Thread: Advice re Teruo Miyanga chisels?

They sound like great chisels Skew.
On the couple of Japenese chisels that I have, the handles came with a lacquer coating. I carefully scraped it off, gave them a light sand, and oiled them. They are much nicer now.

I'll leave the advise on the blade to more knowledgeable folk than I.

Hi Skew,

I am with Ironwood here regarding the handles. I have some old (and abused) Jampanese chisels with handles that are ioled, no lacquer, and I have a couple with new lacquered handles. I intend to remove the lacquer, sand, oil and wax these handles. I much prefer this finish to the lacquer.

Regarding the 'Dovetail' chisels, (and I am no authority here by far), I believe that the name comes for the chisel shape in profile, that of a dovetail and not from the intended use of the chisel. As such these japanese Dovetail chisels will have shuolders, not unlike Western bench chisels liek Marples. So these Dovetail chisels will have a little difficulty in getting into the tight corners of dovetails, just like any chisel with shoulders. AIthough I would think the 3mm chisel would have a good go at the corners.

Some people have dedicated, (minimal shoulder) chisels for these tight corners. And some people say there is no need for this type of minimal shoulder chisel as they just lean the chisel over to get into the corner and dedicated chisels are unnecessary.

Regardless, minimal shoulder chisels in dovetail work have their place. I think Derek Cohen's website has information on grinding chisel shoulders specifically for this type of work. Might pay to have a browse through Derek's articles. This is the link, I think it will work from here, maybe,

. http://www.inthewoodshop.com

I have also heard of, (read it somewhere) where Japanese chisel makers do make chisels with minimal shoulders for dovetail work. Personally I do not see a problem with your plan, but how to go about it and the details for the end shape I will leave to others that have done it.

I believe that the Miyanga chisels are quite descent chisels, (but others with the knowledge might like to confirm). I might also be good to see a photo, (if at all possible) of the 3mm chisel in question for a better understanding of the chisel profile.

So nice score I reckon, your SWMBO is a real gem by my book.

Cheers
Pops

Thanks, fellas. It looks like a quick oiling is the go then.

And I agree wholeheartedly about SWMBO, Pops. I think she's a keeper.

Pix will be forthcoming once I can recharge the camera batteries. (Apparently using a 240VAC charger in 110VAC mains does not simply mean they'll take twice as long to charge. )

My main concern with the tip profile is that I'd anticipated using it for very thin pins - I'm slowly becoming braver - where there's not a lot of room to 'angle' the chisel for skew cutting.

Even so, methinks I'll wait until I hear something from the more knowledgable before I do something I may regret.

OK. Some pix to (hopefully) show what I mean about the tip on the 3mm chisel.

1.
2. Overhead view of the bevel. Hopefully you can see the flats to each side. (That's not rust... I just didn't clean her after playing)
3. Side view... you can barely make out the tapered flats. They're not as large as they seem in the pic. (I'm a woodie, not a photographer.)

Get it replaced. Now.

Surprised it looks like that, and that it passed through so many hands and this most obvious fault was missed so many times end up in your hands looking like that.

Actually, I'm extremely disgusted it was allowed to get out of where you bought it.


Stu.

+ 1, to Stu's comments.