An interesting feature of buying used chisels or gouges in groups or lots is you end up with some strange alterations by previous owners. The oddest one for me was a gouge with a couple of scallops filed in to the edge. With a try out on a piece of scrap it produced a flute with beads. It may have been used for coping a particular molding shape. Since the size wasn't duplicated in my gouges at the time it was ground to a regular bevel.
Today while carving some letters for a sign project it came to me that one of my gouges that was ground to a toenail shape might be the answer to getting in to the inside curves on a letter. It worked great:
Using Toe Nail Gouge.jpg
This was a duplicate of another gouge so it wasn't reground.
This brought to mind other purpose ground tools:
Owner Shaped Chisel:Gouge.jpg
The chisel is a 1" that was a duplicate size. For the longest time it made me wonder why someone wanted a rounded edge on a chisel. Then when making a box with a sliding lid, the light bulb went on:
Finger Catch Stop Cut.jpg
The round edge makes a nice stop cut for following up with a gouge to make a finger catch.
The skewed edge chisels were my first set made from 1/2" chisels. They work great on paring waste on larger dovetails. My second set was made from 1/4" chisels.
It was a bit on the cool side in the shop today:
Cold in the Shop.jpg
It actually got up to 38º after running the heater for a few hours. Of course the heater is pointing at my end of the bench.
jtk