Mortice chisels (and a record shoulder plane)

[richarddownunder]

Hi All
I've never chiseled a mortice - so now is my chance. Picked these and the plane up for 20 quid ($40NZ) which I think was a pretty good deal (as long as I use them). Some of the chisels look unused. They are Marples or Stormont and appear to be very good steel. The 1 inch chisel is a Mattheson. It looks like its really quite soft. Is that normal? I also wondered about the one with the long tapered bolster - is that missing a leather washer or something or is there usually a bit of a gap between the bolster and handle? The plane is nice except nearly all the nickle plating has come off. The casting is very nice.

What do you recon?

Cheers
Richard

 

[deema]

Great buy, they look lovely. You will be able to get the plane re-plated to look like new again fairly cheaply I would have thought in NZ. The chisel with the gap has a socket handle and it should be like this.

The chisels should have a hardness similar to any bench chisel, they are sharpened at much higher angle so they can withstand the pounding. I’d try it before selling it! It actually looks to me like a standard bench chisel as opposed to a mortise chisel.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Wow. Good buy there. As above - the socket is normal, and the 1" one isn't a true mortice, it's a register pattern. Stormont made some good stuff - I've a 3/4" paring chisel that's a cracker.

 

[richarddownunder]

Hi

You will be able to get the plane re-plated to look like new again fairly cheaply I would have thought in NZ. The chisel with the gap has a socket handle and it should be like this.

I got some cap irons re-plated and they looked absolutely horrible so vowed never to do that again - maybe the guy doing it made a particularly bad job (it struck me that he might have breathed the vapours in his workshop for too long), he even used a linisher on them and wrecked the shape :evil: . So I dont think I'd risk it. Anyway, Clifton (dont know about LN) don't plate theirs so I think it'll be fine without and the later Records werent plated either as I understand.

Thanks both for the info on the chisels. I'd wondered about the 1 inch. Its got quite deep marks in the bottom and you can make a deep mark with a screwdriver so I think the heat treatment is off. I'll try chopping something with it though.

Cheers
Richard

 

[custard]

I've never chiseled a mortice - so now is my chance. Picked these and the plane up for 20 quid ($40NZ)

Can't argue with that price, you've done well there.

If you've got a 5/16" mortice chisel then you're set for about 90% of furniture requirements. I'll occasionally drop to 3/16" or 1/4" for small components like the back bars on a chair, or step up to 7/16" or 1/2" for beefier stuff like the apron rails on a dining table, but 5/16" does pretty much everything else furniture wise.

It's puzzling that it's generally mortices that get most of the attention in magazines and on this forum; yet mortices are pretty easy to cut, where as cutting tenons consistently and precisely is much more of a challenge.

And it's tenons where you'll find your shoulder plane useful. I think many manufacturers struggle with shoulder planes, with a bit of effort you can generally get any bench plane to perform adequately, but that simply isn't true with shoulder planes. To function properly they need to be made to an entirely higher level of precision, and if they weren't there's not much the average user can do about it. The real killer is the machining of the bed that the iron rests on and the sole, if one is twisted relative to the other then you're out of luck. I wouldn't worry about the nickel plating, in fact that might even suggest it's seen some use which is a positive sign. I'd sharpen it and test it, and see if you've got one of the better versions, if it struggles then personally I wouldn't waste much time on it, pass it on and try another. There are a lot of dud shoulder planes out there, but at the price you paid there's not much at risk.

Good luck!

 

[richarddownunder]

Hi Custard...sharpened and tested. It seems to cut well accross the grain, taking pretty much full width cuts. Obviously getting the iron honed square is key as there is very little lateral adjustment. It seemed to be taking a little more off one side than the other but that may just have been my adjustment and I think I've fixed that. Ive spent a while flattening the back of the iron, one corner is still slightly problematic.

What else should I be looking out for or does that sound like a keeper? The machining is, to my mind, very good.

BTW, The chisels are 1/2 inch, 1/4 inch, and 2 that are around 7 mm (whatever that is in imperial)

Thanks

Richard

 

[custard]

Hi Custard...sharpened and tested. It seems to cut well accross the grain, taking pretty much full width cuts. Obviously getting the iron honed square is key as there is very little lateral adjustment. It seemed to be taking a little more off one side than the other but that may just have been my adjustment and I think I've fixed that. Ive spent a while flattening the back of the iron, one corner is still slightly problematic.

What else should I be looking out for or does that sound like a keeper? The machining is, to my mind, very good.

BTW, The chisels are 1/2 inch, 1/4 inch, and 2 that are around 7 mm (whatever that is in imperial)

Thanks

Richard

Try your shoulder plane on the cheeks of a tenon, when the side of the plane is hard against the tenon shoulder you need even, full width cuts that extend right into the inside corner formed by the shoulder and cheek.

7mm is virtually 5/16". That's excellent, because now you've got the most important size plus a spare!

 

[richarddownunder]

Rough test (shallow cut, soft wood)...but how does this grab ya?

They look pretty full width to me !

 

[custard]

Looks great, seems you've got a keeper!

 

[Vann]

...Picked these and the plane up for 20 quid ($40NZ) ...

What do you recon?

I recon you're a jammy bugger :!: I'm obviously not doing the right searches on TradeMe.

Well done Richard.

Cheers, Vann.

 

[richarddownunder]

...Picked these and the plane up for 20 quid ($40NZ) ...

What do you recon?

I recon you're a jammy pipper :!: I'm obviously not doing the right searches on TradeMe.

Well done Richard.

Cheers, Vann.

Sorry Vann. It was just a bit of luck as the person was loading them on the site and they just popped up while I was looking with a $20 buy now price - couldn't resist. They also sold a lovely gunmetal shoulder plane for $280. I was tempted but there wasnt a manufacturers name on the plane so conservatism won out; and you only need so many shoulder pkanes! Apparently. I have just bought another Tyzack tenon saw too - I need to stop doing this. But it does look quite a nice one with all the etching intact on the blade.

Cheers
Richard

 

[Sam_Jack]

It is a vintage ‘Titan’ 1/4 “ firmer chisel, good unit, wooden handle, the works. But – and its a straight question – why is one side ‘thicker’ that ‘tuther (in depth not width).

Ok, it’s rusty (a bit) so I clean it up (a bit) the thing is almost ‘square’; I flatten the right face, then square up the ‘back’ of the bevel, then set about putting a working edge on it. After a while; I find it cuts just fine – in fact very well indeed – but the leading edge ain’t square – due to the varying thickness of the chisel itself.

So, not working with chisels much less than1/2” as a general rule – I wonder is this discrepancy unique; or, an engineered thing in the ‘slimmer’ chisels. It’s a daemon for cleaning up joints and the slightly ‘off’ leading edge trims up dovetail corners a treat. So was this a ‘design’ feature; or have I got a ‘queer’ one. It don’t matter much, I like the thing – and for less than GBP 1, who’d bark - but………