Dovetail chisel?

[Mark Gibney]

I'm pretty sure this is a dovetail chisel, but I can't find anything like it by google.

It was badly eaten by rust, and I only worked on it because it was my grandfather's.

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The ferrule was rotted off, and the handle came away easily. Because of the handle it looks to me like it was made as a paring chisel. Is this what it is?
Can this chisel be used for chopping? - if I put a different handle on it? Or is it designed specifically for paring alone? What angle is appropriate for this chisel?

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Anybody have an idea who made the chisel? - any brand name rusted away years ago. It's probably European, it spent the last 50 years in a shed in Ireland, about the dampest place on earth.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Mark

I bet that your grandfather made that chisel from a file.

I would lap the back of the chisel until all the pock marks are gone, and then use it. Before chopping into any hard woods, try and determine how brittle the steel is. It would have needed to be heat treated at some stage to reduce the brittleness of a file. It it is still as hard - try scratching it with another file - then it may be too brittle to hammer.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Dan Hulbert]

+1 on what Derek wrote. I have a couple that look just like that that I made from files. I'd shoot for about 25 degrees and use it primarily without a mallet. A few light raps here and there should be fine, but don't try chopping mortises in oak.

[Doug Hepler]

I agree with a bevel of about 20 deg. This has a tang handle with no ferrule (at least no ferrule in the photo). This means to me that it is useful only for paring with hand pressure. In addition to the possible brittleness of the metal (others have addressed well) you will split the handle if you use a mallet.

Doug

[steven c newman]

Seems the handle did at one time have a ferrule.....replace that with a new one.

Have taken to using "power" to puch a chisel when paring to the base lines....my chin. I can then sight right straight down.
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Good thing I don't have a "Glass Jaw".....

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Have taken to using "power" to puch a chisel when paring to the base lines....my chin. I can then sight right straight down.

Wait, what? Really? You put your chin on it and push? You know you have to do this for me when I see you next, right?

[steven c newman]

Come on over. You can try out the "new" Aldi's chisels too...

[Bill Houghton]

Have taken to using "power" to puch a chisel when paring to the base lines....my chin. I can then sight right straight down.

Good thing I don't have a "Glass Jaw".....
That raises a whole new set of questions to debate: cleft chin vs. not, the virtues of lantern jaws, etc., etc., etc.

[steven c newman]

LOL...at least there won't be a chin sharpening thread.....

[Jim Koepke]

LOL...at least there won't be a chin sharpening thread.....

Who knows, some may want the goatee look with out the hair.

jtk

[bridger berdel]

Straight razor or double edge....

[Mark Gibney]

That makes sense looking at the chisel now, that it was a file.

I removed material from all three sides with my Tormek, and have been lapping them. You can see in the photo where the color of the metal changes close to the tang. Does this mean that it was heat treated at some point after it was modified from being a file?

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Is this type of chisel just used to clean up a little detail here and there? If so it seems it would be kind of unnecessary, maybe just more clutter on a workbench.

[Doug Hepler]

Some files show a color change near the tang. A rough idea of its hardness is whether a file will cut it at all. If a fresh file just slides over it, it probably was not annealed. If a file barely cuts it it might have been annealed and re-tempered. You can see what scratches what. Metallurgy is a mystery to me so take that with a grain of salt until somebody shows up who knows what he is talking about.

If you don't cut DT by hand or if you already have a method that works for you, then, yes, it's just a relic of your grandfather's time when people made chisels out of files, sandpaper was made with garnet, and power tools were run with washing machine motors. Put it in a drawer somewhere. I have a number of sketchy tools like that that I inherited. They remind me that once we got along OK without the latest and greatest thing Sometimes they even come in handy.

If you want to use it, I'd recommend that you consider putting a couple of washers over the tang to act as a bolster and find a ferrule that fits well. Then I guess that you could strike it with a wooden mallet, depending on the condition of the handle.

Doug

[Mark Gibney]

Thanks Doug. I'll try that idea with a washer.

It'll probably live in a drawer and get an occasional run out.

[Bill Houghton]

Some files show a color change near the tang.

Doug
The tang on a file needs to be tempered fairly soft and flexible, so it doesn't snap easily. It's a fairly small section of steel compared to the file, in most cases, and, were you to temper it to the same hardness as the file, you'd likely break the tang off in use. Although this wasn't the original design intent, it also permits the use of Scroo-Zon (trademarked name) and similar file handles that cut threads on the tang as you screw the file into the handle.

I can testify to how brittle a file is, having some some stupid things with files in my life