Thread: Fitting handles to Chisels - Techniques?

have a look here, not sure if they are the type of handle you are after, but you might get a few ideas



http://www.norsewoodsmith.com/

Wayne, can't help you with Oz Timbers, but I've made a few handles.
Start to finish:
I usually start with the handle blank (45-50mm square... appropriate length) in a chuck. Turn it round, and install the spindle steady or steady rest out near the end. I use pieces of copper or brass pipe for ferrules, and turn the end of the handle down to the appropriate size, and use the tailstock with scrap hardwood, to push the ferrule onto the end over a good layer of CA.
By now, I've already determined the size tang hole I need, and use a drill chuck in the tailstock. I bore at about 400-500rpm, with slow advance on the bit, and make the hole about 6-8 mm deeper than the length of the tang.
(If I have a tapered tang, I make the hole just a mite smaller than the widest part of the tang, and use a mallet on the end of the handle to drive it home [after I'm finished with the handle, of course]. Even with a good dose of epoxy or CA. [CA spatters a bit])
Then I bring the tailstock up with a not-too-sharp end just the size necessary to steady it for finish shaping, and remove the steady rest, and finish turning the handle.
I don't sand to finer than about 150 grit, because I don't want a slick handle.
I use 100% Lemon Oil because it never hardens, takes 3 million years to dry, and always keeps the cells of the wood from shrinking, so they don't crack. And it also helps to keep them from being slick. I spin it on with bare hands to warm it a mite, and then keep it wet for an hour or two (after I take it off the lathe).
Usually add a bit of lemon oil to already finished handles at the same time, if I haven't done it in a month or so.
I use 2-ton, one-hour, epoxy to fix the blade in the handle on most tools... but on some of my gouges and parting tools, I've used CA. So far none have escaped.
I've made handles for those replaceable tip screwdrivers this way, sort of a production system (6 or 8 at a time), and it gets to going smoother the more you do.
I also use the same steps to make handles for my turning tools.
Hope this gives you an idea.

Good advice.

There remains a bit of an art to sizing and fitting the tang ... which you'll acquire if you have a heap to do.

Just a reminder though that if you have an old chisel with any kind of collectible value, keeping the original handle may do more for its worth than a replacement.

That said, English box or birch root are traditional timbers and obviously not easy to source. Euro Beech is an adequate alternative. English Ash doesn't look as good but is durable and often found when suburban trees are felled to make way for extensions.

Oz options I'd consider would be horizontal (scrub), whatever Titan used on theirs - looks to be std 'Tassie Oak' - or anything else you liked with higher density for the hitting type or lower for paring chisels.

I'd be wary of the desert acacias as less forgiving when driving a tapered rectangular tang in where the sizing hadn't been careful. That said, I've fitted a large scraper tang to a gidgee handle and it worked well.

As for patterns, I've seen some on the web and old catalogue pages are sometimes reproduced in books on old hand tools. I'll do a rummage later today if you want. My favourite is London pattern and I wish I could find/afford the box to turn some.

Hope this helps.

Bob Smalser has done some articles on rehandling chisels, complete with lots of pictures.

And there's this thread
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ead.php?t=8242

Ferrule options have been discussed several times, ranging from $2 each from CT or Timbecon, to copper pipe, and various plumbing fittings.
Don't use bearing shells! DAMHIKT.

Cheers,
Andrew

Another old-school method for fitting rect. tangs to a handle is to heat the tang to a dull cherry red and let it "burn in" to a pilot hole in the handle. Personally I'd only use this method on non-woodturning chisels and probably not even then unless I had extremely limited options!

(Although the risk of changing temper may not be as critical with modern HSS... hmmm... [ponders])

As for timbers, most of my turning tool handles are made from good old red gum. Don't even think about River Redgum, too squirrelly a grain even when you can find a piece without resin inclusions , but house stumps and fence-posts are a good, cheap source. It makes for a very durable, 100% Aussie handle and some of it has truly gorgeous figure too, one post can give you a lot of beautiful handles.

Oh... and one piece of advice I'm sure almost erveryone will give: oil the handles, DON'T lacquer 'em! Unless you really like blisters?

... and a sloppy new-school method is to glue with epoxy. (I did one of those )

Originally Posted by rsser

... and a sloppy new-school method is to glue with epoxy. (I did one of those )

Not 'sloppy' - 'hi-tech' - 'integrated vibration dampening' ................easier!

thanks hardenfast for starting this thread i too am just starting out restoring some old chisels to a usefull state. my first go with a tang type handle looks ok but at the back its developed a crack so i guess the hole for the tang was too small. in this case i used redgum from an old retaining wall sleeper and the brass rings from threaded brass tube, i put the handle back into the lathe and used a file to remove the threads its not to hard to do) looks like i better try epoxy next time for the chisel on the right which is next inline.
cost 3 dollars for the chisels 3 dollars for the brass fittings and timber free. I used a coat of u beaut EEE ULTRASHINE then TRADITIONAL WAX
oh and first mistake i made was not making sure the ends of the blanks are square to the sides its makes it much easier to drill the holes straight if your using a drill press
i just copied the profile of anuther titan handle by eyeballing and measuring the diameters of the smaller sections

Ok soundmans brief rundown.

choice of timber.
If you are working on australian hardwoods and may end up wailing on the chisel with a heavy seiies of blows, most of the traditional european and american timbers may be a bit soft and wossy.
My preference is air dried spotted gum, but any of the resilient hardwoods will do, tallow, jarrah, redgum........ tas oak I supose.
make sure it is dry.... good and dry or your furrels may fall off when it does dry.

