# Fishtail chisel



## --Tom-- (12 Jan 2021)

After the discussion here








Fish tail chisels


I've never seen a center pin like that on an older piece of furniture.




www.ukworkshop.co.uk





And Racers showing one he had made I’m having a go at making a fishtail chisel.
started with some O1 tool steel, looking at other chisels 125mm should be enough





In 3mm thickness I only had 30mm width, but splitting in two will give me 2 pieces to try with





One piece at 15mm one at 14mm





Advice was to go steeper than a dovetail to make sure it can get into corners so marked at 1:4





My Secret Santa gift was getting some good use laying out the shape. Sharpie being used as a substitute for layout fluid...




Have left 40mm for tang and tapered the middle section to 5mm. Not sure if I need to increase that for stiffness, will have to wait and see I guess....

And that’s as far as I’ve got other than to pull out a carving chisel with an octo handle to use for handle proportions




this is just tapered but have seen a video by Pask makes on YouTube where he makes a jig that I may give a try

hopefully can get the shape cut out tomorrow


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## Cabinetman (12 Jan 2021)

Hi Tom, just to say you don’t really need to make a jig to do an octagonal shape it’s very simple to get it right with a hand plane, start off square and just plane down the sharp bits until all sides are all the same, if you do the operation again you’re not far off a perfect Circle, done it many times. Ian


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## --Tom-- (12 Jan 2021)

Cabinetman said:


> Hi Tom, just to say you don’t really need to make a jig to do an octagonal shape it’s very simple to get it right with a hand plane, start off square and just plane down the sharp bits until all sides are all the same, if you do the operation again you’re not far off a perfect Circle, done it many times. Ian


Cheers, yeah usually do exactly that. The jig allows an easy curve to the handle so narrow front and back and some swell to the middle.

More thinking about making a jig out of intrigue than due to a real need, bit like the chisel!


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## marcros (12 Jan 2021)

was it this jig?


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## Cabinetman (13 Jan 2021)

Intrigue curiosity and experiment I can well understand. Tom
That jig did work quite well, but he had an awful lot of blade exposed I kept thinking we were going to have jammy fingers before teatime. I suppose it depends how many you’re going to make as to whether it’s worth making the jig, as it’s always the case,
Also after making dozens of gigs I have found it’s very important to write on it what it’s for! Three years down the line and it could’ve been for anything. I have several quite large jigs that took a relatively long time to make and I haven’t got the faintest idea what they’re for now. Ian


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## --Tom-- (13 Jan 2021)

marcros said:


> was it this jig?



Yeah that’s the one, seems quick to make and effective. I’ve got a ply offcut somewhere that should be big enough.


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## marcros (13 Jan 2021)

--Tom-- said:


> Yeah that’s the one, seems quick to make and effective. I’ve got a ply offcut somewhere that should be big enough.



I have it on my list for a future project sometime.


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## --Tom-- (22 Jan 2021)

Taking longer than I thought due to work getting in the way and stealing my evenings and weekends at the moment.

Managed to get a few hours in the workshop tonight while the benchtalk was on and carried on sawing out the profile






Will tidy up with the grinder and file radius’s into the internal corners before heat treat.

New varitooth HSS blade from tuffsaws cut quicker but also generated more heat than the old plain carbon one. Hopefully the longevity will match the claims.


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