pitch pine
Established Member
About a month ago I bought a joblot of interesting chisels that all needed handles to give me something to do during lockdown. I finished the last one the other day.
They are an interesting bunch. A massive pig sticker by Gilpin just under 5/8" with a laminated blade. The blade on this is twisted quite a lot so it is out of line with the handle. I wonder if this is why the blade is so long......it hasn't been used. A one inch socketed framing chisel, again laminated. It is marked Sunderland and the maker is ****lderson. I looked in my saw and plane books but couldn't find a Sunderland edge tool-maker that would fit with this. A 3/4" socketed framing chisel marked (very deeply) what looks like John Martin. This looks blacksmith made and very old. A 5/16" socketed mortice chisel marked I.Sorby, with the Mr Punch insignia. A 3/16" Gilpin pig sticker. And finally a Peugeot Freres pig sticker that has a blade just over 7mm wide (were the French metric then?).
It was quite a time consuming job, but really enjoyable. I did split one handle on the Peugeot chisel (pig sticker with a bolster and tang) because I hadn't quite seated it right and I thought just one more hammer blow would do it. It split and I had to start again. Lesson learnt, maybe. They all needed a lot of reshaping and grinding, but all cut really well.
They are an interesting bunch. A massive pig sticker by Gilpin just under 5/8" with a laminated blade. The blade on this is twisted quite a lot so it is out of line with the handle. I wonder if this is why the blade is so long......it hasn't been used. A one inch socketed framing chisel, again laminated. It is marked Sunderland and the maker is ****lderson. I looked in my saw and plane books but couldn't find a Sunderland edge tool-maker that would fit with this. A 3/4" socketed framing chisel marked (very deeply) what looks like John Martin. This looks blacksmith made and very old. A 5/16" socketed mortice chisel marked I.Sorby, with the Mr Punch insignia. A 3/16" Gilpin pig sticker. And finally a Peugeot Freres pig sticker that has a blade just over 7mm wide (were the French metric then?).
It was quite a time consuming job, but really enjoyable. I did split one handle on the Peugeot chisel (pig sticker with a bolster and tang) because I hadn't quite seated it right and I thought just one more hammer blow would do it. It split and I had to start again. Lesson learnt, maybe. They all needed a lot of reshaping and grinding, but all cut really well.
