Thread: Show Off Your Chisels

Originally Posted by AJOE123

I have been lurking for some time and thought it was about time to stump up with some snaps,so here are most of my chisels.

...most of them? How many do you have!? I'm almost more impressed by the arsenal of hammers you've amassed.

Very nice tools.

Originally Posted by Berlin

...most of them? How many do you have!? I'm almost more impressed by the arsenal of hammers you've amassed.

Very nice tools.

Oh God yes - I love a good hammer

Originally Posted by AJOE123

.....I made a tablesaw sled with 2 centres to hold cylindrical blanks of set length;this worked so I made another for the other side of the slot for a larger diameter.....

Now that's the kind of jig I like, Ajoe. About as basic as it gets, and it works!

Cheers,

Originally Posted by AJOE123

I have been lurking for some time and thought it was about time to stump up with some snaps,so here are most of my chisels.

I think once you've moved past 'New Member' status you should be known as 'Hoarder of Chisels'

Originally Posted by pmcgee

Very nice - what brand is in the second-from-bottom row?

Paul

Second row on left is some Sorby's that I probably bought in the early 80's and on the right some Japanese mortise chisels.

Neil

In Claw Hammer's collection I was heartened to see that the majority have that well used and aged patina,......just like mine. I rub the backs when I sharpen them but I don't have a mirror finsh on the backs and on the front only the grinding angle and sharpening bevel are shiny. The rest are just O'naturale. I use mine not put them on show. They are basically Bergs most have the red plastic handle but I do have a few wooden handled ones as well. Oh and I made one 2 days ago. A 13mm wide fine engineers file, rubbed of the teeth and ground it into a paring chisel shape for tidying up dovetails. Handle wil come when I get the lathe a new home in the shed.

Originally Posted by derekcohen

OK, I would like some comments on the most low tech method I know of heat treating a blade. Let's call this a learning experience and I will takes the lumps and criticism.

Here is the situation ...

As mentioned earlier, I made a chisel for a woodworking friend. The basis of the chisel was the blade out of a black, plastic handled Stanley I have had for 10 or more years. The steel was reasonable, but on the too soft side to hold an edge for long, and the black handle was just plain Horrible.

I wanted to turn this into a nice looking chisel that could be used for paring dovetails. First thing I did was to wack off the handle (easily done with a hammer), and then ground the shoulder of the blade until they were narrow (there is a pictorial on my website). This was the result. You can see the interesting tang ...



Incidentally, the Marples/Irwin blue handle chisels look the same.

The heat treating was done with two butane torches ...



Alongside is a tin of peanut oil for part-quenching. Why "part-quenching"? Because I have no idea what the steel is. I suspect it is a O1 type rather than a W1 type. So I plan to quench in oil (which can be too slow for W1) and then re-quench in water. I have done this before successfully - any comments?

I do not heat the steel to cherry with the lights on. It is difficult to judge colour in the light, so the lights go off and I am left with a gloom.



I did not think to take a picture of the cherry (partly because it was difficult, but mainly because I only thought of pictures after this stage!). So just imagine cherry red for the first 2" of the blade. Then dunked in peanut oil until still warm, and then under cool water.

A file slides off the steel (i.e. the steel is harder than the file), so I consider it ready for the next stage.

First I clean off the blackened steel with fine sandpaper, getting back to a bright surface (all the better to see the colours in the next stage). So it is time for tempering.

Back to the torch - this is what I meant by low tech. I start about 2" back, get the steel hot and watch the colour changing as it moves along the blade towards the bevel end. As it get the palest of yellow I immediately quench it in the oil and again the water.

Here is a picture. The flash has made the yellow a little whiter than it actually was, but the steel was a faint yellow ("straw") at the tip.



The blade is now cleaned, lapped on 400 grit diamond stone, 1000/5000/12000 Shaptons - however I must point out that only the last 1" behind the bevel was lapped to 12000.



The final chisel looks like so ..



The eagle-eyed among you will notice that the handle has changed. Well I found a hairline crack in the wood of the other and so made a new one (of She-oak).



The proof of the pudding lies in the eating. Paring endgrain Radiata Pine (Truly Horrible Stuff) ...



It held up well in very hard wood as well. This is Wandoo endgrain - one of the hardest woods in the world. I kid you not.



Comments?

Regards from Perth

Derek

Derek

Apologies for getting to this one late. In principle I have done the same as you in the past except I have used oxy instead butane torches. I have access at work to oxy and if I didn't have that I would use an LPG flame. However, I know from experience that it is difficult to get enough heat into the steel by this method. I might try and heat treat a 12mm chisel, but not a 25mm chisel and certainly not a 50mm chisel. With oxy and heating head quite laarge pieces can be treated.

With regard to quenching I have only ever used oil. It seems successful and I believe it is because I use a large quanity. Twenty to thirty litres. It is always recycled oil (from work where we have gallons of used turbine oil for example) but at home I would use sump oil. To quench rapidly the tool should be dipped constantly into different parts of the bucket as localised heating of the oil must neccessarily occur. Particularly with finer tools, such as knives it is beneficial not to "stir" the cooling medium as this can lead to distortion.

I should also point out that most of my work (experiments would be more to the point) have been with high carbon steel. One day I will try with something a little more exotic .

Regards
Paul

A blacksmith technique for tempering that I have found works well is heating a block of steel that is larger than the item that you are tempering on some kind of insulating materiel(say a brick) and then place the item you are tempering on the block, flipping it and turning it on the block so that you get an even heat across the entire surface, you can get a fine control over where the temper is applied depending on what you have touching the heating block.

Neat tip.

Can you temper in a domestic oven?

Originally Posted by rsser

Neat tip.

Can you temper in a domestic oven?

yes...

Where do you get your tool rolls for your chisels? Are they off the shelf or home made? Also do you impregnate the roll with any rust inhibitors?

Originally Posted by DSEL74

Where do you get your tool rolls for your chisels? Are they off the shelf or home made? Also do you impregnate the roll with any rust inhibitors?

Off the shelf - much cheaper. However you do have to monitor your chisels for rust with these. An application of rust inhibitor to the chisel usually helps. I use camelia tea oil.
Here is a pretty cheap one - including postage it is around $17 :
12 POCKET LEATHER TOOL ROLL WITH TIE | eBay

Cheers
SG

Originally Posted by Scribbly Gum

Off the shelf - much cheaper. However you do have to monitor your chisels for rust with these. An application of rust inhibitor to the chisel usually helps. I use camelia tea oil.
Here is a pretty cheap one - including postage it is around $17 :
12 POCKET LEATHER TOOL ROLL WITH TIE | eBay

Cheers
SG

Cheers! Not local though.

Do they promote rust because they absorb moisture?

Originally Posted by DSEL74

Cheers! Not local though.

Do they promote rust because they absorb moisture?

Indeed they do.
There are tool rolls that seem to be better at the non absorption of moisture -but they all do it.
The other problem is that during continued wet weather, they tend to grow mould on the surface of the leather. Even the Lie Nielsen leather tool rolls do this.
It is the trade off you make when you decide to use the convenience of a leather tool roll.
Cheers
SG