Galooterati:

A moment of lucidity, a little window, seems to have opened...

Thanks to all who responded, on and off list. I hadn't ruled out epoxy,
but I didn't want to rush to it before I was sure it was necessary and
would work. Even accepting it in general (all right, between ourselves
and with no reporters around, its a good option in many cases) for this
particular chisel its a bit problematic. Over the last day I've worked a
bit more of my semi-subconscous thoughts out into the open.

When the previous owner bashed on the socket, the weld separated for
about half an inch down from the reground open end. If I remember
correctly, it gaped over three-sixteenths of an inch at one spot. I
managed to squeeze and pound the gaping area almost shut (cold, since I
don't have a forging setup) but that opened the weld further down to
almost an inch from the end, not much open but you can see the crack. I
put cyanoacryllate into the crack hoping to hold it at least in the very
close and clean newly-separated area, but I don't know that it did any
good (don't know that it didn't, either).

I have about 2" depth to the socket, and it looks to me like the bottom
inch is still firmly welded, which would be enough to hold the handle;
but I'm not quite sure. So I've been going very slowly on altering
things. If the weld has separated invisibly all the way to the bottom, I
don't think any epoxy is going to hold well enough to make the chisel
firm. Too much leverage acting to pry the former weld further open; I'm
sure the socket is dirty enough that adhesives won't stick to it, so
epoxy would work as a gap-filler, and the prying effect on the open weld
would constantly change the shape and size of the gaps to be filled.

I'm not yet sure what I'll do if the weld has separated all the way--
maybe serve steel wire around the outside of the socket up to the top,
and then silver-solder it in place. Or wrap the outside with wet
rawhide, which is supposed to be able to fix anything from a broken
Conestoga wagon axle to a broken quill pen. Or maybe duct tape.

And besides, epoxy is glob glob bubble bubble screech.........

Tom Conroy in restraint again


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