From The UK

[ken hatch]

USPS dropped a couple of boxes off today. One had a set of late 19th early 20th Century Marple Paring/Pattern Maker chisels. Also in the goodies was a UK made plow with a full set of irons and a Washita stone.


The Marple chisels are as close to mint as any I've seen that were not new. I've been looking for a set of pre-WWII Marple paring chisels for it seems years hoping to pick up one here and one there. Almost every one I've seen had something wrong, mostly pitted back sides and for these I wanted chisels with clean blades.


This set just fell into my lap a couple of weeks ago via an email for one of my UK dealers. The photos looked very good, the chisels look even better. It is hard to believe these chisels are at least 85 years old and may be over a hundred.

marpleChisels.jpg

The Plow and the Washita stone, what can I say other than I'm a sucker for both wood stock Plows and natural stones. Good Washita stones are getting very hard to find.


Here's the group:

marpleChisels+.jpg

As always click 'em to big 'em.

I keep telling myself I'm not a collector, I'm down sizing, and this is the last time I fall off the wagon. We will see.


ken

[James Pallas]

Ken, it's always good to get the things that you really want. Those tools will work better in your hands than another persons because they are what you want. The tools that I want badly and finally receive always work so wonderfully I can hardly believe it. If they let me down I would never tell anyone. Great fun.
Jim

[Kees Heiden]

Nice Ken. I have a few pairing chisels from Marples like that, don’t use them often but they do come in handy from time to time.

More details on the plow?

[ken hatch]

Ken, it's always good to get the things that you really want. Those tools will work better in your hands than another persons because they are what you want. The tools that I want badly and finally receive always work so wonderfully I can hardly believe it. If they let me down I would never tell anyone. Great fun.
Jim

James,

Ain't that the truth .

The closest you can find to these chisels new are the Sorby paring chisels. In my hand the Marples are slightly better balanced and I know from other Marple chisels from the same time the iron should be very good, of course YMMV.

ken

[ken hatch]

Nice Ken. I have a few pairing chisels from Marples like that, don’t use them often but they do come in handy from time to time.

More details on the plow?

Kees,

I tend to use paring chisels at some point on most joints, I expect these will get a fair amount of work.

The plow was made by W. Greenslade of Bristol, UK. It is also stamped "Exhibition Metals London, Dublin, Paris, Melbourne. The only owner stamp is J.Rowe. The cutters are a mixed lot of Ward, Marples, Sorby, and a couple I can't make out.

It is in very good shape, with a straight skate, and a well fitting wedge. I have not sharpened any of the cutters or put plow to wood yet but I expect it will work very well with little fettling.

plowWithCutters.jpg

ken

[Kees Heiden]

Great. I have a wooden plow too but I had quite some work to get a mismatched set of irons to fit in that plane. Now it works very well.

You should do a blog post about the use of these long pairing chisels. Usually I tend to use a much shorter one for joint work.

[ken hatch]

Great. I have a wooden plow too but I had quite some work to get a mismatched set of irons to fit in that plane. Now it works very well.

You should do a blog post about the use of these long pairing chisels. Usually I tend to use a much shorter one for joint work.

Kees,

If I can find a little time I'll do that.

I have a set of Marples cutters. I expect I'll use them with the plow instead of the mixed set, should make it easier to get the whole thing working properly.

ken

[John Stevens]

If I can find a little time I'll do that.

If one person says it, you can bet another hundred are thinking it but not posting. I’d also be grateful if you’d take the time to share your experience with paring chisels. I learn so much on this Neander forum.

—John

[ken hatch]

If one person says it, you can bet another hundred are thinking it but not posting. I’d also be grateful if you’d take the time to share your experience with paring chisels. I learn so much on this Neander forum.

—John

John,

If I can get MsBubba to take a couple of photos I'll plan on it. BTW, that's not a given, most of the time her only shop time is to dump thing on the main work bench when she doesn't know what to do with 'em. A kind of kill 'em all and let dog sort 'em out approach.

ken