Very Expensive Chisels

[West OZ Mark]

Start of the year I decided to purchase a Lathe for work and after some searching and help from fellow forum members I was able to track down and purchase a 2nd hand lathe.

After my purchase I needed to buy some chisels. After some though and searching some threads on this forum I came to the conclusion that I would bite the bullet and purchase a nice set of P&N chisels (without handles so I could make my own). $300 later I had four chisels( Skew, Parting, Roughing Gouge and a small gouge) all deliverd to my Post box.

The following day our house was burnt down in a bush fire and my brand new chisels (that were to last me along time) were on my office desk as I had taken them home to admire. After some searching I found 2 of them but they were both damaged and not worth the search.

Last week I purhased a 2nd hand set of Record chisels from a forum member and after reciving them yesterday I was able to try my lathe out for the first time since purchasing the lathe 2 1/2 months ago.

After a long wait and $460 spent alone on chisels :(( I was able to complete a job today for a local furniture company turning up some decorative Jarrah pieces for a custom bathroom cabinet they are making and it was really good to get it up and running.:2tsup:

[AUSSIE]

Start of the year I decided to purchase a Lathe for work and after some searching and help from fellow forum members I was able to track down and purchase a 2nd hand lathe.

After my purchase I needed to buy some chisels. After some though and searching some threads on this forum I came to the conclusion that I would bite the bullet and purchase a nice set of P&N chisels (without handles so I could make my own). $300 later I had four chisels( Skew, Parting, Roughing Gouge and a small gouge) all deliverd to my Post box.

The following day our house was burnt down in a bush fire and my brand new chisels (that were to last me along time) were on my office desk as I had taken them home to admire. After some searching I found 2 of them but they were both damaged and not worth the search.

Last week I purhased a 2nd hand set of Record chisels from a forum member and after reciving them yesterday I was able to try my lathe out for the first time since purchasing the lathe 2 1/2 months ago.

After a long wait and $460 spent alone on chisels :(( I was able to complete a job today for a local furniture company turning up some decorative Jarrah pieces for a custom bathroom cabinet they are making and it was really good to get it up and running.:2tsup:
I am not sure what to say really.What can I say.You must be angry,sad and happy all at the same time. I cant begin to know what it feels like .
I noticed the sprintcar.What is the story their?I have been to Perth and seen your wonderful track there.And my hero Donny Schatz
Hope all goes well from now on.:2tsup:

[robutacion]

Start of the year I decided to purchase a Lathe for work and after some searching and help from fellow forum members I was able to track down and purchase a 2nd hand lathe.

After my purchase I needed to buy some chisels. After some though and searching some threads on this forum I came to the conclusion that I would bite the bullet and purchase a nice set of P&N chisels (without handles so I could make my own). $300 later I had four chisels( Skew, Parting, Roughing Gouge and a small gouge) all deliverd to my Post box.

The following day our house was burnt down in a bush fire and my brand new chisels (that were to last me along time) were on my office desk as I had taken them home to admire. After some searching I found 2 of them but they were both damaged and not worth the search.

Last week I purhased a 2nd hand set of Record chisels from a forum member and after reciving them yesterday I was able to try my lathe out for the first time since purchasing the lathe 2 1/2 months ago.

After a long wait and $460 spent alone on chisels :(( I was able to complete a job today for a local furniture company turning up some decorative Jarrah pieces for a custom bathroom cabinet they are making and it was really good to get it up and running.:2tsup:

Hi Mark,
First of all, and for what you indicated, you and family are safe and sound, just homeless and disappointed with life at the moment. Is not very difficult to at least try to understand the reasons why. Secondly, I want to say that pic is no different them hundreds we seen recently, with the only difference being, this was you home!
Is only one way to go from here, and that is forwards, in the mean time things are going to be rough until you get your home rebuilt and replacing the things that can be easily replace.
You are the first one I know that had the guts to through you head up high in here and say, hey I lost almost everything, but I want to go forwards. Go on ya, mate, you're a brave man.
I can't thing of nothing else but help you anyway I can, and hopping that you are not someone taking advantage of the situation buy pretending to be a victim of this last horrifying bush fires, and using someone else's home in ruins to get our sympathy and help.
I get particularly offended and furious with those taking advantage of others misery and miss fortune, so please do not take offense of my direct approach, as many other will probably feel the same "discomfort" of being miss led by people with no scrupulous at all.

