Hi all,


*Short version:* I bought a lot of chisels. Arguably, too many. You can 
see the whole shebang here:

https://goo.gl/photos/GzzumFGFJmbYaGxs5 (warning, possible drive-by 
gloat, if you like chisels)


*Long version:*

I got a heads-up on an upcoming garage sale. The photos seemed to show a 
lot of interesting looking chisels. I contacted the seller asking if I 
could come see before the actual garage sale, and to my surprise, he 
agreed. So I trundled off to Mount Evelyn just as soon as I could, and 
oh my, there were about 60 chisels, and I wanted all of them. However I 
settled on about 40. A lot of them aren't that old, but most are in 
great condition - Marples paring chisels, EA Berg carving chisels, Henry 
Taylor cranked paring chisels, Ashley Iles and Sorby turning chisels and 
scrapers, a few other bits and pieces... all useful stuff! And at the 
price, well worth it. A lot of what appears to be rust spots turned out 
to be grease, which cleaned off with a little eucalyptus oil. Many of 
the tools still have their factory ground bevel on them.


There were also a number of long in-cannel gouges (I assume these are 
paring gouges?) and four cranked in-cannel gouges. You can see them here 
https://goo.gl/photos/jSz3yjuPwoftKHNH9 and 
https://goo.gl/photos/7oeShFsWtoh8VQqx8 and my question is: what are 
they actually useful for? A lot of books suggest in-cannel gouges are 
good for paring concave shapes, for example in cutting the end of 
mouldings to butt them together. I can sort of see how the straight 
in-cannel gouges could be useful there, though it's not something I've 
ever needed to do, and for the small number of times I'm ever likely to 
need to, it seems like a coping saw would do the job equally well. For 
the really fine gouge - 1/8" - I just can't see it being useful in that 
context either.


What puzzles me more is: what are the cranked in-cannel gouges useful 
for? You can't get your weight in line with the blade, so probably not 
useful for cutting ends of mouldings across grain. The only application 
I can come up with is in cutting the pencil well on the old school 
desks. So... can anyone tell me their application? I have seen these 
referred to as pattern-makers tools, but I'm interested to know what 
sort of uses they have outside of that rather specialised field.


If anyone is curious, the four cranked in-cannel gouges are a pair of 
Stormonts, and two Marples (but not a pair, as such). Since I can't 
really see an application for them, I'm wondering if I should move them 
on, perhaps selling them to offset the cost of the haul.


The haul also included the heaviest Dawn sash clamp I have ever lifted, 
some neat little bronze plane/shaves, some pin punches, a lock mortice 
chisel, an unknown Japanese chisel, and an un-used set of Marples bench 
chisels. These may not be from the golden age of English chisels, but I 
reckon they're going to be a good user set. You can see them all here: 
https://goo.gl/photos/GzzumFGFJmbYaGxs5


Cheers from sunny (and alternately rainy) Melbourne,

Philip.