Fitting a Handle to a Socket Chisel

[Stew Denton]

Hi All,

I am still restoring chisels, and at the rate and number of chisels to do, it will take some time.

The question I have is on fitting handles to socket chisels. I am using rasps, and some handles I bought on the auction site. I start out by inserting the handle in the socket and vigorously twisting it back and forth to look for places the handle rubs against the socket. That shows me where to work down the handle with the rasp. I repeat that until the fit is good.

That has worked pretty well, and several handles have been fitted nicely, but I have had difficulties with one chisel, or maybe a little difficulty with one other.

Jim had made a comment with some advise on fitting handles in my socket chisels a while back, to mark the high spots, and I looked quite a while but could not find that comment.

Jim, and others, what do you use to mark the high spots when fitting such handles.

Jim, if you know the comment you made it would be much appreciated.

Any other comments on fitting such would be appreciated.

Thanks and regards,

Stew

[John Keeton]

Stew, if you will go to your profile, as I just did, and look at the list of threads started by you then you can view prior comments. This appears to be the thread you were curious about where Jim commented - https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?280963-Questions-on-Refinishing-Chisel-Handles&highlight=

[chris carter]

I used a pencil and drew all over the inside of the socket. Makes it real easy to find the high spots on the handle.

[Robert Hazelwood]

Use a soft leaded pencil and paint the inside of the socket, you can mix with a bit of oil and it will mark very well.

Instead of spinning the socket I make an alignment mark and always test fit it in the same orientation, perhaps rotating a few degrees either way to get a better mark. Keeping a consistent alignment helps if you need to correct the angle of the handle to keep it online with the body of the chisel.

[Jim Koepke]

[edited] Instead of spinning the socket I make an alignment mark and always test fit it in the same orientation, perhaps rotating a few degrees either way to get a better mark. Keeping a consistent alignment helps if you need to correct the angle of the handle to keep it online with the body of the chisel.

Maybe this is different for those who do not have a lathe, but spinning the handle in the socket has aways helped me to see if there is an alingment problem. It can also reveal if the socket is slightly smashed.

jtk