Jessica Pierce-LaRose
08-27-2012, 8:50 PM
Picked up an 1/8" chisel a while back - something kind of mortise-y firmer-ish, got it for a song, some surface rust, not in bad shape, but a busted handle . . .
240062
Some extra time today, and a bit bored, trying to stay off my foot (thought I'd help out the contractors working on my porch and stepped on a couple of long nails - went right through my shoe into my foot and toe, and what do you know, it hurts like the dickens!) Was going to apply some finish to the doors of the cabinet I was working on, but it was awkward sitting down. So I knocked out this instead, sitting on a stool. Went in for a tetanus shot this afternoon, and that arms pretty sore, too, which made jack planing not as much fun, but I knocked this out in under an hour while my wife made dinner. Most of that time was scraping a bit of material away at a time as I fine tuned the fit, and it probably would have been fine well before that.
240061
240063
Cut out a chunk of maple from a scrap board with my 7pt saw, and after that all that was used was a hardware store pullsaw, a chisel, a jack plane and my Victorinox knife. The knife saw most of the action.
I'll probably shape/scrape the tenon more, but at this point it holds firmly enough that after I tap it on the bench once, I need to whack it sideways to get it off. Getting some graphite powder in there, I'm leaving a fair amount of marks pretty much all around the tenon. The inside of the socket is rough enough I'll probably never get it perfect everywhere, but that also seems to help it hold well.
I've made a socket handle in the past somewhat like the method posted here:
http://literaryworkshop.wordpress.com/2010/10/18/making-a-socket-chisel-handle-without-a-lathe/
But I wanted something with a shoulder, for whatever reason.
I approached things similarly to how Brian discusses over on Galoototron:
http://www.galoototron.com/2010/10/30/my-first-socket-chisel-handle-whee/
I figured out the length of the tenon, and the diameter at the bottom. I measured this off the broken handle rather than the chisel socket, hence the space between the end of the socket and the shoulder of the tenon.
I made marks on the side of squared stock, and made 45 degree cuts to meet those lines coming in from the corners. Then I chiseled down (heavy cuts, but still controlled paring cuts with a bit of a slicing action, because I'm going against the grain) Then shaped that into a cone with a chisel. (so I didn't really start with the square tenon like the Galoototron post, which looking back would have made things easier) Once I had a decent tapered cone, it was just a matter of using dirt from the inside of the socket and graphite to mark and pare.
It obviously still needs some shaping, but it's actually comfortable and functional enough for use at this point.
Nothing amazing here, I know, but it was a nice quick project. I wish I had more progress pictures. I know when I first wanted to make replacement handles for socket chisels, I was intimidated because I didn't have a lathe. If I can knock this out in around an hour, including prepping stock from an offcut of rough 5/4ish lumber, and get something that I could use (well, if I chamfered the edges a bit at the top) I think anyone could. So I guess this is just encouragement to anyone else that might read this.
I'll try and post new picture if I get around to making this a little nicer.
240062
Some extra time today, and a bit bored, trying to stay off my foot (thought I'd help out the contractors working on my porch and stepped on a couple of long nails - went right through my shoe into my foot and toe, and what do you know, it hurts like the dickens!) Was going to apply some finish to the doors of the cabinet I was working on, but it was awkward sitting down. So I knocked out this instead, sitting on a stool. Went in for a tetanus shot this afternoon, and that arms pretty sore, too, which made jack planing not as much fun, but I knocked this out in under an hour while my wife made dinner. Most of that time was scraping a bit of material away at a time as I fine tuned the fit, and it probably would have been fine well before that.
240061
240063
Cut out a chunk of maple from a scrap board with my 7pt saw, and after that all that was used was a hardware store pullsaw, a chisel, a jack plane and my Victorinox knife. The knife saw most of the action.
I'll probably shape/scrape the tenon more, but at this point it holds firmly enough that after I tap it on the bench once, I need to whack it sideways to get it off. Getting some graphite powder in there, I'm leaving a fair amount of marks pretty much all around the tenon. The inside of the socket is rough enough I'll probably never get it perfect everywhere, but that also seems to help it hold well.
I've made a socket handle in the past somewhat like the method posted here:
http://literaryworkshop.wordpress.com/2010/10/18/making-a-socket-chisel-handle-without-a-lathe/
But I wanted something with a shoulder, for whatever reason.
I approached things similarly to how Brian discusses over on Galoototron:
http://www.galoototron.com/2010/10/30/my-first-socket-chisel-handle-whee/
I figured out the length of the tenon, and the diameter at the bottom. I measured this off the broken handle rather than the chisel socket, hence the space between the end of the socket and the shoulder of the tenon.
I made marks on the side of squared stock, and made 45 degree cuts to meet those lines coming in from the corners. Then I chiseled down (heavy cuts, but still controlled paring cuts with a bit of a slicing action, because I'm going against the grain) Then shaped that into a cone with a chisel. (so I didn't really start with the square tenon like the Galoototron post, which looking back would have made things easier) Once I had a decent tapered cone, it was just a matter of using dirt from the inside of the socket and graphite to mark and pare.
It obviously still needs some shaping, but it's actually comfortable and functional enough for use at this point.
Nothing amazing here, I know, but it was a nice quick project. I wish I had more progress pictures. I know when I first wanted to make replacement handles for socket chisels, I was intimidated because I didn't have a lathe. If I can knock this out in around an hour, including prepping stock from an offcut of rough 5/4ish lumber, and get something that I could use (well, if I chamfered the edges a bit at the top) I think anyone could. So I guess this is just encouragement to anyone else that might read this.
I'll try and post new picture if I get around to making this a little nicer.