What's this?

**Peter57** · 19th February 2013, 10:17 PM

I was at a friend's place the other day and in the bottom of an old toolbox I found a few Chisels. 2 Bergs, 2 Titans, a nondescript orange handle thing and this one. It's a Ward and initially I thought it had just seen a good honest life. But the back is not flat at all - I'd say it's never been flattened. The edge is more like a knife than a chisel so I started thinking it may be something else. A caulking chisel maybe? I've googled it and the closest thing I can find is a sash chisel. But, I'd expect that to have a flat back and a more conventional edge. Photo 1 is a general view - it's about 50mm wide
Photo 2 is the mark and photo 3 shows what happened when I covered the back in black marker pen and ran it over a sheet of 120 grit glued onto float glass.

I don't want to wreck it so I figure I'll ask the experts. I'm sharpening them all to give back to my friend as they were his grandfather's.

thanks guys,
Peter

**Berlin** · 19th February 2013, 11:56 PM

First guess, lead lighters' chisel for cutting the lead?

**bsrlee** · 20th February 2013, 02:51 AM

I suppose it could also be a 'battening chisel' - a special chisel used to knock wedges off a short piece of timber for placing into brickwork for nails, screws etc to go into - from before the days of Rawlplugs and such. Lee Valley offers something along those lines, but it is sharpened on the side as well as the end.

My father talked about a rough nut fit-out carpenter he had seen on sites where he was working as a painter in the 40's & 50's - the brickies left spaces in the mortar for the wedges to be pounded in for fastening door frames etc & this bloke used very large hammer with great gusto - Dad was always surprised he didn't crack the brickwork.

**Geoffexpat** · 20th February 2013, 05:01 AM

That looks like a William Marples and sons Sheffield England 'Shamrock Brand' firmer chisel that has been incredibly well used but not surprising since that has most probably been around since 1937.

**IanW** · 20th February 2013, 07:56 AM

Yep, I don't think you need invoke any mysterious special use. Looks like the butt of a very much-used but otherwise bog-standard firmer chisel to me. Judging by the shiny areas in your pic, the back is no worse than many an old chisel I've re-habbed, and a good deal better than some. Some blokes kept their stones flat, and some didn't bother too much, it would seem. Different strokes for different folks. It's not so hot if you have to chop a clean cut perpendicular to a straight line, but there are some jobs a knife-like edge will do well enough, like splitting packing wedges, as mentioned above........

Cheers,

**orraloon** · 20th February 2013, 08:29 AM

I agree with the two above. It would have started out as a good chisel then after it looked past it then someone found another use for it. I saw a guy using a 11/2'' wood chisel to chop brick pavers one time. I mentioned that it was a shame and he just said it was a great tool for the job. It is sad but tool abuse is more common than most of us think.
Regards
John

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