Kirk Eppler wrote:
> If its any consolation, the chisels were probably sold that way.=A0
> The Rayl's 1905 catalog shows them as Buck Bros Extra Long Turning
> Chisels...=A0 > Average Length 11" >

and Adam Maxwell replied: "Well, that's interesting!=A0 I wonder how 11"
is measured...if it excludes the tang, these are shorter than new."

I have a reprint of the Buck Bros. 1890 price list, and the page on
"Extra Long C.S. Turning Chisels. No. 21." without handles says: "The 1
inch is 11 inches over all." In measuring the illustration, the straight-
sided part of the blade seems to have been around 6" long and the necked-
in area including tang 5" long.

The page on "Extra Long And Strong C.S. Turning Chisels. No. 23."
without handles says "The 1 inch is 13 inches over all." Measuring the
illustration suggests a length of 8" for the straight-sided part of the
blade, and 5" for the necked-in part plus the tang. Apparently normal
practice in describing chisel length has changed in the last century,
and it used to be overall length of the handleless steel.

The page on handled turning chisels gives no length dimensions; however,
in the illustration the handle looks about as long as the exposed part
of the blade. More specifically, the straight-sided part of the blade
measures, in the drawing, 2-7/16"; the entire exposed part of the blade
measures 2-11/16"; the entire handle measures 3-1/2"; the handle without
the ferrule measure 3-1/4".

 I have a couple of old Buck turning tool handles. One is 8-5/8" long
 overall, of which 9/16" is a brass ferrule; the wood is 1-1/8 inch in
 diameter in the 4" nearest the rounded butt, necking in to 1-1/32"=A0
 and then out again to 1-3/32" near the ferrule, with the ferrule 11/16"
 in diameter. Oddly enough, this handle came to me on a bookbinder's
 finishing tool, which had charred out the end; it is way too big for
 that purpose, so I transferred it to a turning tool, a parting tool
 made from an old Italian foil blade. The ways of handles are strange.

The other Buck handle I have, on a diamond-section parting tool that has
been sharpened down to 4-1/2", is fatter and shorter and seems newer,
but has a similar near-cylindrical shape, a bit less rounded at the
butt. It is 7-15/16" long, of which 1/2" is a brass ferrule. Diameter
for most of the half near the butt is 1-3/16", necking down to 1-1/8" at
2" from the ferrule, and back out to 1-7/32" near the ferrule.

My favorite turning gouges and skews are Charles Buck and Buck Bros.
cast steel, but none of them are in their original handles. I like the
gouge sections better than modern sections, and I do a lot with skews
(but nothing with scrapers). My lathe is a treadle, so they don't go
dull as fast as they wood with a power lathe (and, I confess, I don't
resharpen as often as I should) so I'm not eating the blades up as fast
as power grinding for a power lathe would do.

Tom Conroy

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