.  I've also
heard that hornbeam was a good wood for handles but I've never seen a piece here
in the desert.  Recently I've come across a large supply of mesquite and have
been using that wood for handles.  I like working with the mesquite.  The dark
color makes it easy to tell one group/set from another.For chisels or carving
tools that I know won't get struck then pretty is the wood choice.  I'll
usewhatever scrap I have handy and want to use up.chuck
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chuck wrote:  "I wish that youth baseball teams still used wooden bats. "
 I've used a few old bats to make handles and other items.  The wood is
usually very good for that purpose.  I am like Chuck, wooden bats are
becoming a bit scarce.  At one point, I had the idea to go buy wooden bats
whenever I came across them at flea markets, thrift stores or junk shops.
 Unfortunately, most places around my area seem to have come to believe
that wooden bats are worth a mint.  If I see one for $1-$5 I generally buy
them, but most places seem to want $10+ for them these days.  I've made
some from old shovel handles as well.  In my area, shovel handles are
mostly made of hickory (at least that is what the labels say).

Doc



On Thu, Aug 28, 2014 at 7:33 AM, Chuck Ramsey  wrote:

>
>
> Mike- I, too, use ash for chisel handles.  Broken shovel handles provide
> my source for raw material.I wish that youth baseball teams still used
> wooden bats.  But aluminum seems to be the bat of choice in the 21st
> century.  I wish that hickory was available to me from a common broken
> household item.  I've also heard that hornbeam was a good wood for handles
> but I've never seen a piece here in the desert.  Recently I've come across
> a large supply of mesquite and have been using that wood for handles.  I
> like working with the mesquite.  The dark color makes it easy to tell one
> group/set from another.For chisels or carving tools that I know won't get
> struck then pretty is the wood choice.  I'll usewhatever scrap I have handy
> and want to use up.chuck
>  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> OldTools is a mailing list catering to the interests of hand tool
> aficionados, both collectors and users, to discuss the history, usage,
> value, location, availability, collectibility, and restoration of
> traditional handtools, especially woodworking tools.
>
> To change your subscription options:
> http://rucku
s.law.cornell.edu/mailman/listinfo/oldtools
>
> To read the FAQ:
> http://swingleydev.com/archi
ve/faq.html
>
> OldTools archive: http://swingleydev.com/archive/">http://swingleydev.com/archive/
>
> OldTools@r...
> http://rucku
s.law.cornell.edu/mailman/listinfo/oldtools
>



-- 
John Holladay
DocHolladay0820@g...
205-229-8484

Chuck and Galoots,

I work for a railroad track contractor and have a never ending supply of raw
material for chisel handles.  Depending on exactly what we are doing we may go
through 2-3 dozen hickory spike maul (10 lb. sledge hammer) handles a week.
They aren't really big enough for anything else but yield 2-3 chisel handle per
broken handle.

If there are any track contractors in your area, I'd guess they would be willing
to give you as many broken handles as you'd want.  I'm not sure they are worth
the postage but I would be happy to ship some to anyone who wants them if you
will cover the postage.


Jim Crammond in Monroe, Michigan



On Thursday, August 28, 2014 8:33 AM, Chuck Ramsey  wrote:
 




Mike- I, too, use ash for chisel handles.  Broken shovel handles provide my
source for raw material.I wish that youth baseball teams still used wooden bats.
But aluminum seems to be the bat of choice in the 21st century.  I wish that
hickory was available to me from a common broken household item.  I've also
heard that hornbeam was a good wood for handles but I've never seen a piece here
in the desert.  Recently I've come across a large supply of mesquite and have
been using that wood for handles.  I like working with the mesquite.  The dark
color makes it easy to tell one group/set from another.For chisels or carving
tools that I know won't get struck then pretty is the wood choice.  I'll
usewhatever scrap I have handy and want to use up.chuck
------------------------------------------------------------------------