A new pig sticker, or the hidden costs of walking to work...

[Eric The Viking]

The buses have gone up again. I'm getting a paunch. My stamina ain't what it was.

Add that lot together and the 2.8 mile trek from home to the centre of Bristol (where the office is) begins to look inevitable ("... Mr. Andersen."). And yes, it did me some good,* I think.

But it has expensive drawbacks. Obviously, for someone starting out on the return to fitness thing, meandering is impractical - the shortest trip is probably the most sensible, but there is a huge snag: my direct route takes me down St. Michael's Hill and down the celebrated Christmas Steps, into the middle of the city.

You've probably guessed: that's less than 20ft away from the spiked mantrap that is Bristol Design.

I had enough self control not to go in until my way home, only half an hour before it shut (how much damage can anyone do to their wallet in 1/2 hour?). Well I escaped with only slight pain: a 3/8" socketed mortice chisel for £7.80.

It's the classic "pig sticker", but seems to be of laminated construction, with a different steel on the edge and reference face. Obviously I can only clean it up so much with abrasives - it's going to be more of a nuisance if it's significantly undersize, but I have to make it a new handle at the very least.

The "handle" was quite extraordinary. It has two rusty tacks in it (one was inside the socket) and what seem to be staple holes. I think it's oak, but I'm not sure. I've never seen the maker before, but I know little...

The stamp was invisible before cleaning, which might have been to my advantage--or it might just be rubbish quality, anyway.

You can tell by now I know little about mortice chisels. I've never owned one before , and this one is supposed to be a user, not a display piece.

So here's my problem: is there a standard taper ratio for the sockets, and is there a clever process for fitting them? I don't own a lathe, but I have some offcuts of hardwood curtain pole (about the right diameter) that might be suitable - it's going to get well clobbered after all, so aesthetics are secondary. I'll probably band the end with a ring of 22mm copper pipe (or possibly a brass olive!), but I'd like to make it as strong a fit in the socket as possible.

I had a play about yesterday with the bandsaw and a taper jig, and I can cut reasonable cones in the curtain rail "stock" (finish off with spokeshave and sandpaper). My problem is that I can't seem to measure the taper very well, and, as you can see the 'handle' it came with isn't a good guide.

Before I go for wax casting the internal shape or something similar, can anyone point me at a set of instructions, to save me wasting feet of hardwood?

All advice considered, but I'm already planning an alternative route to work, in case it happens again (they have wheelwrights' and chairmakers' tenon cutters, too!).

Thanks,

E.

*one afternoon meeting a fortnight isn't going to kill me. But it won't get me fit either. :-(

 

[toolsntat]

Nice 8)
JAMES CAM <1781-1838 Sheffield

Handle is not a critical fit so taper it and drive it a bit, if it is not home take it out look at the marks where it touched and roughly remove whats stopping it :wink:

Dont fight the toolie urge you'll never win, just call in regularly and feed the fever #-o
Ps http://www.davidstanley.com/auction%20dates.htm on the 10th May :roll: :lol:

Andy

 

[Harbo]

The traditional shape for pig stickers is oval.
Plane, Spokeshave and a bit of whittling should get you there.
One method is the heat the metal and burn the wood in - not something I've tried though?

Rod

 

[barkwindjammer]

Slow and steady with a rasp, you can 'soot' the socket with a candle-then just patiently remove the sooted areas with the rasp.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Thanks everyone! I'm delighted it's that old.

By the time I got back to my desk, I'd done most of the fitting. I took two goes at it, because the first time I forgot to allow for a shoulder at the end of the socket. The method ended up fairly similar to BarkWindJammer's idea (wish I'd read that earlier!), but initially using the rust that stuck to the wood, and later covering it with a soft pencil and looking for rub marks.

The socket is folded from one piece of steel with a lap joint. The seam is visible inside and I had to allow an off-centre groove to keep the shaft straight WRT the handle. I've managed straightness left-right and pretty much straightness front-back, but the centre of my cone was offset a bit, so the handle is a bit too near the back. I'm hoping to fight this a bit by sanding it carefully.

