Thread: I'm back

Welcome back, Doggie.
I have seen post about your Titan book on the forums in my travels. In celebration of your return, a photo of a titan socket firmer I'm cleaning up at the moment...

TitanFirmer.jpg

Yes Johknee
A beautiful thing a socket chisel. First used in pre-roman times but not used much since due to the unfortunate fact the handle is not actually attached to the blade. Aussie framers did not take to the handle falling out while working on a roof or second story. BUT a great tool never the less.
Keep collecting.
Doggie

Yairs, I love my socket Titan firmers (one of which I think came from Doggie's excess-to-requirements pile), but they do have a habit of ejecting the blade when you least expect, with great risk to feet & toes. A tip I got from another forumite (who got it from someone else) is to spray the taper with hair-spray (the cheapest brand you can find in Woollies or wherever you prefer to shop, was his tip) before banging it on. It seems to work...

Heavy socket.jpg

And before you take me to task for vandalism, I don't think I acquired a single one of these with an original handle, confirming Doggie's assertion that handles & socket chisels are soon parted.

The one that got me started was the 1.25" (or was it the 1.5"? Can't remember now!) which I found in my old pot's shed when cleaning it out after he moved on. It wasn't in near-pristine condition like johknee's, the original handle had gone & dad had stuck in the first bit of wood he found that looked remotely like a handle. His eyesight got so bad in his last few years that all his chisels were ground at odd bevel angles & not too square across, & this one was no exception. Anyway, this lot now look pretty spiffy with new brigalow woodwork, and although they don't get a huge amount of work, they are occasionally called on to do some heavy lifting, which they take in their stride....

Cheers,

Doggie it looks like the other addicts here are trying to tempt you back to the torment with cheap trick penny bags. Don't fall for it, go find a nice yellow handle Stanley butt at the local tip shop and polish it up to match those sparkly ring spanners.

Welcome back.

Fuzz
I've already tried the Stanley yellow handle therapy and it didn't take (see pic of farm workbench). I've also had a session on Berg therapy (failed and expensive). Of late I'm very attracted to the Siddons shiny.
DickMar 2022 1.jpg

Now that's a WORK-bench!

The general clutter looks very familiar to me, but I'm not too sure what those things with long tails are for....

Cheers,

What clutter?? Please notice that there is still room to hang stuff. Also' that's not the main workbench either. It's just a tool rack in case I need to fix something carpenterial. Proper workbench shown below (carpenterial) the engineerial bench is separate also.

Mar 2022 17.jpg

Ok, Ok, my sincerest apologies for using the "c" word! I should've said "organised chaos" or some other polite term.

But now you are causing bench-envy......

To show that the anti Titan therapy of the last few years plus the partial re-orientation to Sidchrome has had the desired effect on my mental health( plus, my clutter syndrome so clearly revealed by IW), I give you some images of my Titan collection taken a little while ago. Proof of my cure is that I can talk about Titan things without referral to imaginary friends or attendant psychiatric staff.

I keep my Titans in plan drawers. They are divided into eras of blade markings and decals. Earliest (1945) to latest (1965ish) from the top drawer down except the bottom drawers where I've separated them by gouges, patternmakers, stubbies and plastic handles. They used to be separated into chisel types in each drawer such as registered, light and heavy tang firmers, light and heavy sockets, bevels and plain edges etc,etc. Over recent years this orderly arrangement in the drawers has broken down due to the volume of chisels so until I get more plan drawers I just put new chisels to the collection in their proper drawer according to blade mark and decal irrespective of their type. Since these pics were taken last March I've added another few hundred

These days unless a chisel is very rare I only collect good examples that is, new old stock, or collectable grade. See. Sanity at work yes?

Images of some of the plan drawers. Sorry about the clutter!
Mar 2022 8.jpg.Mar 2022 7.jpgMar 2022 6.jpgMar 2022 4.jpg

Some lovely examples of near-pristine chisels there, Dogs. Amazing how you can still stumble across NOS examples, still kicking about 50 years or more after they were made!
Cheers,
Ian

Yes. It is amazing how some of them survive in almost pristine condition for so long (the oldest belting on the door of eighty years old). I put it down to the "sock drawer" theory. I posit that these chisels were given as birthday/anniversary,Christmas/Dad's day presents by wife/lover/children etc after the gifter fell victim to the many 1950/60's Titan ads in every kind of magazine and newspaper that insisted Dad was sweating on these chisels to fulfill his duty of building a house/chicken coup/sleep out/cubby. After gratefully receiving said chisel/s it was put immediately to use or racked in the shed or, placed lovingly in the male holy of holies. His sock/undies drawer. At the very back., Still in its packaging with gift card attached. It remained there in the dry and dark largely forgotten for decades until it was discovered by the now aging kids who turned up to pack up Mum and Dad's house when they moved to the retirement village/aged care facility (or worse). When these treasures are discovered by the kids they are either thrown in the dumpster (along with tons of other marvelous 1960's unused stuff and the now unfashionable socks and underwear) or, make their way onto a one-off trash and treasure stall/garage/jumble/church fete sale or put up on ebay. The kids usually don't keep them as they have no use or can't or are too old to use them.

Anyway this is my theory of how these all but new chisels find their way into my plan drawers. "New old stock" is not a big thing in Australia as we were not bombed in WW2 and not big on basements to Hardware stores so discovery of a cache of old tools buried in the blitz doesn't happen.

Great to have you back Dick.
That is a great collection of Titans.
I am quite taken by your collection of Titan paring chisels.
I've never seen so many in one place before.
Very rare in these parts.
Cheers
Tom

They are rare everywhere Tom. The upside is that they are not well known and you can sometimes pick them up (when they appear) for a normal Titan price whereas if they are recognised by collectors on ebay they can go for a couple of hundred dollars. Stubbies are rare down south whereas not so in Queensland.

Originally Posted by Doggie

They are rare everywhere Tom. The upside is that they are not well known and you can sometimes pick them up (when they appear) for a normal Titan price whereas if they are recognised by collectors on ebay they can go for a couple of hundred dollars. Stubbies are rare down south whereas not so in Queensland.

Years ago when I was putting together my set of long parers, I managed to find three Titans.
The other sizes came along in dribs and drabs - three Marples, two Woodcocks, one JGE Sheffield (not seen this brand before, but the size was right), and one Ward & Payne
I don't use them as much these days, but they are great to reach for when a longer chisel is needed.
Tom

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