Thread: What is this chisel?

Its a mortice chisel for cutting 3/8" mortices.
How to cut a THROUGH MORTICE AND TENON by HAND - YouTube
Jump to 10:40 to see him cutting the mortice

Yep that’s the one. Interesting video too, very well done. Thanks NCArcher

Dengue, I would make a small bet it's a Marples, made some time after they stopped stamping tools & used an etch instead. The etch was very light & tends to wear off, but you might find a faint trace remains. I suggest this because I have a very similar 3/8" chisel, with slim boxwood handle & brass ferrule, but mine is a "light" model, much slimmer than yours.

I got mine when I was living in London in the 70s when I wanted to make a light-box for sorting slides & had no tools with me, so I trotted around to the "ironmongers" around the corner & bought the few things I needed without giving it much thought. The steel in this chisel is superb, it's probably just something like O1, but the temper is right on the sweet spot; it takes & holds an edge like no other 'ordinary' chisel I have. I wish I'd got a whole set of 'em!

If your chisel is from the same batch, or made by the same hand as mine you have a winner there. Although you could call it a "mortise chisel" and use it for moderate mortising duties, I think it should really be called a "firmer" chisel. I would expect a mortise chisel to have a hoop on the top of the handle and a heftier bolster. Boxwood is very tough stuff, so you needn't be afraid to use it on "sensible" woods, but I don't think it would like being pounded into spotted gum or ironbark very often...

Cheers,

Sash Mortice Chisel

Originally Posted by Fuzzie

Sash Mortice Chisel

That's probably a more accurate title, Fuzzie.

Where some of these chisels cross from one category to another seems to me to be a pretty vague line, at times. The names vary depending on the country, the manufacturer, the period in which it was made, & who you're talking to...

Cheers,