More pics when I get to a suitable point to break off.

Thanks again chaps!

E.

 

[nev]

thats not a shop! that looks like some mystical Mr Ben type emporium that has exactly what the customer needs although he never knew he needed it before he got there! =P~

 

[Jacob]

....
Handle is not a critical fit so taper it and drive it a bit, if it is not home take it out look at the marks where it touched and roughly remove whats stopping it.....

That's what I'd do. Ignore the burning idea! :roll:
The other trick is to shape the handle after you have fitted it i.e. start well over size. Trying to fit a perfectly formed handle is difficult and an unnecessary struggle.
Should have a rounded bevel. Sorry about that. But there are good functional reason - leverage at the bottom of a blind mortice is helped by a rounded bevel. It's about the moving fulcrum effect - as featured on other levering tools; claw hammers, wrecking bars, picks, etc. There is a reason for the bend. If you had a straight claw hammer you'd realise why immediately on extracting the first difficult nail.
You may be lucky and suddenly realise that rounded bevels are easiest to do, and if it works for a mortice chisel it'll work on all your other chisels.

NB whether or not it's "the classic pig sticker" is another question.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Nice - and a very fair price, too! Wish I had an emporium like that in my town....

Before Mr Bessemer invented his converter, tool steel was a scarce and expensive commodity. Hence the laminating - the backing and socket are almost certainly wrought iron.

By the sound of your last post, you've solved the taper fit problem. The outside of the handle can be finished off any way you like - spokeshave, drawknife, rasp, whatever - and they aren't usually a 'fine' finish. I suspect that as socket mortice chisels were meant for heavy work, handles took a fearful pounding, and replacement was a regular job - hence the use of a cob of stuff from the scrap pile, by your description of the 'original' handle. It's a tough design, though, as witness by the survival in pretty fair condition of a near-on 200 year old tool.

Most of these are not dead accurate on width - the size tends to be 'nominal' (but near enough). Setting the mortice gauge to the chisel, rather than a rule, would be wise. I wouldn't bother flattening the reference face, either, unless it's really way off. Just sharpen up and bash away. Mortice ends don't usually need to be high precision fits, and if you get one that does, clear 99% of the waste with the socket chisel, and pare the last 1/32" off with a highly-prepared b/e chisel.

 

[jamesicus]

My James Cam (3/8") heavy duty mortice chisel:

I don't think this is the original handle - I believe the handles on many of these chisels were replaced one or more times during their life time due to the heavy pounding they were subjected too. I also think most of the replacement handles were fabricated by their owners according to their own designs, whims and fancies.

Here is a very massive, old, Sorby (1/2") heavy duty mortice chisel which I also believe has a user replacement (worm hole ravaged) handle:

BTW, I do not remember using the term "pig sticker" to describe these chisels when I worked in Britain (c. 1947-1950) - maybe it was originally an American term?

James

 

[Eric The Viking]

James, that's really interesting. You can see the same join in the metal on yours, I think, although obviously the handle arrangements are quite different.

. . . . . . .

FWIW, here's how I've got on:

Here's the inside of the socket.

It looks like someone used pitch at some point to gum a handle into place - thick black something, anyway. It might have been dipped in lacquer originally when new, but I can see no sign on the outside. The overlap is where I've indicated.

Here's the beginning of the new handle:

It's Ramin, I think - an old curtain pole, with some horrible reddish-pink stain I can't completely get rid of. At the point I took the picture, the new one would fit, but with about 1/16" gap up to the shoulder. You can see the groove I had to allow for the overlap and a few spots where it's still slightly too tight.

