wooden handel chisles

[KristianH]

Hey everyone , I found an old tanged chisle wheil combing through the shop I work in , by looking at it I can say it's earlier than the 1960's . So far I've flatened the back so far ,formed a basic bevel ( it start to cut wood , but not cleanly) and turned the handel out of a scap piece of african blackwood. I'm wondering if I need a ferrule for it and how to mount the tang into the wood. Thanks in advance

Also if needed I can post pictures once I get back in the shop.

[soundman]

You real do need a furrel at least where the blade goes into the handle.
If its a firmer chisel.... one thats going to take a thumping a furel at the but end is a good idea too.

When I'm making a new handle the firts thing I do is fit the furrels, I then turn the handle to the furrels and part off against them.

The furrel should generaly be about the width of the blade, unless the chisel is very small or very large.

I recon brass looks best, steel is the most durable, copper works but it isn't as strong as brass or steel and just looks wrong.

As for fitting. it depends on the style of tang.

If its a tang square and with a decent piece of paralell section.
Drilling a hole a diameter the same as the side of the square not the diagonal.

if its a tapered tang...... thats a fiddle
Soe will just drill a hole as above.. i would drill a steped hole but thats complicated to explain.

I pilot drill the blank before I mount it in the lathe and put the tail centre in the hole.
I then enlarge the hole once the handle is finished.
I find doing all drilling in the lathe is better.

cheers

[derekcohen]

Hi Kristian

I agree with Soundman.

Turn your handles on a lathe ( I have the world's cheapest lathe in a GMC! And it is OK for this purpose - just!). Fit the ferrule while the handle is on the lathe.

A straight, even sided tang is easy to fit. Just drill straight down. For tapered tangs I simply drill down, then pull the drill sideways from the end point to creat a taper.

Here are a recent bunch I am busy fitting to small paring chisels (1/8" - 1/2" (Bergs) to be used as dovetail chisels. Comparison is a Matsumura dovetail chisel and a chunky 1" Berg. The 3/4" and up will get slightly thicker handles.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Chisels/Paringchiselhandles1.jpg

Jarrah and brass is so nice. Finished in Shellawax.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[UKalf]

You don't actually need a ferrule - but it does reduce the likelihood of splitting and is advisable for any chisel likely to be doing more than just paring. I'd sooner see folks fitting ferruleless handles than sitting on their hands 'cos they don't have a lathe, for instance. :D

Fwiw, I do the stepped hole thing for tangs - hopefully explained on the second page here (http://www.cornishworkshop.co.uk/chiselhandles.html).

Cheers, Alf

[arose62]

Another approach for tapered tangs (which I have tried a couple of times) is to drill a hole (stepped or not - your call) then heat the tang so that it burns its way in to its final fitting.

This will vary in effectiveness depending on the wood, and the temperature of the tang. Too hot, and it will keep burning once seated, and as the burnt wood breaks down, the blade will come loose again.

I've settled on filing the tapered tang so it has sharp-ish edges, then tapping the blade in, giving it a twist, tapping, twist, tap, twist ...

Regarding ferrules - check the plumbing section of your local hardware. There's not only copper tube, but lots of brass bits.

I saw in a recent mag an article suggesting that a cool ferrule is copper tube, dimpled all over with a nail, then optionally coloured by coating with linseed oil, and as a further option, burning the oil to give a black coating.

Cheers,
Andrew