OK, so lets recapitulate Mark, the wood lathe is safe, you got some second hand tools, what else did you save. Now, what are the things you lost and you need again to keep you up and going with turning?
Gives us a priority items list, and I/we will see what can be done! please don't feel ashamed to ask, lots of us are more then willing to give a hand to you and people in a similar situation, if we are told (preferentelly by themselves), of who they are, like you generously did.

Keep in touch and provide us with a list of things you need!

Take care
Cheers:2tsup:
RBTCO

[hughie]

West Oz Mark,

If you will pm me your snail mail address I wll post you a Ezikut hollower gratis.Its not alot but at least it will be one tool you don't have to purchase. :2tsup:

[Rum Pig]

Sorry to hear about your house:(
It is good that you and your family are safe:)
As everyone has said and will, please ask if there is anything we can do to help if not on the forum PM us
Best of luck rebuilding your new home:)

[ElizaLeahy]

OMG!!!!

I don't think I would be too upset over losing chisels if I lost my house!

I'm so sorry!!!

I hope that you are back with somewhere safe to live as soon as possible!

[munruben]

Sorry to hear your news Mark, you must be devastated over the loss of your home. Many items were probably lost that cannot be replaced. Thankfully nobody in your family was injured or worse. Maybe we may be able to help with some items you have lost.
Wow, you must be a natural woodturner to be able to turn something of commercial value on your first attempt. Congratulations.

[West OZ Mark]

Thank you all for your replies. I intended on posting this tread as release as my wife dosn't really understand how a tool as simple as a chisel can make you sad and as happy as my experince. Only other forum members can see where I'm coming from and understand me.

Please don't think this tread is about getting your simpathy as that is not my intension. We are very fortunate in that the community of Bridgetown that we live in, freinds, relatives and complete strangers that we have been overwhelmed with generosity. The fire destoyed our house and four other homes in Bridgetown nearly eight weeks ago (been offline for six weeks). We have moved out of temp acomadation two weeks ago and we have been inundated with clothing, household items and food.

I am very fortunate that I have a workshop in town where I have all my woodworking tools and machinery.

Thank you but please don't offer any tools or woodworking items as other than my new chisels I didn't loose any woodworking tools and as I said before I'm not looking for charity.

The loss of our home is the worst but its all the small things that add up like our photos of our two children, four guitars that were not worth a fortune but I have had two of since I was 16 and irrplaceable family memories.

We are well and trully on the road to recovery to getting back to the farm but it will take along time. My family is doing really good and even though we might have some down times we are in high spirits and moving forward.

Aussie that is a picture of my 360 sprint car. Unfortunatley when the kids arrived three years ago we had to park the car up. I still have most of the car but lost the transporter in the fire and some of the car parts but luckly had no where to put the racecar at the farm so is safley at my workshop.
The Motorplex is my favorite track and is a world class venue and hopfully we will get back into it in the next few years.

Thanks for all your concerns.....Mark

[Rum Pig]

Thank god your car is alright:U

[Ed Reiss]

Bummer losing your home, joy having your family safe...life goes on:2tsup:

[Harry72]

Good luck with rebuilding your home Mark.

[orificiam]

All the very best for the future Mark. I'm sure the Big smile on you daughter's face
make all your problems a little smaller.
Cheers Tony.:2tsup::2tsup:

[robutacion]

Start of the year I decided to purchase a Lathe for work and after some searching and help from fellow forum members I was able to track down and purchase a 2nd hand lathe.

After my purchase I needed to buy some chisels. After some though and searching some threads on this forum I came to the conclusion that I would bite the bullet and purchase a nice set of P&N chisels (without handles so I could make my own). $300 later I had four chisels( Skew, Parting, Roughing Gouge and a small gouge) all deliverd to my Post box.

The following day our house was burnt down in a bush fire and my brand new chisels (that were to last me along time) were on my office desk as I had taken them home to admire. After some searching I found 2 of them but they were both damaged and not worth the search.

Last week I purhased a 2nd hand set of Record chisels from a forum member and after reciving them yesterday I was able to try my lathe out for the first time since purchasing the lathe 2 1/2 months ago.

