Thread: How to hold a paring chisel

In his description of the use of the paring chisel, Moxon states:

"It is not knocked upon with the mallet, but the blade is clasped upon the outside of the hindermost joints of the fore- and little fingers, by the clutched inside of the middle and third fingers of the right hand. And so its edge being set upon the scribed line and the top of the helve [handle] placed against the hollow of the inside of the right shoulder. With [the workmen] pressing the shoulder hard upon the handle, the edge cuts and pares away the irregularities.
This way of handling may seem a preposterous posture to manage an iron tool in, and yet the reason of the original contrive of this posture is to be approved. For short workmen hold the blade of the paring chisel in their whole hand, they must either hold their hand pretty near the helve [handle], where they cannot well manage the tool, although must hold it pretty near the edge, where the outside of the fingers will hide the scribed line they are to pare in [to]. But this posture all work them are at first taught; and [their] practice dost so inure them to it, that if they would, they could not well leave it."

In his commentary, Chris Schwarz describes this suggested use of the paring chisel as "a bit unusual". It certainly does not seem to be one that is in the standard works on woodwork, carpentry, joinery and cabinetmaking such as those of Paul Hasluck, Bernard Jones, Charles Hayward or Ernest Joyce. It also doesn't appear in my fourth edition of Walton's Woodworking.

I have been reviewing old Australian books on woodwork carpentry and joinery both for personal interest and also to make suggestions to Gary Roberts as to works that he might republish electronically. This weekend, I was reading New Australian Home Carpentry Illustrated, which was written by Alex Smith and published in the early 1950s. It shows as an item of "Workshop Wisdom", a similar use of the paring chisel to that described by Moxon. The only differences seem to be that the workman uses his left hand to wrap around the blade rather than the right, and his hand on the blade does not use the little finger in addition to the forefinger. The enclosed pdf shows the picture and accompanying text.

I am ordering the longer bladed paring chisels in the paring chisel bulk order to make this approach to holding the chisel easier for me (I find that 150mm blades are a bit short for this purpose).