Odd size chisels

[lowell holmes]

In another thread grinding chisels was mentioned.
I have a leather chisel roll full of keeper chisels.
I also have a plastic shoe box of junker chisels and I do not hesitate to grind one to an off size width if I need it to chop a mortise.
I suspect others of you do similar things.

[Jim Koepke]

One of my drawers is full of less then prime use chisels.

They get used for dirty jobs or as you mentioned for an occasional regrind.

jtk

[Dave Anderson NH]

You can use them to make odd shaped chisels too. Fishtail, triangular to fit single entry dovetails, and whatever else you can think of. Even if you draw out some of the hardness they are usable for "one off" jobs where you might only sharpen a couple of times.

[Jim Koepke]

Here is a chisel that came in a group of chisels:

Cutting Finger Catch.jpg

It is the 1" chisel on the bench. It came with the bevel ground to a half round. It came to me why this was done the first time a box was made with a sliding lid.

A pair each of half inch and quarter inch chisels were reground to be skew chisels.

jtk

[Mark Maleski]

I also have a plastic shoe box of junker chisels and I do not hesitate to grind one to an off size width if I need it to chop a mortise.

I think I'm more likely to modify my mortise size to conform to one of my chisels. What's a circumstance when you've needed to chop an odd size mortise?

[Kyle Foster]

I think I'm more likely to modify my mortise size to conform to one of my chisels. What's a circumstance when you've needed to chop an odd size mortise?

Only when an even size mortise wont work.....

[lowell holmes]

I would only grind a junker chisel. I have a leather chisel roll full of Lie Nielsen chisels. They don't ever see a grinder.

[Mike Henderson]

I think I'm more likely to modify my mortise size to conform to one of my chisels. What's a circumstance when you've needed to chop an odd size mortise?

Me, too. It's hard to imagine where I'd need to adjust a tenon to some odd size. Perhaps something very small, but I have both English and metric chisels in small sizes so one of them is likely to meet my needs. Tenons are just not that critical in size. Even being 1/8" off is only 1/16" on each side and i can usually get closer than 1/8" with my standard chisels. (This is assuming you go with some guideline like a tenon is supposed to be 1/3 the width of the board.)

I have made fishtails from old chisels and made a set of skews from cheap chisels, but that's different from adjusting the width of a straight chisel.

Mike

[lowell holmes]

Some times if you are repairing something, you just don't have the liberty of changing mortise size. A junker chisel will do the job and you still have it when your through.

[bridger berdel]

In my decades of haunting the used chisel world i have brought home maybe a hundredor so. Of those i have kept anything that is even slightly different in width from what is already in the drawer. As a result i now have a pretty good range from about 3" to about 1/16". I rarely choose a chisel by measuring, just compare to the work.

[Mark Maleski]

Some times if you are repairing something, you just don't have the liberty of changing mortise size. A junker chisel will do the job and you still have it when your through.

Ah, makes sense. ��