Question on round mortice chisels

[Charles R. Smith]

I recently picked up a couple of round chisels that were called mortice (mortise?) chisels, but don't look anything like my other "pig stick"-type morticing chisels. Rather, they look more like a spoon bit that would be used in chair making.

My two questions are:
1) Are these for round mortices?
2) Since they are all curvy, how do I sharpen them?

Thanks for your help!

[Jim Koepke]

This is where pictures are helpful.

It also reminds me of a riddle attributed to Abraham Lincoln:

If you called his tail a leg, how many legs would a dog have?

Four, just because you call his tail a leg it does not make it a leg.

Often chisels are misnamed by people who are not well versed in the use of hand tools for wood. Descriptors are tossed about like leaves in the wind. On eBay, I have even seen bevel edged, firmer, mortise socket framing chisel used to describe an old screwdriver.

It sounds like what you have may be gouges.

jim

[Charles R. Smith]

Here are a couple photos of one of these chisels, a Miller-Falls 381. I checked an old M-F catalogue (number 35, from about 1918) and couldn't find anything that was remotely similar.

I have seen them listed on eBay both in the US as a mortise chisel, and on the British eBay site as a mortice chisel. Nomenclature (and spelling) aside, I remain puzzled by (1) how to use them, and (2) how to sharpen them.

[Gary Herrmann]

That looks like a bearing scraper to me.

Here's an auction on the bay selling something very similar. They also called it a mortise chisel. Either they don't know or...

200341104942

[Wes Grass]

I (also) think they're bearing scrapers. For fitting up of babbitt or bronze spindle bearings.

http://www.csosborne.com/no1140.htm

[Jim Koepke]

Bearing (babbitt) scrapers.

A mortise chisel has to stand up to a lot of beating. It is doubtful these could take that kind of beating.

Back in the old days, many bearings in split cases were made of an alloy of tin, copper, lead and antimony called babbitt named after its inventor Issac Babbit. This metal became stuck to what ever the casing was made of and the scrapper was one way to remove the mess before putting in or pouring a new bearing.

jim

[Charles R. Smith]

Thanks for this information. The advice at the Creek is, once again, right on. I feel rather dumb -- the fact that their handles weren't badly pounded, should have told me they weren't chisels.

I don't have any bearings to scrape. But I figure I can use them to get glue out of corners and perform other tasks for which I don't have a dedicated tool.

To (mis)quote Will Rogers: I never met a tool I couldn't use.

Charles

[Walter Plummer]

A lot of people use them to burnish card scrapers.

[george wilson]

Definitely babbit bearing scrapers. I am also a machinist,and have a whole set.

[Jeff Willard]

I also have a pair of those. Bought 'em at an antique shop years ago when I must have had $5.00 burning a hole in my pocket. I just knew they'd be useful for something. So far I have found absolutely no use for them. All I need now is an old lathe with babbit bearings.:eek: