OldTools Archive
Recent | Bios | FAQ |
250179 | Ron Harper <kokomorontoo@g...> | 2014‑08‑26 | Curly Maple for chisel handles |
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? |
|||
250181 | Phil Schempf <philschempf@g...> | 2014‑08‑26 | Re: Curly Maple for chisel handles |
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 |
|||
250184 | scott grandstaff <scottg@s...> | 2014‑08‑26 | Re: Curly Maple for chisel handles |
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 ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2014.0.4745 / Virus Database: 4007/8100 - Release Date: 08/25/14 |
|||
250185 | Don Schwartz <dks@t...> | 2014‑08‑26 | Re: Curly Maple for chisel handles |
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 |
|||
250186 | scott grandstaff <scottg@s...> | 2014‑08‑26 | Re: Curly Maple for chisel handles |
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 ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2014.0.4745 / Virus Database: 4007/8100 - Release Date: 08/25/14 |
|||
250188 | John Ruth <johnrruth@h...> | 2014‑08‑26 | RE: Curly Maple for chisel handles |
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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
|||
250189 | Yorkshireman <yorkshireman@y...> | 2014‑08‑26 | Re: Curly Maple for chisel handles |
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 |
|||
250191 | JAMES THOMPSON <oldmillrat@m...> | 2014‑08‑26 | Re: Curly Maple for chisel handles |
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 |
|||
250192 | Bob Miller <bobprime@b...> | 2014‑08‑26 | Re: Curly Maple for chisel handles |
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 |
|||
250206 | Thomas Conroy <booktoolcutter@y...> | 2014‑08‑27 | Re: Curly Maple for chisel handles |
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 |
|||
250214 | Michael Blair <branson2@s...> | 2014‑08‑28 | Re: Curly Maple for chisel handles |
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 |
|||
250216 | Chuck Ramsey <chuck-ramsey@l...> | 2014‑08‑28 | RE: Curly Maple for chisel handles |
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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
|||
250218 | John Holladay <docholladay0820@g...> | 2014‑08‑28 | Re: Curly Maple for chisel handles |
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 |
|||
250219 | Jim Crammond <jicaarr@y...> | 2014‑08‑28 | Re: Curly Maple for chisel handles |
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 |
|||
Recent | Bios | FAQ |