Advice on rehandling mortice chisels

[Kim Malmberg]

I was fortunate enough to win an auction lot containing three E.A. Berg mortice chisels.


These are tanged chisels like every other Berg chisels found in Finland. Two of them have shop made handles made of (ordinary) birch and one came without a handle.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/finnberg68/sets/72157640076157735/


I'm no newbie when it comes to making handles for chisels but I still wonder if you people would have any advice on what shape of handle would be the best for heavy chisels like these.


You don't see a lot of tanged Berg mortice chisels and most I have seen have been fitted with shop made handles. I believe that Berg originally made these chisels with round handles, just like they did with the ordinary bench chisels.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/finnberg68/10940528135/in/set-72157637833119463


Pictures I have seen shows round Berg handles fitted with a ferrule at the tang end of the handle. It seems like the tang is actually fitted inside the ferrule.


There is a important difference between Berg mortice chisels and what I would call American pigstickers. The tang is much narrower and will not provide the same kind of support to the handle as the pigstickers do.


SInce I don't own a lathe, I do struggle with making perfectly round handles, and I'm also unsure if a round handle is suitable. So my preference is this.


1. Elliptic and slightly tapered handles shaped with a puukko, spokeshave and rasps. Leather washer between tang and handle and possibly also at the striking end of the handle. My preferred wood would be birch as it is is easily available although I am aware of the potential risk of splitting. Birch would also be typical for the era and the culture.


2. As above, but ferrules added at the tang portion and top and top leather washer possibly removed. But this would decrease the striking area and would probably lead to the ferrule chewing on the handle.


3. As either of the above alternatives but with handles made of something more durable. But what kind of wood? Please bear in mind that I donut have exotic wood and I strive as much as possible to use local species. Domestic wood would be maple, oak, apple, lilac, elm, juniper and possibly plum if I can find anything thick and straight enough.


Also, these chisels have gigantic, deep and heavily tapered tangs. I'm thinking of using a 3 mm auger bit to reach far enough inside the handle, But this might be a challenge if the wood is too dense. My drill bits aren't long enough to reach and the same goes for my Forstner bits. Does anyone have experience with using a long, headless nail, possible filed at the corners or twisted, as to allow for waste removal?


I know a lot of you heat the tang, and then burn the hole, and that is not out of the question. But I'm not too worried about making a exact fit. I have seen enough chisels in my life to know that a hole too narrow will eventually split the handle and a hole to wide can be remedied with the addition of newspaper or aluminum foil. So my aim is to make a hole deep enough and then worry about the rest.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Jeff Heath]

Since they are mortising chisels, you need, and want, a tough wood that doesn't split easily. I would think that birch would not be a good choice.....at least the birch that grows around here. I have some spanish elm that I cut down 13 years ago when I bought my current home. It was literally overgrown to the point where it was blocking entrance to the driveway. This wood is undulating, and extremely difficult to split with an axe. From the list you've supplied, I would say that if your elm is like it is here, then it would make excellent chisel handle wood. I've been using it for replacement handles, and it's actually better than the hickory that I also use. I have plenty of both species on my property.

My .02. Others will chime in I'm sure.

[Mike Siemsen]

The apple should make a good handle. I usually make oval handles as it is easier to know when the chisel is square to the slot and it doesn't roll off of the bench. Make your handle blank oversize and center drill it with a bit that is about the diameter of the tang about a third of the way down on the small end. Use the tang itself as a reamer and ream out the hole until handle almost seats on the chisel maybe 1/8th to 1/4 of an inch depending on the wood you use. Seat the handle with a mallet. Now shape the handle to the centerline of the chisel.

[Jim Koepke]

Many mortise chisels use an oval style handle. It is helpful for the feel of alignment when working. Your pictures look like the small chisel has the handle oriented incorrectly.

Though my recent go at this was with a socket chisel some of my experience might help:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?212099-Chisel-Rehab-For-Mortising

In the first image there are three tanged mortise chisels on the lower right. The one on the left has the handle with which it came. The other two have handles of my making before I knew what I was doing. They are both just pieces of roundish wood that was in my scrap pile.


1. Elliptic and slightly tapered handles shaped with a puukko, spokeshave and rasps. Leather washer between tang and handle and possibly also at the striking end of the handle. My preferred wood would be birch as it is is easily available although I am aware of the potential risk of splitting. Birch would also be typical for the era and the culture.

I am curious about a "puukko." Dr. Google again increased my knowledge about knives.

If the tang isn't allowed for in making the handle, any wood is likely to split. The tang will act like a splitting wedge. My last attempt at this seems to have worked well. The hole was drilled to a size almost the same as the widest point of the tang and almost as deep as the tang was long.

