Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Mortising Chisel Handle



A couple of weeks ago, I bought an old mortising chisel with apple handle blank off eBay. It was from hendo304200, who sells lots of chisels, and turning blanks (which often sell for low prices, nice). On a suggestion from Stephen Shepard, I decided on a octagonal handle. Surprisingly this turned out to be the hardest partthe finished shape looks like something a kindergardener might draw with a ruler. Since the handle has a socket, the first thing I did was clean up the end, where some idiot had been using the chisel without a handle. I used a small grinding attachment in my drill, and ground off the mushroomed steel. I then attempted to make a octagon. Giving up on that, I moved on to the important part, the mating part. Basically, I sawed shoulders, as I would for a tenon, and then roughed out a cone with chisels. I then scribbled on the inside of the socket with a soft pencil, so when I trial fir the handle, I could see the spots that needed trimming. This entire process was surprisingly easy. For the top, I slightly made a slight domed end. The handle has Formby's Tung -Oil finsish, which is a oil-varnish blend.
Handle making articles

Non-power(no lathe)
Rehabilitating Old Chisels
Rehabilitating Old Chisels(it's different, I swear)
Rehandling An Oval Bolstered Mortice Chisel


With a lathe
Making Chisel Handles

Making Chisel Handles(again, it's different, these authors need some new titles!)
Making Tanged Chisel Handles
Chisel Handle with Leather Washers

Socket Handles

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Woodshop Bug:

You might want to try looking at:

www.planemaker.com/docs/octhandles

which is actually a pdf file.

It is an article written by Don McConnell (of Clark & Williams planes) titled "Octagonal Handles - One Strategy." It contains another version of shaping eight-sided chisel handles. While his interest was in tang-handled chisels, it appears that you have already mastered mounting any handle to a socket chisel.

For what it might be worth . . .

Phil Lang

Unknown said...

I have two or three chisel I need to put handles on thanks for reminding me

Joey
http://sleepydogwoodworking.blogspot.com/