Jim Koepke
01-02-2014, 12:25 PM
Watched an episode of The Woodwrights Shop last weekend in which he makes mallets from ash.
Gee there is a lot of scrap ash in my shop. So a hunk was selected, sawn and planed to get started.
The mortise through the head was going slow and my chisels weren't helping matters. They were good and sharp, but jut lacked the mass to carry the force.
For my 1" chisels there are a couple of decent flat sided chisels in the shop, a Mix and Charles Buck. The Mix is a short yet stout beater and the C. Buck is a long thin chisel that looks more suited to paring.
The mortise was just a bit too much for them. Then I remembered a chisel that came to me from a friends estate. Sorry but this is the only before picture of this chisel.
278748
It is the one in the middle of the group at the top right corner of the bench. It looks like the handle went missing but that didn't stop someone beating it with a hammer. It looked like when the edge went dull they just got a bigger hammer. There was actually a bit of a dog leg at the top of the lamination.
It looked beat up and beyond. It also looked like it could be brought back from the dead.
My hand crank grinder got its first big workout. Maybe it was me that really got the workout. At least it can be flipped so that one arm doesn't get all the fun.
278749
This is after a lot of grinding and there is still a bit of metal in the socket needing attention.
Some more scrap ash was used for the handle. It was first turned on the lathe to get the fit for the socket and make it mostly round. The chuck end was sawn off and then a shear file was used to shape the top.
278751
After that I wanted to make it more like a mortise chisel handle so the sides were flattened. If you look close you can see the wood shims used between the chisel and the vise jaws.
278752
Yes Virginia it is possible to cut a deep mortise with a light weight bench chisel, but don't let anyone tell you a more massive chisel isn't better.
278750
The work is going a lot quicker now.
278753
It was being kept in an old ammo box under the bench. Looks like a new place to keep it is in order.
jtk
Gee there is a lot of scrap ash in my shop. So a hunk was selected, sawn and planed to get started.
The mortise through the head was going slow and my chisels weren't helping matters. They were good and sharp, but jut lacked the mass to carry the force.
For my 1" chisels there are a couple of decent flat sided chisels in the shop, a Mix and Charles Buck. The Mix is a short yet stout beater and the C. Buck is a long thin chisel that looks more suited to paring.
The mortise was just a bit too much for them. Then I remembered a chisel that came to me from a friends estate. Sorry but this is the only before picture of this chisel.
278748
It is the one in the middle of the group at the top right corner of the bench. It looks like the handle went missing but that didn't stop someone beating it with a hammer. It looked like when the edge went dull they just got a bigger hammer. There was actually a bit of a dog leg at the top of the lamination.
It looked beat up and beyond. It also looked like it could be brought back from the dead.
My hand crank grinder got its first big workout. Maybe it was me that really got the workout. At least it can be flipped so that one arm doesn't get all the fun.
278749
This is after a lot of grinding and there is still a bit of metal in the socket needing attention.
Some more scrap ash was used for the handle. It was first turned on the lathe to get the fit for the socket and make it mostly round. The chuck end was sawn off and then a shear file was used to shape the top.
278751
After that I wanted to make it more like a mortise chisel handle so the sides were flattened. If you look close you can see the wood shims used between the chisel and the vise jaws.
278752
Yes Virginia it is possible to cut a deep mortise with a light weight bench chisel, but don't let anyone tell you a more massive chisel isn't better.
278750
The work is going a lot quicker now.
278753
It was being kept in an old ammo box under the bench. Looks like a new place to keep it is in order.
jtk