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Thread: Used and Abused
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30th April 2012, 06:13 PM #1
Used and Abused
I have been working with my son for the last five days, demolishing, repairing and re-building his bathroom. That is another story, but during the re-build, we needed a rough-house chisel, and mine wasn't handy so he produced one from his shed. We only needed a beater, and what he found got the job done nicely.
When he'd finished, he passed this chisel to me.
As soon as I saw it I did a double take.
This shouldn't be a beater, but was it past resurrecting. You have probably picked up from my previous hand tool posts how much I like this kind of challenge.
I know that this is very small beer for most of you, but if anyone wants to read the blow by blow CPR done on this chisel, it's on my BLOG
Suffice to say, I think it was a success.
Cheers and happy σμίλη-ing
SG.... some old things are lovely
Warm still with the life of forgotten men who made them ........................D.H. Lawrence
https://thevillagewoodworker.blogspot.com/
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30th April 2012, 09:13 PM #2Electron controller/Manufacturer of fine shavings
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Nice job SG,
Maybe I should try to swap some of my old Stanleys for my fathers old Bergs. My brother has them these days but I doubt they get much real use. Hmm wonder what they look like now? Now there is a challenge.
Then again whats wrong with my old Stanleys? Might be better than a family argument !
3RU
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30th April 2012, 11:26 PM #3
Ahh, very nice i love a happy ending. I have a few 'flogging chisels' that deserve better (no Bergs mind you!) and you've inspired me to reassess and perhaps parole one or two of them. I can't offer them such pretty turned wattle handles though I'm afraid. Cudos.
Matt...I'll just make the other bits smaller.
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1st May 2012, 06:24 AM #4
Great work SG. Give it back to your son to show him what he had been missing for all the years it was rusting away in his shed and opening paint tins. Nice job.
Some days we are the flies; some days we are the windscreen
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1st May 2012, 07:35 AM #5
Thanks fellas.
To be fair to my son, he is not a woodie and is in the auto profession. His auto tools are well cared for, and this is probably the only woodworking tool that he owns - and that by accident.
As I said on my blog:
I'll have to find another beater of a chisel for my son to return to his shed. Something with a plastic handle this time. Hee hee! This one can become his going out chisel, only to be used on Sundays.......
Happy trails
SG.... some old things are lovely
Warm still with the life of forgotten men who made them ........................D.H. Lawrence
https://thevillagewoodworker.blogspot.com/
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1st May 2012, 10:00 AM #6
I think we are products of the same mould, SG. I can't stand seeing a good old tool neglected & left to die a painful death, either. I had a similar experience, many years ago, with an even happier ending! Forgive me if I've told you this story before, but it's an age thing.....
I was helping my then boss to install a new kitchen counter top, & needed to trim a bit off a (hidden) corner. I was not keen to apply any of my good chisels to laminex/MDF, so asked him if he had an old chisel we could use to knock the offending bit off. Now Gary is definitely not a woodworker, so I assumed if he did have a chisel, it would be in prety rough shape, and I would have no qualms about bashing it into Laminex. He went to his basement, & returned a few minutes later with a grottyy old wooden box full of dirt & nuts & bolts, and some interesting-looking metal, just recognisable through the grime & junk as longish chisels! Apparently, the box was part of a job lot he'd bought for $2 at a clearing sale - it was the gardening tools he'd wanted, & thought the box of chisels was just extra junk to bring home!
I selected one that had a handle, and some semblance of a bevel, & finished the job, then took a good look at the box. In all, there were 5 of them, ranging in size from 1/4" to 1 1/8" (no 3/4", unfortunately). One had a broken handle, two had no handle at all, and one of these had been bashed on the socket with a hammer. The brand was Newhaven Edge Tool, which I had not come across before, and they looked like they had once been exquisite things - long and thin, with offset sockets - perfect paring tools! I upbraided him for treating such gems so poorly, and told him they deserved priveleged treatment, not neglect.
The next morning, I arrived at work to find the grotty box & its contents on my desk with a note saying they were probably far more use to me than him. Well, I could hardly say no to such an offer, but felt embarraassed by his generosity, so we quickly arranged a deal, whereby I gave him a couple of (sharpish) plastic-handled things to use if ever he needed a chisel again.
After a clean-up and some new handles were fitted, they were given a more fitting home in my tool cupboard. That was well over 20 years ago, and I have come to like these chisels more with every passing year. There is hardly a day spent in my shed that one or other of them doesn't get a good workout, and I thank Gary evey time I use them.
Here they are in their slightly more salubrious home, along with a few extras I've picked up along the way to fill out the set - different brands, unfortunately, but you can't have everything.....
Cheers,IW
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1st May 2012, 10:12 AM #7
A wonderful story with a well deserved ending.
Bob Smalser, the doyen of American chisel-lore rates the New Haven Edge among the best ever produced in the US.
Up there with Swan, Witherby, D R Barton etc.
I have never seen a New Haven Edge chisel in the flesh (although I have sliced myself on plenty of other brands) but I did sell a D R Barton to someone on the Forum, (I think it might have been Pops) and I have rued the day ever since.
Thanks for sharing, Ian
Cheers
SG.... some old things are lovely
Warm still with the life of forgotten men who made them ........................D.H. Lawrence
https://thevillagewoodworker.blogspot.com/
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