After a long wait and $460 spent alone on chisels :(( I was able to complete a job today for a local furniture company turning up some decorative Jarrah pieces for a custom bathroom cabinet they are making and it was really good to get it up and running.:2tsup:

Hi Mark,

I just wanted to go trough a few points with you, trying to work out how I can help you.

You say that you've spend $300 on 4 P&N unhandled chisels which were in the house when the fire went trough, and you also say that you don't going to try to find the other 2, and why is that mate, I think that for the price you paid for them, I would be there looking as also I believe and someone can correct me if I'm wrong, they may need some re-sharping and maybe a new edge made on the bevel, but I don't think that the fire would run hot enough to distemper the metal composition, as that would need maybe 1.500 degrees. If am correct, they can be re-used, after some cleaning and polishing, and some handles put on them, which they never had to start with, obviously!.

Now that you got that second hand Record set, and if you want to discard completely those that were in the house, what sort of gouges are you short of? Hughie's already offer you a junior (Ezicut) without handle, which is an excellent tool for hollowing, and what about a 12 or 16mm tungsten carbide tipped square roughing gauge and spare tip? same as the one I've made for myself but without the handle, a few months ago and well discussed in this forum!
I could offer you some timber but, I don't think you will be short of timbers as they will be lots of trees that have the bark damaged just enough to be cut down, but will produce good timber for turning, maybe even a little less green and wet...!

Think about it, and let me know, don't feel bad about people trying to give you a hand, we wouldn't know about you in particular, if you haven't shared your loss with us. I have a old saying that I feel very appropriate on this occasion, and it goes like this, " A little bit of something, is a lot more than plenty of nothing...!".

Cheers:2tsup:
RBTCO

[West OZ Mark]

Hi Mark,

I just wanted to go trough a few points with you, trying to work out how I can help you.

You say that you've spend $300 on 4 P&N unhandled chisels which were in the house when the fire went trough, and you also say that you don't going to try to find the other 2, and why is that mate, I think that for the price you paid for them, I would be there looking as also I believe and someone can correct me if I'm wrong, they may need some re-sharping and maybe a new edge made on the bevel, but I don't think that the fire would run hot enough to distemper the metal composition, as that would need maybe 1.500 degrees. If am correct, they can be re-used, after some cleaning and polishing, and some handles put on them, which they never had to start with, obviously!.

Now that you got that second hand Record set, and if you want to discard completely those that were in the house, what sort of gouges are you short of? Hughie's already offer you a junior (Ezicut) without handle, which is an excellent tool for hollowing, and what about a 12 or 16mm tungsten carbide tipped square roughing gauge and spare tip? same as the one I've made for myself but without the handle, a few months ago and well discussed in this forum!
I could offer you some timber but, I don't think you will be short of timbers as they will be lots of trees that have the bark damaged just enough to be cut down, but will produce good timber for turning, maybe even a little less green and wet...!

Think about it, and let me know, don't feel bad about people trying to give you a hand, we wouldn't know about you in particular, if you haven't shared your loss with us. I have a old saying that I feel very appropriate on this occasion, and it goes like this, " A little bit of something, is a lot more than plenty of nothing...!".

Cheers:2tsup:
RBTCO

Thank you all for your support. I appreciate it.
RBTOO thank you for your offer but i am very happy with my set of record chisels. The set covers all the chisels that I need for now.

I have not looked for the other chisels as the two I found have lost there temper
as when I tried them they would go blunt within seconds and I didn't realize how bad they were until I used the new Records in comparison. I know I could re-temper the chisels some how but the house had Asbestos in it and its a fairly emotional thing digging through all our lost possessions.

We have only just got permision from our insurance company to start the cleanup so when we do start I will have a bit more of a look when the site is watered down and have saftey equipment on.

Thanks...Mark

[NeilS]

.....and its a fairly emotional thing digging through all our lost possessions.



Having been through one house fire, I can identify with what you say Mark. It's hard to know why the loss of some things (like a set of brand new chisels, or in my case a favourite pocket knife,) get to you more than others, but they do. Everyone understands about the loss of the family photos and mementos, but the loss of an everyday 'thing' is more difficult to understand or explain to others.

All the very best for the journey ahead.

Neil

[robutacion]

Thank you all for your support. I appreciate it.
RBTOO thank you for your offer but i am very happy with my set of record chisels. The set covers all the chisels that I need for now.

