What is the last useful thing you did with a chisel?

[Graham Orm]

Scraped old plaster off a wall in prep for tiling. This is with a £2.50 2" chisel bought specifically for the job. I have been tempted too many times to use wood chisels when on site for 'immoral purposes' so bought one specifically for just that.

To answer the question properly, fitting a door lock.

 

[Spindle]

Hi

Planing and shaping cuts on components of a spinning wheel that I'm making at the moment.

Regards Mick

 

[baldpate]

Box-making - cleaning up the wells that the arms of quadrant hinges drop into, after drilling most of the wast out.

 

[Mr T]

Baldpate said:

Box-making - cleaning up the wells that the arms of quadrant hinges drop into, after drilling most of the wast out.

Try the Smart hinge from Andrew Crawford or the Neat hinge from Ian Hawthorne. No need for drills or chisels with them.

I used a chisel yesterday to clean up the arrising into a corner on some bookshelves.

I find paring a lap joint a good way of demonstrating the benefits of sharp chisels.

 

[Jacob]

One of the last times I used a chisel I was fortunate to be using a beautiful old English 2 1/2" firmer belonging to my customer,to house large building ties into joists.
Unfortunately when packing up the chisel got knocked & fell about 11' to the floor below & chipped both corners of the very sharp rounded bevel edge
Luckily the owner of said chisel was understanding.

HTH

It's OK Doug it was only a chisel! Actually it was chipped when I got it. A 2 1/2" firmer* laminated with hard brittle steel but suitable only for careful bench work. I wonder what it was intended for?

PS Marples - and had a bronze finish which has more or less rubbed off now. I read somewhere about it but can't find the link. The bronze was something special - special 'edition' perhaps?

 

[nicguthrie]

I may be a little strange (well ok, no "may be" required there) but I love losing myself in chiselling work. Getting "in the zone" of just working the wood with such a straightforward instrument and trying to get everything as precise as it takes to be happy with. Last couple months, I made a Japanese lantern with almost nothing but pull saws and chisels, and cut myself a little knife box out of scrap, to store my marking knife in and protect the edge, using chisels alone. The lantern is lovely, the box is plain and useful.

There's something a little addictive about the depth of concentration and involvement you can get with just a simple bit of work, when you use nothing but hand tools, and chisels and Razor saws are my favourites.

I don't have monster expensive ones, (£50 MHG chrome vanadium steel 6 piece set) they're not lapped to mirror finish, but I do like them sharp enough to slice smoothe shavings off when paring.

 

[bobbybirds]

Just this past weekend was the first time it has been warm enough (read finally just above zero degrees) to spend a little bit of time in the shop and I cut and chopped some half blind DT's making a simple box. Got through all the tails and half the pins (four per side) with my A2 steel BS chisels with no edge failure and no re-sharpening mid job. All this hate for A2 seems silly to me (just trying to instigate a wee bit Hahah!) Looks like another nice weekend approaching so I hope to get it finished up!

 

[J_SAMa]

I've been practicing tenon splitting and paring with my 1'' chisel. I don't have a tenon saw (yet) and do tenons the Paul Sellers way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3VTOpumi58
Paring tenons is really hard (for me). Chisels don't take thin shavings like planes and it often takes off too much material before I even know it.

 

[Jacob]

I've been practicing tenon splitting and paring with my 1'' chisel. I don't have a tenon saw (yet) and do tenons the Paul Sellers way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3VTOpumi58
Paring tenons is really hard (for me). Chisels don't take thin shavings like planes and it often takes off too much material before I even know it.

It gets easier! Most of these things are difficult at first, for everybody.
The main thing is to watch the grain as the split can go off ahead of the chisel and dip below the line, if that's the way the grain goes.*
Practice practice Don't ever throw any off cuts away until you have practiced various techniques on them. And it makes firewood more interesting!

PS* It occurred to me that it 's easier to get a split with a blunt chisel, rather than a cut. I've been doing something similar today - splitting off waste with an axe used as a wedge - hitting it with a hammer. So perhaps blunt for the split and a sharp chisel for paring down to the line?

 

[J_SAMa]

I may be a little strange (well ok, no "may be" required there) but I love losing myself in chiselling work. Getting "in the zone" of just working the wood with such a straightforward instrument and trying to get everything as precise as it takes to be happy with. Last couple months, I made a Japanese lantern with almost nothing but pull saws and chisels, and cut myself a little knife box out of scrap, to store my marking knife in and protect the edge, using chisels alone. The lantern is lovely, the box is plain and useful.

There's something a little addictive about the depth of concentration and involvement you can get with just a simple bit of work, when you use nothing but hand tools, and chisels and Razor saws are my favourites.

I don't have monster expensive ones, (£50 MHG chrome vanadium steel 6 piece set) they're not lapped to mirror finish, but I do like them sharp enough to slice smoothe shavings off when paring.

