Hi, my Name is Jim and I'm a Rustoholic

[Jim Koepke]

Sometimes I think I should turn off my ebay notifications. Sometimes when reading my emails the ebay notices are clicked on and then I can get sucked in. Of course, sometimes it is a good deal. Not too long ago a #4-1/2 plane was bought "Buy It Now" for less than what they usually sell for from bidding.

This time it was a Charles Buck (yes, one of the Buck Bros) 7/8" bevel edge chisel. My Buck Bros of the same size is heavily rust pitted in some areas. Plus another Charles Buck chisel bought many years ago is actually a very good chisel.

It came without a handle:

Charles Buck 7:8%22 Chisel.jpg

The edge had been ground, but not honed. A little time was spent cleaning up some scratches and pits and then sharpening the edge. This has low side lands like my Buck Bros chisels. It will be a nice paring chisel.

Took a little time in the shop looking for a piece of wood, then prepping the wood and working at the lathe.

My first choice was a piece of apple, but it had too many checks to turn on a lathe without some gluing first. A piece of root from a bitter cherry (or bog cherry some call it) that fell down a few years ago was chosen. It was cut on the bandsaw and then put on the lathe.

It has been a long time since my last chisel handle was turned. It seems it is like riding a bike as this came off the lathe without much need for adjustment to fit the socket:

Charles Buck Chisel with Handle.jpg

Have to give it a try and see how it goes. May give it a bit of buffing to shine it up, if I get bored some day.

jtk

[Mike Manning]

Nice find on that old Charles Buck chisel, Jim! An even better job on the new handle! Good luck with your addiction(s)! :0)

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks for the kind works Mike.

One thing not mentioned in my post is my use of a variation on a trick once posted here by Harry Strasil Jr. > https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?112339

A 3/8" dowel was inserted into the socket and marked at the top of the socket. This measurment was transferred to the tenon for the socket. An outside caliper was set to the dowel and adjusted a little bit wider. Then one end of the handle was turned down until the caliper slipped over this end. Then another outside caliper was set to the wide end inside the socket and used to size the turning at the wide end of the tenon. Some 80 grit sandpaper was used to make the tenon rough to hold in the socket. It fit with almost no wobble. A very light paring with a chisel on the dark areas marked by twisting in the socket made it very snug by just pressing it in place by hand.

jtk

[Stew Denton]

Hi Jim,

Good job on the chisel and good job on the two buys.

I think there are several of us rustoholics in the crowd here....trouble is there is no rustoholic help group to help us. Also, I fear that part of the problem is that most of us (yep, I in that group) don't seem to want to be cured!

Regards,

Stew

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks for the kind words Stew.

Years ago there were a few internet moguls who provided free site hosting for content providers. One content provider put up pages of historical information on edge tool makers. I wish I had the foresight to have saved more pages. One that was saved was about Charles Buck. Below is the most of the text from that page.

jtk

Charles Buck (1829-1905) is often seen as the Buck brother more interested in making quality tools than making money. Here is a short biography of him written towards the end of his life. (For a more complete timeline, see the main Buck Brothers page)

"His first consideration was and is to produce an article of the very best possible quality, and he has conducted his business after such methods that he is personally cognizant of every process of manufacture, at times performing some of the work of forging and tempering with his own hands. The extent of his trade is a secondary consideration, coming after that of the mechanical work, his conservative disposition inclining him to preference for a comparatively small market and an appreciative class of customers, before the unfinished work and pecuniary uncertainty which so frequently attend the mammoth undertakings of great corporations of the present day. Until very recent years and until he was very near seventy years of age he made frequent business trips, going as far west as Chicago and St. Louis to place his goods. Much of his product is marketed through commission houses in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and other cities. He has acquired a comfortable fortune, and in its acquisition has never committed an act not justified by honor.

Mr. Buck is a fine example of the really self-made man. His only capital at the beginning of his career was his mechanical skill, his industry, and his ambition. The latter trait was his first incentive not only to the effort which led to his success in material terms, but to his excellent development of character. Going to his trade in early youth, his education was necessarily imperfect, but he found compensation for this advantage through close and intelligent reading, dating from the time when he came to Millbury. He took up the works of the standard authors, and acquired an ample fund of general information which enable him to converse eloquently upon any subject which could engage the attention of the practical and self respecting citizen. For nearly fifty years he has been an exemplary member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in whose service he has been earnest and useful. He has served as class leader, and for fifteen years as Superintendent of its Sunday school. In politics he is a Republican, and he has ever been an earnest exponent of its principles, yet has never sought official preferment, performing his political duties out of a conscientious appreciation of the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship. He is held in sincere regard in the community, and his lovable character was well epitomized by one who knows him well: "He is a grand old man, self-made, willing to aid any one in distress; and surely is a model for young men to follow." He lives in unpretentious comfort in a pleasant residence situated upon a two-acre tract which also contains his shops, storage rooms and other buildings."

--from Ellery Bicknell Crane. Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, vol. III. New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1907.

Charles Buck Advertisements.jpg

[Gordon Dale]

A good post Jim and very timely for me. A Witherby I bought on eBay arrived yesterday. I have a Buck Bros. and a PEXTO on their way. I initially wanted to order some premium modern chisels, but the 12 week wait for Blue Spruce put me off (although I confess I did order a 3/8” dovetail chisel). The LV are out of stock, or were when I last looked. I hadn’t looked at eBay for years, thinking from what I’d read that their prices were out of sight. But there are deals to be found.

I suppose this is a good time to remind people of Bob Smalser’s post, Wood Chisel Survey for Beginners, in the Neanderthal Wisdom Stickies, in which he lists his favorite vintage chisels.

I enjoy reading the old SMC threads. Mr. Smalser is one of my old-time favorite Creekers, along with George Wilson. Jim, I think you were already posting back then. Every time I drive Hwy 5 past Longview, I think of you.

[Jim Koepke]

A good post Jim and very timely for me. A Witherby I bought on eBay arrived yesterday. I have a Buck Bros. and a PEXTO on their way. I initially wanted to order some premium modern chisels, but the 12 week wait for Blue Spruce put me off (although I confess I did order a 3/8” dovetail chisel). The LV are out of stock, or were when I last looked. I hadn’t looked at eBay for years, thinking from what I’d read that their prices were out of sight. But there are deals to be found.

I suppose this is a good time to remind people of Bob Smalser’s post, Wood Chisel Survey for Beginners, in the Neanderthal Wisdom Stickies, in which he lists his favorite vintage chisels.

I enjoy reading the old SMC threads. Mr. Smalser is one of my old-time favorite Creekers, along with George Wilson. Jim, I think you were already posting back then. Every time I drive Hwy 5 past Longview, I think of you.

Thanks for the kind words Gordon. Hopefully you have a lathe to turn handles. Though carving handles for socket chisels is fairly easy.

Before buying a lathe, a couple of my handles were made of parts from a discarded table found on "House Cleaning Free Pick-Up Day" sponsored by the Local Fire Department.

100_7492.jpg

Those have been working fine for close to two decades.

jtk