dovetail chisels

[engineer one]

recently there was a discussion about re-shaping chisels for use cleaning up dovetails, particularly cut by hand.

so checking out my selection, i note i have quite a few very tiny ones.
below 10mm wide. so i thought these might well be useful for such projects.

then i thought well first i would ask. does anyone use 4mm,6mm or 8mm chisels for normal work?? or are they just too small and weak??

paul :wink:

 

[Philly]

Paul
I recently bought a 1.5mm Jap chisel. So yes, I do use small ones (but not every day :wink: )
Cheers
Philly

 

[engineer one]

at which point the question becomes what do you use if for??? :roll:
apart from picking your teeth :twisted:

paul :wink:

 

[Philly]

Paul
Dovetails and repairing glasses. Well o.k., the just the first one :lol:
With most tools, when you need a 4mm one and you only have a 5mm you know why :wink:
Cheers
Philly
Off to pick his teeth.... :lol:

 

[Wiley Horne]

Paul,

You asked if anyone regularly uses smallish chisels in normal work.....I frequently, well always, use 4.5mm, 6mm, or 7.5mm for paring the baseline of the pin sockets in the tailboards (drawer sides).

The size chisel in this application depends on the pin geometry and drawer front thicknesses that you prefer, of course.

Wiley

 

[Alf]

Since when has a 6 or 8mm wide chisel been "tiny"? Heck, I've found use for a 1/8" (3mm) one often enough, never mind them bigguns. :lol:

Cheers, Alf

 

[Chris Knight]

And a 1mm chisel is very handy when inlaying stringing.

 

[David C]

4.5mm or 3/16" very useful for delicate dovetails.

3mm is good for a narrow socket near the edges of a run of single lap or secret mitre dovetails.

1.5 also when the need arises. Not often but you can't get a bigger chisel into a small space. For picking out waste from inlay lines, something improvised from hacksaw blade can be useful, i.e. even slimmer than 1/16"
I have japanese mini chisels at these sizes and they can be tapped with a hammer, no problem, though the 1.5 might be best pushed.

I always felt the English 1/16" regular length was a bit flexible.

Scale of work undertaken is clearly the issue.

David

 

[Anonymous]

I use my 1/8" chisel more than any other except the 1/2" - yes, cleaning out half-blind dovetails :wink:

last itme it was used? 10.30 last night

 

[bugbear]

recently there was a discussion about re-shaping chisels for use cleaning up dovetails, particularly cut by hand.

so checking out my selection, i note i have quite a few very tiny ones.
below 10mm wide. so i thought these might well be useful for such projects.

then i thought well first i would ask. does anyone use 4mm,6mm or 8mm chisels for normal work?? or are they just too small and weak??

paul :wink:

If you want tiny chisels, regrinding a triangular file works nicely. Too hard and brittle for mallet work, but OK for hand use.

And the price is right.

BugBear

 

[engineer one]

but basically you all seem to use them for dovetailing,
which comes back to the question about whether you have them ground square or with a skew to get further into the socket?

paul :wink:

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

does anyone use 4mm,6mm or 8mm chisels for normal work??

What's normal? ..... Many of my chisels end up being modified.

I do use small chisles for dovetailing, as others here have noted. A 3mm is frequently used.

Here are dovetails with 3mm (1/8") tail bases (I posted this here recently):

Until I recently received this birthday set of Blue Spruce (1/8" - 1/2") ...

... I relied mostly on a set of re-ground and re-handled Berg chisels. These paring chisels are pretty slim to begin with but I ground the sides to a tighter triangle...

For chopping I use Matsumura dovetail chisels. Since the picture below was taken I have ground the sides of these as well. As can be seen, the dovetail chisels are almost as square as the bench chisels.

I don't think that I will do this to the 1.5mm Nomi I recently bought.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Alf]

but basically you all seem to use them for dovetailing

Er, no. Hath not inlaying been mentioned? And this ain't dovetailing :wink:

Can't off-hand think of any good reason to skew the edge to be honest - bet someone'll come up with one now. :lol:

Cheers, Alf

 

[newt]

I recently needed a 3mm chisel, so I re-ground a small screwdriver, very crude but it worked ok.