carving chisel with inlaid handle

[pitch pine]

Anyone come across this before? The handle is inlaid with metal:

DSCF0283 by nick tasker, on Flickr

DSCF0279 by nick tasker, on Flickr

I wonder if it was another way of marking out tools that belong to you, rather than a name stamp.

I really like the feel of these small octagonal handles.

 

[JimB]

Absolute guess, but I wonder if it was part of a presentation set.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Never seen one like that before. It's almost like a precursor to the modern round ferrule.

Is there any indication of how thick the metal is (without taking anything apart), or how it was fitted? - it almost looks like cast whitemetal!

The chisel looks like an oldie, though. Approximately mid 19th century, from the shape of the shoulders.

 

[AndyT]

What an interesting oddity!

I can't work out how it was done - the jigsaw puzzle ends look like they could not have been assembled by sliding a solid ferrule on in the usual way. (Any sign that slivers of wood have been split off and glued back on in place as a cheat?) Or are the ferrules made in two pieces and soldered together?

Maybe their last owner was really really good at inlay work and wanted to mark his tools as his own.

 

[Racers]

Probably a pewter casting, it has l low melting point so could be cast straight onto the wood.

Pete

 

[AndyT]

How would that work then Pete? I can see the carving away of the octagonal handle, but what do you then fit the handle into to contain the molten pewter? It would have to be held vertically and not leak.

 

[Rorschach]

How would that work then Pete? I can see the carving away of the octagonal handle, but what do you then fit the handle into to contain the molten pewter? It would have to be held vertically and not leak.

A mould, sand, wood, metal any would work. I have done it myself using a wooden mould to cast a lead hammer face directly on to the head.

 

[Racers]

I have seen instructions of how to cast a pewter ring at the end of the handle of a chisel on the old tools list.


Pete

 

[pitch pine]

Thanks for the help on this. I did wonder if it was pewter, but I hadn't thought it could be cast. This makes sense as the pattern in the metal is quite variable, but the metal fits tightly (with a tiny bit of movement). I also found the letter W scratched into the handle looking at it closely after taking some more photos.

DSCF0286 by nick tasker, on Flickr

DSCF0285 by nick tasker, on Flickr

DSCF0284 by nick tasker, on Flickr

DSCF0288 by nick tasker, on Flickr

Out of interest it is stamped I & H Sorby, and a picture of the "hanging sheep".

It seems like a lot of effort to do this cast pewter ornamentation.

Pete do you have a reference for where you read about this?

 

[AndyT]

And a diagram would be nice!

From thinking about it, would this work?

Given that the melting point of pewter is similar to that of solder, so not hot enough to burn wood, the mould could be a simple round hole, blind, bored into a block of wood. The handle is carved on the end, maybe with the edges undercut a little. Without the blade fitted, it is stood up in the hole and held straight. Molten pewter is poured in and allowed to cool.
Quite a lot of surplus pewter is filed away, leaving a tidy octagonal cross section. Removing metal is easier than fashioning an octagonal hole.
Then the blade is fitted in the usual way.

Does that all make sense? Would it work?

 

[Racers]

Here you go its a brace but it's still the same thing.

http://contrib1.wkfinetools.com/wMyers/ ... ace-01.asp

Pete

 

[AndyT]

Thanks Pete. Even more impressive to achieve the results on those handles, with a lot more metal.

 

[pitch pine]

Thanks for the link Pete. I think the owner must have really liked this chisel to go to those lengths.

 

[kwigly]

Link from Old Tools Archive discussion (probably what Pete was referring to) with more details and options on casting pewter onto/into wood handles.
http://swingleydev.com/ot/get/130047/thread/#130047

 

[Racers]

Yep that's it I did try searching for it, I should have added Jim Thompson to the search.

Pete