Oh dash it all ... or is that &^%$#@

**Daddles** · 25th January 2010, 07:15 PM

Back in my teenage years, I was given a chisel. That old girl has been with me ever since, copping all sorts of abuse in the early days as I learned how to butcher timber into useable configerations. In later years, she's served as my general purpose chisel in the boat shed - she scrapes epoxy off timber, she scrapes pencil lines off timber, she chips and chisels epoxy ooze (a job best done with an angle grinder) ... she even gets to do some woodwork but thanks to her other duties, she's never really up to fine joinery so those tasks are given to a set of chisels that never have to contend with the cast iron like qualities of set epoxy.

BUT ... and I stress this ... she doesn't get used for opening tins or shaping concrete or any of the other abuses some chisels suffer. Cripes, I even use a wooden mallet

Sadly though, she's sorely injured.

The brass ferule that holds the handle together has been slipping off regularly for some years now ... just slide it back on, no biggie, except I didn't notice this afternoon ... and the handle fell apart.

Nope, it's not a 'glue the handle back together job' because I've also managed to bugger up the lip where the ferule used to sit (yes, I was inattentive

).

So now me old chisel ain't got no handle.

A replacement chisel has already been bought - a $15 rip snorter from Mitre 10, okay for chiselling epoxy but I know the steel won't be the same as the old girl.

Sooooooo ... (yes , there was a point to all this)

Is anyone interested in a wee project? I know some of you make handles for your tools and I'm sure there's a novice out there looking for opportunities to gain some more experience. I'm not after something fancy, just something to hold onto and to whack vigorously with the wooden mallet.

Thanks.

Richard

Yes, I went straight up to the pub and bought a long neck

PS. I'm in southern Adelaide

**RufflyRustic** · 25th January 2010, 10:05 PM

Hi Daddles,

Sympathy greenie fired.... Some tools are not meant to be retired, ever.

cheers
Wendy

**Daddles** · 26th January 2010, 10:39 AM

Originally Posted by RufflyRustic

Hi Daddles,

Sympathy greenie fired.... Some tools are not meant to be retired, ever.

cheers
Wendy

Ta Wendy.

It's funny, this was just an old chisel ... until I broke her. Man she got used a lot - every job on the boat had me reaching for her at some point.

Richard

**jmk89** · 26th January 2010, 11:06 AM

Richard

I feel for you in your loss.

However, why not make your own chisel handle - in this post I enclosed a few pages from the 1839 book, The Joner and the Cabinetmaker that describes how an apprentice will make his own octagonal chisel handles.

The best thing about octagonal handles is that they don't roll when you put them down ( and then fall on your foot!)

**Daddles** · 26th January 2010, 11:40 AM

Jeremy, you do realise that I was hoping to avoid gaining yet another project

I wondered about the square hole ... and am disappointed to read that it is as I feared (you cut the thing by hand)

At least I've got a chisel narrow enough to do the job ... I think, Murphy suggests that it'll be a whisker oversize

Thinking about it, I might just have a go at a handle ... eventually. I really do have a lot to do to finish a boat that supposed to be in the water months ago and which is showing signs of becoming a shed queen - I've also got oars to make but they're fun

A chisel handle will have to wait for a bit so if someone wants a chisel to practice on (sort of a trial run before making the handles for your good set), there's one in my shed

Richard

**Daddles** · 26th January 2010, 11:45 AM

While we're on the subject of chisels and handles, my mallet head keeps slipping off the handle (it wasn't an expensive one but wasn't a cheapie either and has seen nearly a decade of use). Looking at it, the handle isn't a good fit to the head and there's probably not enough meat on the handle to do anything about it. Any suggestions apart from putting up with it until it annoys me enough to pay lots for an expensive one?

Ah ha, make a new ruddy handle

Flamin' heck, it's never ending is it.

Richard

**jmk89** · 26th January 2010, 03:40 PM

Take handle out. Saw a kerf into head end of handle about 1/2 head thickness deep. Reinsert handle in head of mallet. Bash a wedge into the kerf until it sounds really solid. Works for me

**Sawdust Maker** · 26th January 2010, 08:02 PM

Daddles
If you posted this over in the woodturning section you might get a response from someone in your neck of the woods

A piccy of the handle might help as well.

I'd volunteer to make one for you except that I've a list of things to do that is way too long
but if worse comes to worse I could knock something up. It is better to have the chisel in hand to take measurements etc

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