Close of play this evening. I couldn't get all the stain out of the grain, so I'm hiding it a bit with shellac. This is the first coat touch dry. I'll do a couple more tomorrow and see how it darkens down. In the background are various 22, 28 and MDPE olives I looked at for a ferrule at the end, but without a lathe, my only alternative is core drills (hole saws), and the olive sizes fall inconveniently in between the saws I have. I've just rounded the end over and tapered it for the last 1/2" or so. It's not quite snug to the socket I've allowed about 1/32" for it to tighten in. As it will still come loose, I'm wondering about dipping the taper in shellac tomorrow then tapping it firmly home. It won't matter in use, unless it really shrinks, and I can't see why that should happen.

So it lives again, and doesn't look disgraceful. If I have a lot of oak to mortice, I might have another go at a ferrule, but it'll do for now.

Jacob, I take your point about the bevel - it's as I bought it at the moment. Someone put the primary bevel on with a file, I think. You can't see in the picture, but the marks are crossways, not along the thing. It does have a camber, incidentally, very slightly on the 'reference' face. I can't see it being a problem in use, and I'm not going to mess with it, just sharpen it as-is for now, and see how I go with it. I remember it being suggested that 25deg alone is a possibility, but I don't want to take much metal off it - hopefully someone else will be using it in 200 years' time.

E.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I'm glad now that I picked up the three Ward pig stickers that I saw last week for £10.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Result! I assume they also had better handles too, did they?

E.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Two did, one wasn't so good. When I get my daughter to show me how to sort out the photos, I'll post them. Just before xmas I got two Ward mortice chisels, a Ward firmer, and four I & H Sorby firmers (all box handled) for £20! They're worth a photo. I really must get around to it.

 

[jamesicus]

James, that's really interesting. You can see the same join in the metal on yours, I think, although obviously the handle arrangements are quite different ..........

Then we have the lighter sash mortice chisels, Eric, with the traditional British boxwood handles. Here are two typical ones:

William Marples & Sons (1/4"):

Robert Sorby (1/4"):

James

 

[Richard T]

I wish I lived as close to that spiked mantrap .... I'll get there one of these days.

 

[Vann]

...about the bevel..I remember it being suggested that 25deg alone is a possibility...

IIRC the bevel on a pigsticker should be around 35° or higher (at work ATM so don't have references handy).

Jacob, I take your point about the bevel...

Leonard Lee writes in "The Complete Guide to Sharpening" that pigstickers did have a rounded bevel - or at least a slightly rounded transition. So, for once, Jacob is right (about his flaming round bevels (hammer) )

Cheers, Vann.

 

[Jacob]

...about the bevel..I remember it being suggested that 25deg alone is a possibility...

IIRC the bevel on a pigsticker should be around 35° or higher (at work ATM so don't have references handy).

30 will do fine

Jacob, I take your point about the bevel...

Leonard Lee writes in "The Complete Guide to Sharpening" that pigstickers did have a rounded bevel - or at least a slightly rounded transition. So, for once, Jacob is right (about his flaming round bevels (hammer) )

Cheers, Vann.

Why/what on earth is a "slightly rounded transition"? :roll:
It just wants to be rounded - edge at 30º, rounded back. It's not about sharpening it's about leverage, like it's mate - the swan neck mortice chisel.
But once you find out how to do the rounded bevel you may suddenly realise that it'll work just as easily and well for all your chisels. Not possible with a jig - that way madness lies.

 

[AndyT]

Nice one Eric!

As I know quite well, it is a very good shop and one we are privileged to have. Prices are sometimes lower than ebay, sometimes a bit higher, but the huge advantage that you can go and examine a selection of alternatives is what makes it so useful.

I don't think you need a ferrule on a socket chisel handle, but when you find that you do need one for another chisel, there's a handy shop in Bristol which has a range of proper brass ferrules in different sizes. They are hanging up on wires on the end of one of the shelves of smaller planes and measuring tools, just on your left as you enter the main shop!

 

[Peter T]

30 will do fine

If you want the edge to crumble the first time you use it!

35 degrees is much more durable!!

 

[Jacob]

OK 30º for softwood then. That's what I've always used, without edges crumbling. But there's no rule - what works is what counts.