Hi Nicguthrie,
What do you think about your MHGs' edge retention? I have a few MHG chisels as well and honestly I think those CR-V blades are pieces of junk when it comes to edge retention. I use the 10mm one to chop dovetails in pine and it chips after about 2 joints (i.e. 4 tail sockets and 2 pin sockets)... Do you have the same problem or is it just me?
Sam

 

[J_SAMa]

I've been practicing tenon splitting and paring with my 1'' chisel. I don't have a tenon saw (yet) and do tenons the Paul Sellers way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3VTOpumi58
Paring tenons is really hard (for me). Chisels don't take thin shavings like planes and it often takes off too much material before I even know it.

It gets easier! Most of these things are difficult at first, for everybody.
The main thing is to watch the grain as the split can go off ahead of the chisel and dip below the line, if that's the way the grain goes.*
Practice practice Don't ever throw any off cuts away until you have practiced various techniques on them. And it makes firewood more interesting!

PS* It occurred to me that it 's easier to get a split with a blunt chisel, rather than a cut. I've been doing something similar today - splitting off waste with an axe used as a wedge - hitting it with a hammer. So perhaps blunt for the split and a sharp chisel for paring down to the line?

Hi Jacob,
That makes sense... I do find from time to time that sharp chisels just plunge into the wood. But I think with a sharp chisel, I have more control over the direction of the split and can make the cut not follow the grain. I've only done this on pine though, not gonna touch any harder (and more expensive) wood until I get better.
Sam
PS: for some reason it's really hard to find any wood other than pine where I live... I literally have to go to other cities just to find wood. The only lumber yard close to my house doesn't do retails. :evil:

 

[Sawyer]

Note that that ultimate splitting tool, the froe, is not particularly sharp.

 

[bugbear]

Note that that ultimate splitting tool, the froe, is not particularly sharp.

Bowyers sometimes exploit two drawknives, one polished and razor sharp for actual cutting (which can be very precise) and one rather blunt, for bark removal, where the desire is to follow the bark/wood boundary. Sharp tools go where they like, of course, regardless of things like boundaries...

BugBear

 

[No skills]

Sharp tools go where they like, of course, regardless of things like boundaries...
BugBear

Had a couple of girlfriends like that, years ago tho...

 

[nicguthrie]

What do you think about your MHGs' edge retention? I have a few MHG chisels as well and honestly I think those CR-V blades are pieces of junk when it comes to edge retention. I use the 10mm one to chop dovetails in pine and it chips after about 2 joints (i.e. 4 tail sockets and 2 pin sockets)... Do you have the same problem or is it just me?
Sam

I like the MHG's on the whole. Lovely and light in the hand, and they do take a good edge, seems to me maybe not as readily as good carbon steel though? I don't have any particularly good ones with which to compare them, but I was wondering at their edge retention myself, as I have noticed I need to pretty regularly strop or hone (I have a little pocket extra fine DMG diamond stone that's perfect) even mid-job if I want them to cut lightweight pine without crushing the edges of the cuts. Having said that, I have never chipped the edge of any of them, and I've even been lazy and scraped and pried out the base of a few mortices with them.

I'm still pretty new to the game, so I only have my gut to go on on their endurance, but it does seem to me they blunt a little on the fast side. One day I'll have a better range of other chisels to compare them with and I'll know for sure. They seemed good value for money, but to be honest, if I'd noticed they were chrome vanadium steel before I bought them (it wasn't on the sales leaflet I had) I might have gone with another set.

 

[Jacob]

........? I have a few MHG chisels as well and honestly I think those CR-V blades are pieces of junk when it comes to edge retention. I use the 10mm one to chop dovetails in pine and it chips after about 2 joints (i.e. 4 tail sockets and 2 pin sockets)... ........
Sam

Too fine an edge? If you are doing a lot of chopping (hitting with a mallet) you must hone a single bevel (or a slightly rounded one in the old fashioned way) at about 30º.
If you are hollow grinding or doing a shallow first bevel, followed by a "micro bevel" (so called) , you have a weak edge, which might do for paring but not for hard work.

 

[nicguthrie]

Sam[/quote]Too fine an edge? [/quote]

That may be what's ailing him, the MHG's are pretty thin-bladed so if it's concave ground on a small grinder, the edge would be really thin. I grind mine on a worksharp if needed, but usually just touch up with small diamond stones. Might explain why his chip and mine don't?

 

[Jelly]

Cutting very narrow mortices in the legs of a table I've been threatening to make for some time and tomorrow I will be using one again them to split the waste off the tenons that go into those mortices.

 

[bugbear]

Sam

Too fine an edge? [/quote]

That may be what's ailing him, the MHG's are pretty thin-bladed so if it's concave ground on a small grinder, the edge would be really thin. I grind mine on a worksharp if needed, but usually just touch up with small diamond stones. Might explain why his chip and mine don't?[/quote]

In terms of resistance chipping/fracturing (as opposed to more major damage) the only thing that matters is the bevel angle at the edge. The edge (that's chipping) has no way of knowing anything further away.

BugBear

 

[Col]

Clearing out mortices in the stiles of a cupboard door ...