Thread: Marples Mortise chisel handle.

Hi Geoff. Interesting treatment of the tang - I assume it's to help lock the chisel into the handle? I've not seen that on any other chisel. Is it a factory feature, or was it added during a previous handle replacement??

Cheers,

Like Ian, I have not seen that before either. A very interesting design feature.
I am wondering if - as this was a wartime chisel for a government department - it was caused by some obscure civil servant writing a specification into the contract for chisels for the war dept.
No doubt if the chisel had to be used in self-defence, the handle must be guaranteed to remain in place
Obviously it worked, as the handle needed to be destroyed to remove it.
Thanks for sharing.
SG

G'day Guys, The metal part of that chisel weighs 3/4Kg (750g) so I presume the requirement would be for the handle and chisel not come apart in use ergo the 'stitching'. The stitching looks like it is original. It's a new one on me that's why I posted the photos. Now to rehandle the sod!

Fascinating, Geoff.

That "stitching" is more commonly referred to a barbs, as in fish hooks, and is a fairly common feature where one doesn't want something to come out. When I lived in New Guinea it was a common feature of spears and fighting picks that one wished to remain in the victim!

Cheers

Graeme

Originally Posted by Geoffexpat

...... I presume the requirement would be for the handle and chisel not come apart in use.....

Made my toes twitch at the thought of a hefty chunk of very sharp steel heading vertically towards them!

Yairs, you would want that sucker to remain firmly inside the bit you are holding on to.

Cheers,

I have an identical mortise chisel, marked ^ 1944. On dimensions, mine is 1/2" wide, blade to tang 7.5", overall length 14". Can you please tell me how long the blade is on yours? I do not plan to check the tang barbs! This chisel is in perfect condition. In the 1909 Marples catalogue, these oval handled chisels are described as "Best Mortise Chisel", ranging in size from 1/8" to 3/4". You can see the lamination along the cutting edge. Sorry for the poor picture, a bit rushed this morning.



Cheers
Peter

Peter

I have been searching for a 1/2 inch mortice chisel and I remembered that I saw something like yours just recently on ebay.

3/4 inch, Marples, engraved with 1944 and shows the same barbed tang. Maybe it ws a war era feature. Frankly I am surprised they were making chisels at that time, although when I think about it they needed tools for the war effort.

Vintage Marples & Sons 3/4" Mortise Chisel As Photo (eBay item 150572415274 end time 02-Aug-11 06:13:06 AEST) : Business, Office Industrial

Regards
Paul

Heavensabove - the chisel is 9inches long to the tang, the lamination itself is 5 3/4 inches. Bushmiller - that looks like a ringer for mine, thanks.

Must be common as muck. I've got one too.

I have another mortise chisel with a similar barbed tang. About 1/4" Also Marples but no DoD broadarrow.

Maybe it was a Marples thing.

Cheerio,
Virg.

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Here is that 3/4" marples mortise chisel along with (in the middle) an 'Isaac Greaves' no7 1/2" mortise chisel and (at top) a 'Thos Ibbotson & Co warranted' 1/4" (now 15/16") mortise chisel.
The 1944 Marples has been rehandled in beech (Fagus sylvatica) as per the original handle. The Greaves is handled in Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) - this is the original handle but I have had to do some remodelling of the top as there was a splinter off the top - most probably due to someone hitting it with a metal nail hammer. The Ibbotson appears to be handled in a fruit wood , most probably apple (Malus spp) looking at the end grain and referencing it. Again I had to remodel the top due to a sliver having broken off at some time.
The third picture, hopefully, shows the backs as being flat. The 3/4" was taking one hell of a time to flatten until, that is, I got the DMT Dia-Flat Diamond Coated Lapping Plate onto it. The back had been convex and over time I had spent about 8hours all up (lots of 1/2 - 1 hour efforts) to flatten it and still had the front 1/2" to flatten out. That lapping plate then did it all in 1 hour. The Greaves flattened out in 1 hour with the plate.
The Ibbotson had a concavity of 47/1000" (about 3/64") with a similar bow along the length. The plate took 2 hours to flatten the black. And the moral of the story is either 1) buy the lapping plate and save time or 2) invest in premium quality chisels, eg Lie-Nielsen, Veritas or those new Stanley Sweetheart Socket Chisels, and spend more time woodworking than fettling. One caveat I would mention is that I own Lie-Nielsen and Veritas chisels but have no knowledge of the sweetheart ones - this will change as I want the 1 1/4" sweetheart to top out the set of 10 Lie-Nielsens bevel edge chisels.
I based the 3/4" handle more on the 1/4" Ibbotson handle rather than the 1/2" Ash handle as I find that handle a bit too big for me to feel in complete control in the chopping process.
Here is a question for you guys - how long do you need the back of the chisel need to be flat for chopping mortises? The shortest 'flat back' out of those three is the 1/2" mortise chisel as this coincides with the length of steel lamination.
At the end of the day these chisels will now be around for another 70 years and not consigned to the scrap heap. thanks