I have not looked for the other chisels as the two I found have lost there temper
as when I tried them they would go blunt within seconds and I didn't realize how bad they were until I used the new Records in comparison. I know I could re-temper the chisels some how but the house had Asbestos in it and its a fairly emotional thing digging through all our lost possessions.

We have only just got permision from our insurance company to start the cleanup so when we do start I will have a bit more of a look when the site is watered down and have saftey equipment on.

Thanks...Mark


Hi Mark,

Your call, I respect that!

I can understand, what one's feel when something was been taken away from you, and fire is just of of many ways this can happen. Fortunately for you and your family, "most" things that you lost, can be replaced, even tough and I agree with your's an Neil's "sentiment", certain "objects" tent to stick in your mind more than others. In this particular case with your new, unused P&N chisels that you so proudly took home to admire, I would try to have them replaced with identical ones, this way you can continue on, where you're left! (unfortunately, after a few hundred dollars later...!)

Just to think that you could have lost every single tool and machinery that you own, if the work shed was at the house location, is enough to make anyones hair's stand up, in reality 99% of people have their work sheds next to the house so, some how, you were lucky. I know, this is no consolation for what you lost, but a reality, never the less!

And about that Asbestos, I would most certainly play safe with it, as that stuff will be on it's maximum risk potential among those ashes.

Keep in touch mate, we would all want to know how you're getting along...!

Cheers:2tsup:
RBTCO

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I have not looked for the other chisels as the two I found have lost there temper as when I tried them they would go blunt within seconds and I didn't realize how bad they were until I used the new Records in comparison. I know I could re-temper the chisels some how but the house had Asbestos in it and its a fairly emotional thing digging through all our lost possessions.

Ignoring the sentimental, emotional & safety side of things for the moment, if you spent good $ on a set of P&Ns, they'd be HSS for sure.

If HSS has lost it's temper you can forget all about retempering 'em yourself, unless you have extensive tooling and considerable knowledge in the field. Plain ol' CS, now they're a different story...

Commiserations on your losses, it has a bad year for fires. And I s'pose that 'cos you're in WA you're not eligible to claim the govt grant for bush-fire victims? That'd really suck! :C

[hughie]

[

If HSS has lost it's temper you can forget all about retempering 'em yourself, unless you have extensive tooling and considerable knowledge in the field. Plain ol' CS, now they're a different story...
yup HSS aint that easy to re-harden and temper. But if they are expensive, then you might want to look around for a local heat treatment company and sound them out.Heat treating is most always a lesser cost then the manufacturing.

One the simplest ways to locate a heat treatment company would be to enquire at a tool steel supplier ie Bohler Udderholm. They generally have an idea whose around in thier area.

As to asbestos. Keep the area well wetted down and you wont have a problem. If your further concerned then wear a dust mask and who ever washes your clothes needs to be careful as well.The danger is in what you breathe in, not what you touch etc.

[BobL]

To anneal HSS it has to be held at 916ºC for an hour or so and then reduced at 20º per hour to 500º so that will take 17 hours. I suppose that could happen in a fire although I doubt many housefires are still 500º 17 hours after the fire started. If they are reduced in temperature too quickly they will still be hard but who knows how hard.

They can also be heated to around 600º continuously and they will not lose their temper, in fact they may even harden slightly at that temp.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Hmmm... talking about getting the experts to retemper 'em... if they'd never been used, and if they were a recent delivery, then it may be worth while getting in touch with P&N and telling them your story.

Ask them if they'll consider retempering them if you mail them back in.

My bet is that they wouldn't, but they may just decide to send you a set of free replacements. Good PR for them and a small gain for you.

Worth a shot, surely?

[Calm]

Thank you all for your support. I appreciate it........................
We have only just got permision from our insurance company to start the cleanup so when we do start I will have a bit more of a look when the site is watered down and have saftey equipment on.

Thanks...Mark

Surely you can just claim them on insurance, i realise that there is the emotional side of it as well but if you have insurance then they should be covered.

Cheers and hope the rest of the year goes better for you.

[Grumpy John]

..........then it may be worth while getting in touch with P&N and telling them your story.

Ask them if they'll consider retempering them if you mail them back in.

My bet is that they wouldn't, but they may just decide to send you a set of free replacements. Good PR for them and a small gain for you.

Worth a shot, surely?

I'd definitely give P&N a try, they're very customer oriented as this (http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=80483) thread shows. If you need contact details PM me.