Chisel Manufacturer

[mudman]

Bought a fishtail carving chisel today. Steel looks nice and clean with no pitting so decided the £3.00 would be worth it.
The only maker's mark I can see though is on the ferrule and is in the form of a pair of crossed flags, one with the letter 'P' on it and the other with an 'L'.
Anyone know the manufacturer and whether or not it's any good?

TIA

 

[Chris Knight]

Barry,

Nice fishtail chisels are getting hard to find - an excellent buy if a good chisel.

I don't recognise the mark you describe. Most makers stamped the shaft of the chisel. The finest of all are probably Herring Brothers followed by W&P - SJ Addis, Addis Brothers, JB Addis.

 

[mudman]

Chris,

There doesn't seem to be any mark on the shaft but the chisel has been painted at some point and there is some left obscuring where you would normally find one. However, the paint is in poor condition and there doesn't appear to be any mark under it. I've tried a bit of 'brass' rubbing to see if I could reveal a mark but none seems to be there.

Probably just a cheapy brand but for three quid I couldn't leave it there.

 

[Philly]

What about PFEIL?
Philly

 

[Alf]

The only maker's mark I can see though is on the ferrule

:-s I've led a sheltered life; never seen that before. No idea I'm afraid.

Cheers, Alf

 

[Chris Knight]

One further observation. Many carvers rehandle their chisels as a matter of course if they buy them with handles, or indeed, prefer to buy them unhandled. The reason is simply that it is useful to have all your handles different because it makes selecting a chisel quicker when you may have twenty-odd chsiels lying on the bench whilst carving .

For this reason, I can't imagine any carving chisel maker, stamping a ferrule as his way of showing pride in manufacture, chances are the handle wouldn't last very long

 

[Scott]

Most of my Addis and Mathieson carving tools belonged to my uncle's father who was a professional carver. He has marked all of them with his own personal stamp (a few on the handles but mostly on the ferrules). There are even a couple with the stamp on the steel.

As Chris has suggested they are all different sizes, shapes and colours of handles (home made) for ID purposes on the bench.

Perhaps the flags are a carver's personal stamp with his initials?

 

[mudman]

Well, if Alf doesn't know, then I suppose it shall forever remain a mystery.

Chris,

I had been thinking along those lines too.
I have managed to scrape some of the paint off (using a pencil sharpener, still in work) and there appears to be the remains of a makers mark on the blade where you would expect it. I think it may be too far gone though to tell what it is. The other side appears to have a figure '8' stamped on it but wouldn't this make it a gouge, which it isn't?

 

[Chris Knight]

Barry,
Sometimes, carving tools were sold in sets and were numbered 1,2,3 to x where x is the number in the set - the numbers thus don't necessarily correspond with the Sheffield List

 

[bugbear]

There doesn't seem to be any mark on the shaft but the chisel has been painted at some point and there is some left obscuring where you would normally find one.

Nitromors following by a brass "suede" brush works for me.

http://www.shoestringuk.co.uk/Public/pu ... ategory=89

Most "surface" cleaning methods (sandpaper, steel wool etc) don't dig much out of recesses as fine as name stamps.

BugBear

 

[mudman]

Thanks Bugbear, I'll try that.