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Thread: Dilemma - to rehab this old chisel or not?

  1. #1

    Dilemma - to rehab this old chisel or not?

    Hey guys, I want your opinions on this. (I told you I couldn't leave well enough alone buying old chisels.)

    Should I rehab this old chisel and try to put it back to work... Or should I simply leave well enough alone? What are the chances she will turn out to be a good chisel if I remove all this old "patina?" Better to put her up on the shelf for a collection?

    It's a 1" bevel edge long pattern chisel stamped "Sheldon". The only info I could find is a G. Sheldon who made chisels in England in the mid 1800's... Is it him? No idea...

    Pattern wise - it's too heavy to be a paring chisel.... The bevelled edges are not particularly bevelled. The blade is 8 1/4" long and the entire iron counting socket is 11 1/2" long.... The handle looks like hickory and is fairly well fitted. Defiantly a machine made handle - not hand carved. It's missing the hoop, though. No evidence of hammering on it - or even of any use at all... The handle could well be a recent addition.. The patina is old and even..



  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by John C Cox View Post
    Hey guys, I want your opinions on this. (I told you I couldn't leave well enough alone buying old chisels.)

    Should I rehab this old chisel and try to put it back to work... Or should I simply leave well enough alone? What are the chances she will turn out to be a good chisel if I remove all this old "patina?" Better to put her up on the shelf for a collection?

    It's a 1" bevel edge long pattern chisel stamped "Sheldon". The only info I could find is a G. Sheldon who made chisels in England in the mid 1800's... Is it him? No idea...

    Pattern wise - it's too heavy to be a paring chisel.... The bevelled edges are not particularly bevelled. The blade is 8 1/4" long and the entire iron counting socket is 11 1/2" long.... The handle looks like hickory and is fairly well fitted. Defiantly a machine made handle - not hand carved. It's missing the hoop, though. No evidence of hammering on it - or even of any use at all... The handle could well be a recent addition.. The patina is old and even..

    John,

    You need to ask two questions first: Is the back pitted close to the cutting edge. If it is take a buffing wheel to it, remove the rust and give it shine. Then gift someone a new house ornament. Next take a careful look again at the back and see if it is flat or did someone round it off towards the cutting edge. same story unless you enjoy hours of rubbing a chisel on stone cut your loss and look for another chisel.

    As I've posted before late 19th and early 20th Century tools can be wonderful users, many times better than new ones but, there that damn but, pick 'em wisely or you will spend all your time rehabbing tools and little making furniture. But as alway what blows your skirt and YMMV.

    ken

  3. #3
    I checked the back with a straight edge. It appears to be pretty flat for the first 4-5" or so... Does not appear rounded at the cutting edge. That's not to say it's straight under the rust, though...

    pitting... Indeterminate at this point.... Likely, though...

    I suppose I could give it a good soak in Evaporust to see where I stand...

  4. #4
    Join Date
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    Give it a shot. You have nothing to lose. If anything you can practice on sharpening.
    Don

  5. #5
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    There is rust and then there is RUST!

    It really depends on how deep the pitting is against what kind of use it will see.

    If you plan on joining large timbers it might not be too bad even with bad pitting.

    My instinct would have been to pass on such a rusty chisel.

    That looks like some heavy rust. If it is more than can be easily removed with a wire brush, it doesn't usually come home with me.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  6. #6
    Join Date
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    Have done worse ones than that..
    mushroom.JPG
    The "Before"....
    rehandled.JPG
    And, the "After"....

    Have ya got it done..yet?

  7. #7
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    image.jpg

    Here is a 11.5 x 3/4” corner chisel (in front). It originally looked similar to yours on its surface. I bought it at auction hoping I might get a serviceable timber framing chisel from it. I pulled it out of a 24 hr. Evaporust bath a few days ago. There is some significant pitting, but fortunately none of it is around the edge or sides near the edge. I oiled it after it came out of the bath. I am not sure I actually will use a corner chisel but the price was right and I wanted to try restoring a challenging old timber framing chisel. At least I will have a better idea what restoration limits are for large chisels after I finish restoring it.

    The chisel behind the corner chisel is a 1.25” TH Witherby framing chisel that was in decent shape when I bought it. I am calling the one behind the Witherby a framing gouge. It is 1.5” wide, made by Buck Bros. The slightly smaller chisel, in the far back, may be more of a firmer chisel than a framing chisel. It is 1” wide. I can not read the makers stamp. I will probably make new matching handles for the ones I find I use.
    Last edited by Mike Holbrook; 02-05-2018 at 12:08 AM.

  8. #8
    Join Date
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    Do you have any good 1" chisels already? If not, go ahead and fix it up. It seems like it might turn out fine. I'd try taking a razor blade and scraping as much rust off as I could, then go at it with a scotchbrite pad. For the back, find something flat and stick some 80 sandpaper to it...that will take the back down to clean metal pretty quickly unless there is extreme pitting.

  9. #9
    Well... I do have a few good 1" chisels now.... But as you guys probably know - there's always room for one more...

    I did some more digging on this thing... Apparently it's called a Sash paring chisel.. And would have been used by jointers along side of a Sash mortising chisel - to clean up and finish window sashes after mortising... That explains why such a huge long "paring" type chisel would have a hooped handle... So it's kinda an odd duck....

  10. #10
    Join Date
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    I came across a chisel that is 2" wide and 12" long. I think it was a timber framing chisel. It was rusty, and had no handle.
    I cleaned the rust off and whittled a handle for it. I cut a piece of oak and cut it to a hex shape. I then rounded the hex to round.
    I bought a chrome bathroom drain pipe and cut a sleeve that I put on the top of the handle. The chisel still lives and is used on occasion.
    The mass of the chisel makes it easy to pare hex or octagons to round.

    I say clean up your chisel and make a handle for it. You will enjoy doing it. I used a wire wheel on a grinder to clean the rust off.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    Crystal Lake, IL
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    All of my timber framing chisels started out looking worse than the one you have. As already stated, if the back is not pitted and can be flattened, you could have a really nice chisel on your hands. A wire wheel on a grinder will remove the surface rust, and when I'm rehabbing a bunch of old tools ( something I seem to have a sickness for) I remove the handles and give them a good soak in evaporust. After that, back to the wire wheel and then to a 3M buffing wheel on the grinder. That will leave them with a nice polished look, and with no rust to keep coming back on you ( I live in the upper midwest with HUGE humidity swings.)
    Jeff

  12. #12
    Well... You guys talked me into it... It's now taking an Evaporust bath... We will see how it looks when it comes out..

  13. #13
    Join Date
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    Another thing you can try is vinegar. I have never used evaporust but did use vinegar recently and it worked really well. Let is soak a few hours then wipe off what you can. Then another 24 hours so and it pretty much wipes right down to clean metal, a little manual hit with a wire brush and it was finished. I then dropped into a baking soda solution to neutralize the acid (not sure if this part was needed or not) then oiled it up.

  14. I've rehabbed worse. I will say that heavy back flattening without appropriate machinery is a task I'll not likely try again soon.

  15. Vinegar doesn't need to be neutralized. Muriatic ( hydrochloric) does, and is pretty hard to get it to stop cutting. Just stick with vinegar for derusting.

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