Hopefully someone with more experience making handles for tanged chisels will jump in and give us some real world knowledge on this.

I do not know about birch being any more likely to split than any other wood. If it was traditionally used it must have had some qualities that make it good for chisel handles.

With an oval handle it is difficult to fit a ferrel. I have seen some mortise chisels with a leather washer between the handle and the bolster at the base of the tang.

One thought on chisel handles and such is to use a wood that is plentiful. If it does split, it wasn't an expensive learning experience.

jtk

[Warren Mickley]

Kim, your chisels are similar to mortise chisels found here in the mid 18th century. The handles we see most commonly for these are octagonal with a very slight taper and a rounded striking surface. Your handles seem a bit oversize to me; I would consider making them octagonal and tapering just a small amount. You do not need ferrules or rings or leather.

Here in Pennsylvania we have five species of birch. Two are quite dense and strong and would make fine handles. The others only fair handles. You probably have Betula pendula in your area. I should think that would be adequate.

You can make a cheap drill bit by flattening and sharpening the tip of a nail. I would drill as far as possible with your regular bit first.

[Jim Koepke]

You can make a cheap drill bit by flattening and sharpening the tip of a nail. I would drill as far as possible with your regular bit first.

This reminded me of another possible shop made drill bit. If you have a scrap of pipe or tubing. Coper doesn't work well for this. Mostly my tubing is scraps of stainless steel tubing. Sharpen it on the inside with a ball shaped stone or even use scary sharp on a marble. Then you may want to fashion some notches in the end for it to bite into the wood.

jtk

[Kim Malmberg]

Jeff, Mike, Jim, Warren
Many thanks for your insight. Let's start off with birch. Common birch as I call it here is the kind of wood anyone can find in any part of my country. It is the preferred choice for anyone who wants to heat up the Sauna or stove or kakelugn. It's very easy to shape, slightly more dense than pine or spruce, very pale and easily available. I don't think it is perfect for handles, but the availability was probably the main reason it was often used for tool handles.

Jeff suggested elm, which I had recently tusked for a axe handle. I must admit I liked working with elem. It is nice to shape, has a consistent grain texture and smells nice. So I will try elm on at least one of the handles. I have decided to repurpose at leads one of the birch handles. The largest one will be sized down and used for the largest chisel.

Jim is quite right in that the hole a the surface of the handle has to be wide enough not to be split by the bolster. This is a mistake I have made with several previous handles. Few things are as annoying a having spent an hour working on a handle, making sure the hole is deep enough, straight enough and good enough and then once you tap the handle on it seems just right - until you place that last blow and the bugger cracks.

I will try the nail trick. Reaming the hole is obviously one way to go, but I like to make sure the hole is a tad deeper than the tang. A loose fit can easily be remedied with one or two wood shavings or news paper. Actually I think this creates an even better fit than a snugly fit hole. The extra paper or wood shaving will fill any pockets and will secure the tang with the handle even better.

Jim mentions Puukko knives. Puukko knives are probably the most underrated woodworking tools you can find. I'm no expert on the subject or a particularly good user. But almost every Finn own a puukko knife and most know how to use them. They are used for whittling small boats out of pine bark, gutting fish, carving splinters for bonfires, woodworking and many other things. I've used a puukko since I was a small child. Most of them were Mora knives, some with wooden and some with plastic handles. The greatness of a puukko knife is the versatility of it. You can use it at various angles for varying purposes, with one hand or two, it can create curves or straight lines, so it has the wonderful ability of being a multipurpose tool.

The one I use now is one I found at the local fair and one that will follow me until the day I die.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/finnberg68/sets/72157640157135434/
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/finnberg68/sets/72157640157135434/)
But I also have a small whittling knife made by Erik Frost in Mora. It has a vey samall and narrow blade and it will work any curve of a a saw handle in any direction of grain

http://www.flickr.com/photos/finnberg68/10815607556/in/set-72157637587346036

My puukko is not one of those fancy and expensive ones. But it's a very good one nonetheless. It has a handle made of masur birch, it has a forged blade and it's a wonderfully versatile tool. I use it a lot around my workshop. Sometimes it acs as a knife, sometimes is works like a spokeshave and sometimes I use it like a scraper. A puukko knife can be tilted at various angles, it reaches corners where other tools can't and it has a straight edge as well as a curved one.

[Jim Koepke]

I will try the nail trick. Reaming the hole is obviously one way to go, but I like to make sure the hole is a tad deeper than the tang.

My thought on this was even with just a little bit of the point from the tang digging in at the end of the hole it will keep the blade from wobbling in the hole.

Maybe just wrapping a shaving around the tip of the tang will do the same thing.

Thanks for more information on the knives.

Different parts of the world have different traditions and tool styles. It is all interesting to us curious folk.

jtk