Stiletto Chisel? Any info

[Samuel Green]

I picked up this Stiletto chisel at an estate sale for $1 because it looked like good steel. I can't seem to find much online about it but I was curious if anyone on here may know something about them. Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks!

355808

[Matt Day]

You'll have better luck over in the Neander section.

As you probabaly found, this is the first google hit with "stiletto chisel".
http://galootopia.com/old_tools/chisels/swedish-chisels/stiletto-chisels/

[Jim Koepke]

[edited]
As you probabaly found, this is the first google hit with "stiletto chisel".
http://galootopia.com/old_tools/chisels/swedish-chisels/stiletto-chisels/

Interesting history, one of my gouges is branded Stiletto. Picked up a chisel at Habitat for Humanity store that was labeled Baker Hamilton.

jtk

[Morey St. Denis]

Prior information is all correct. I can add that I own quite a number of contemporary Stiletto tools. The brand and logo was purchased from a defunct mining tool supply and hardware store that rose to local prominence during the California Gold Rush period. Contemporary Stiletto striking tools however are largely based upon Titanium investment castings, more recently they've also added polished Stainless Steel pry bars. As a professional engineer and materials scientist, I can appreciate the proper application of structural Titanium in certain instances. Aerospace grade Alpha-phase Titanium similar to Ti-6Al-4V alloy exhibits all the strength of our best weldable steels, yet only 60% the weight; modulus falls about midway between that of aluminum and steel. Titanium never exhibits great edge holding properties, but no worry, your vintage chisel is not Titanium; it is quality Steel. Regret I cannot more readily define an age for your chisel.

Continuing with some worthwhile information on Titanium materials, certain Beta-phase alloys such as 21S demonstrate unusually low thermal expansion coefficients, on a scale usually available only with the best ceramics when applied to stable optical switching networks. Titanium is imperious to corrosion in marine environments and makes the best possible substitute for bone and fasteners in human surgical implants, dental and joint replacement. As an entirely non-ferrous material it is always non-magnetic, but retains strength properties all the way to extreme radiant temperatures. Thermal and electrical conductivity of all Titanium based alloys is relatively poor; for application in corrosion resistant marine heat exchangers, sectional areas must be kept as low as working pressures will permit. Whenever doing framing carpentry with hand tools in an especially cold environment, you'll quickly come to prefer the comfort of grasping bare Titanium metal as opposed to steel. Also, it's much less injurious to our articulating joints when swinging or striking a nearly equal mass of Titanium as opposed to steel, such as the instance of application to a framing hammer... In a previous career, I was responsible for engineering and deployment of many hundreds of pounds of formed and TIG welded structural Titanium in marine applications for clandestine recovery of expended Soviet cruise missiles and wake-homing torpedoes from Artic test ranges, during our active "Cold War" period. Retired space shuttles, all advanced tactical fighters, the ISS, most aerospace designs including space capsules and rocketry incorporate many hundreds, occasionally thousands of pounds of Titanium materials, since the era that gave birth to "Kelly" Johnson's Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" spy plane from the fifties through late nineties, now decommissioned. Even Chevy Corvettes through several decades have employed Titanium in moving suspension linkages. You may have gathered; I'm a big fan of Titanium, and by remote extension and personal experience, the Stiletto tool brand. Retain that brand marking in any chisel restoration efforts, it's way cool. Congratulations, a Great Find!