Bill Ghio wrote: "Yep, I have  five in the 1/8 to 1/16th range. Just seems at
that size they were hard to make accurately. But that is good because often only
one will fit the need precisely....
"....However, my bench chisels w/ handles modeled on the bulbous style Stanley
Everlastings are the ones used w/ a mallet and they can really take a sever
pounding."

Its hard to find them under 1/8". My two or three smallest started life as
engravers' burins with palm handles; on my bench I have a 3/32" and a 1/16"
rehandled in London Octagonal, and I use them all the time. Interesting, though;
they can be dull, even chipped all to hell, and work almost as well as when
freshly sharpened, because the pressure per square inch is so high with a
working end that small.

Last Christmas Bill gave me a 5/8" butt chisel with the bulbous Everlasting-
style handle, though it's an original leather-capped hickory rather than one of
his own ipe. It fits my hand and balances so perfectly that it has become the
core of a set, 7" to 8" overall and deliberately different makers and different
woods. 1/2" Witherby from the 1880s in black locust, 5/8" Buck Bros. cast steel
in hickory, 3/4" Wards Master Quality in an unknown red-brown hardwood that I
knurled, and 1-1/4" Greenlee in persimmon. I love the feel of Everlastings,
though I can't bring myself to approve of chisels designed to be abused.
The Wards Master Quality is not the Ward's lauded by British gurus, but a top-
of-the-line brand from Montgomery Ward. I don't know who made them, but I have
two and their steel is as hard as anything I have ever encountered. As hard as
my good Swans. Maybe harder than my few Japanese blades. Harder than Vaughan or
Millers' Falls HSS machine hacksaw blades, though not as hard as Starrett Red
Stripe HSS hacksaw blades. So hard that I'm still trying to flatten the back of
a 2" by 5" chisel, though I've been working at it for years (by fits and
starts.) If you see one, get it.

Tom Conroy
Berkeley