Yes a 40 to 50mm square blank is the place to start, trim the blank up about 2" longer than the finished handle.

I cut an X across the diagonals and punch the centre points so the centres will bite & rough the blank to a cylinder.

the easiest source of furrells is carbatec but they only have one size. Brass realy is the go it is stronger than copper & just looks right.... all sorts of other stuff will work.
Having a taper on the inside of one end of the furrell is s good thing.

I then caliper the furrel and use a parting tool to size a very short sholder to a taper around the size of the inside of the furrell

make this taper about twice the width of the parting tool, with the small end smaller than the furrell ID and the big end very slightly larger.

Take the blank out of the lathe and try the furrel on.... of course it wont fit... you want to push it on hard.... this will mark the correct diameter.

I do this on the tail stock end... just my preference.

re mount the blank and size up a tennon just wider than the furrell, and slightly too big.. ever so slightly....... we will sneak up on the correct size.

then I take off small amounts of material of the very end till the furrel is a realy neat fit right at the end.... the you can make the whole tennon the same size ( as best you can).... tighter is better.

If you can get the whole tennon perfect.... good luck..... never happens for me...make sure at lest some of it is tight.

I prefer to undercut where the furrel meets the shoulder, it gives the furrel a neater fit..only a bit mind.

what I am looking for is a tennon that the furrel has to be hammered on to, getting a feel for how tight is the art... too tight can be a real problem, too lose is worse.

I will then drift the furrel in place with a hollow drift, my preference is a piece of the same pipe as the furrell... another furrell is just fine,
this is the tool end.
.
for a carving or paring tool you dont need a furrell for the other end.
for any hard striking chisels you most certainly will need another at the other end.

fit this in a similar manner.

One of the things that can make a " made" handle look wrong is the wrong size furrell...I went to a brass merchant and baught a variety of pieces of scrap tube and had a mate part them off on his lathe, in two different lengths.

the original handle will give you the best idea.

the tool end furrell is usulay just biger than the flange on the tang the striking frrell is usulay much bigger.

The titan range for instance use a different furrell combination on just about every size chisel.

the original titan chisel handles were " select hardwood" (probaly tas oak) for the firmers and murtle for the bevels.

where was I.
once the furrells are fitted both ends I shape the handle..this allows a realy neat transition to the furrells.


once the handle has been shaped, sanded and waxed. I bore the hole.

as part of the sanding process I will file the edges of the furrell and the circumference, then sand the furrel thru the gritts untill it gleams.

Oh parting off... I will part off the striking end to a stub and the too end to only a bit smaller than the furrell...I just want a decent shoulder below the furrel.

A word about spotted gum and other good handle woods.... for handle woods we are looking for the most nasty interlocked grain you can find..... this means it will tear out , chatter and carry on laike a pork chop....(HA Ha.. I laugh at your rasor shsrp skew... cop this chatter chatter)... so be prepared to use the 60 gritt gouge if you have to.... dont worry I wont tell.

to drill the hole I first pilot with a smaller drill.....1/8" to 3/16 depending on the chisel.

I will pare off the stub at the striking before drilling I I am not using a pointed center as a guide while drilling, I will pare off the tool end after I have a pilot hole, I will use the center mark from the tail centre to strat my pilot hole.
I bore the hole with a jacobs chuck in the head stock holding the handle in my hand. guided by the tail stock.

There are two types of tang chisel... ones with paralell tangs an ones with pointy tangs.
Most of the titans and a lot of the sweedish chisels have paralell tangs, so all you ahve to do is bore a single diameter hole of the right size and belt it in.
the hole should be smaller than across the points and larger than across the flats.....cant help more than that.

the pointy ones ar a pain....... rough buggers will just drill a single sized hole and bang it in.
the better way is to use at least 2 different sized drill some times 3 or 4 depending on how keen you are.
I still don't have this one down as well as I would like, It is very easy to get it wrong and split the handle of bore it oversize and end up with a "useless pretty stick".



either way if the handle isnt going on nicely witha few FIRM hammer blows, stop and redrill.. or you will either split the handle or you wont get it all the way home and have a real job gettint it out.

I put a handle on a titan once & I thaugt it was going home nicely.... but it never got all the way.... in spite of real solid pounding..... and there was no way it was comming out......it wouldn't go in, it wouldn't come out, & the handle showed no sign of splitting so I left it.

Some of you may think that drilling with the handle in hand is a bit dodgy... but if done properly and carefully... it nowhere near as bad as it seems.

the richard raffin video has a quick tool handle demo that is very helpfull.

cheers

dod I say brief

cheers

Couple of sizing tips for tangs ...

If rectangular, measure the diagonal and reduce by 1mm for the hole.

If tapered, measure at bottom, middle and top and drill down in steps.

When fitting, upend the chisel and drop (moving on to smack) the wood end on a hard surface ... the momentum of the metal should drive it home. If it doesn't, remove it and open up the hole a bit.

For woodturning gouges, leastways smaller ones, you don't really need a ferrule.

Please Soundman, it's "ferrule", not "furrell"

ahh now this is a good thread http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=11145 another from Bob Smalser but a bit more to what we are trying to learn and thanks for all the other inputs its all starting to make sense
i wonder what others think about using leather as the striking end bit

Originally Posted by arose62

Please Soundman, it's "ferrule", not "furrell"

Furrell is when you drop it in the shavings ;-}