Show off your re-handled vintage chisels!

[Cleave]

Share your vintage woodworking chisels you've restored to a new life!

Ok, if you have cool vintage chisels you didn't re-handle,feel free to post those too.

Here are two PS&W Co. chisels.
One is a 5/8" timber framing chisel I got for $1. It had some blue overheating on the edge, and Mr Bozo had hammered on the socket without a handle. A bit of filing and careful grinding took care of both issues, with a slightly shorter blade and socket. I found a handy chunk of honey locust and worked it round with hand tools (drawknife, plane, spoke shave). To fit the socket, you just whittle it with a knife, checking it in the socket. Push it into the socket, twist it around, and it marks the high spots. Continually check alignment to be sure the blade and handle are coaxial. Finish up with sandpaper, and a collar from aluminum tubing scrap.

The second is a narrow gouge, it says PS&W Co. No 1 Ex. It was also $1, and just needed a bit of cleanup and sharpening. Handle is from a small (2" dia) piece of scrub oak I brought home from a camping trip. No sanding on this one, the facets give good grip and tool control. No collar needed since I don't expect to hammer on a gouge very much.

Install handle in socket with a bit of linseed oil and a few firm blows with a mallet. Don't glue it in, or you'll never get it back out to replace the handle again.

Interestingly, I do have a really old metal lathe (flat belt era). I have a tool rest for turning wood on it. But for simple jobs like a tool handle, where roundness isn't mission critical, why bother cleaning the wood chips out of the ways, gears, and screws? Also turning wood at 300 rpm is kinda funny.

 

[crguy]

Some new handles and some original handles. All lathe turned as they should be.

 

[Cleave]

Some new handles and some original handles. All lathe turned as they should be.

Pretty slick! ;-)

 

[2oolhound]

Pretty slick! ;-)

Shouldn't that be "slicks", plural?

Nice work guys and nice tools!

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

Nice collection crguy! I need to make a few handles for some of my misfits one of these days. Here are a few pics of a set of Aristocrat chisels I stumbled into that aren't terribly old, 59' to 60', but they are fairly rare in this NIB condition. This set has the black plastic handles which seem to be what sold mostly but they could also be ordered with beach handles. All of the original packaging was intact so I've just left them as found. Ed.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Here are a few pics of a set of Aristocrat chisels I stumbled into that aren't terribly old, 59' to 60', but they are fairly rare in this NIB condition.

Magnificent, Ed!

Ok, if you have cool vintage chisels you didn't re-handle, feel free to post those too.

I don't do any woodworking and I don't collect turning chisels, per se, but I do pick them up from time to time in the wild if I see one that looks very old or interesting for some other reason.

These three (See Pic 1) are pretty good examples of that aesthetic.

The one in the middle with the decal is the "newest". Made between 1945 and 1949 in the British Occupied Zone in postwar Germany, marked "GERMANY BRIT. ZONE" (see Pic 2) on the shank. It's a Steelcraft. I have a small collection of Steelcraft "Zone" tools, including e-z-outs, a spiral push-drill, some other things, and now this chisel. Almost certainly low quality given the entire ouvre that Steelcraft operated in; it's the time and place it was made that scratches my itch.

The chisel at the top is a J.B. Addis & Sons. Due to how short it’s been sharpened, one can only make out "Addis & Son" and under that, "effield Eng.“ (see Pic 3). Not sure about the "39" (see Pic 4). It's the marking on the other side of the shank/blade that is pretty cool. In doing some reading on a handy collector’s site, it looks like a number (probably a "10", indicating the gouge size) followed by "PRIZE MEDAL" (see Pic 5), which Addis used as a sort of branding convention after winning the London Great Exhibition in 1851 and several times thereafter. I think it dates from 1872 to 1876 after he moved to Sheffield from London.

The one that looks like the handle is literally just a few steps past being chopped out of a tree branch (see Pic 6) is my favorite. I can't fully make out the name on it, but it's possibly "W.GREAVES" (see Pic 7). Does that ring a bell with anyone? Or just an owners mark?

EDIT: Disregard the question. I just realized I had been seeing and researching the name Graves previously. Google and Google Book searches on "Greaves chisel" turn up plenty of information on a William Greaves & Sons Sheaf Works in Sheffield, England, makers of chisels, cutlery, and coopers' tools. Almost certainly another 19th century tool.

 

[RTM]

Nice, I have a Brit Zone occupied chisel somewhere. Top one, no handle. If you can use it, or know someone who could, let me know.

 

[d42jeep]

My buddy turned this handle for me in 2015. He put on the leather too.
-Don

 

[RTM]

Here are a few I have redone. A few others are too ugly too let out in public..
Top is Douglass Mfg, Middle Witherby, bottom Stiletto.

Don’t recall the wood anymore, didn’t in 2016 when I turned them it appears. Got a stack of over a dozen to do, plus some carving gouges, so will be trying to do Tapered Octagons.

 

[Cleave]

Here's another rehandled chisel, plus a bonus Stanley 40 oz ball pein and a Vaughn half hatchet.

This chisel is a TH Witherby Warranted, 1.25" width. I still need to finish sharpening it and make a sheath. Handle made without a lathe, just hand tools.

The wood all came from a log I found by the dumpster, I don't even know what it is, but it feels pretty tough when splitting it and under the draw knife...

 

[MShaw]

Not a thing of beauty, just a utilitarian handle. The interesting thing is that this chisel was found in a ramshackle wagon shed with a shop over that had been owned by a retired carpenter that died in his 80's in the early 1950's. His family had been carpenter / contractors for a few previous generations so actual age is unknown. After wire brushing the heavy rust I could see most of the Buck Bros name. See close up second photo.

 

[Cleave]

I hit the old rusty chisel gold mine yesterday at my favorite antique shop.
There's a 2" timber framing chisel, some really long narrower chisels, a couple mortising chisels, and a few decent looking normal sizes. Plus a long gouge, and a small offset chisel. Brands include Witherby, James Swan, Winchester, Stanley, and some are yet to be determined, if they're labeled. For $10 all in, if a few don't turn out to well, that's ok. I'll just clean these up and make handles and sheaths gradually as I feel the urge.

 

[woody 73]

I want to see a few things for your after pictures...

1) All new handles.
2) All the rust removed if possible.
3) sharpen up all the blades to razor sharp.
4) sheaths are a plus but ok if not done.
5) pictures, pictures, pictures, pictures.

For $10.00 you done good grasshopper!

 

[Cleave]

I want to see a few things for your after pictures...

1) All new handles.
2) All the rust removed if possible.
3) sharpen up all the blades to razor sharp.
4) sheaths are a plus but ok if not done.
5) pictures, pictures, pictures, pictures.

For $10.00 you done good grasshopper!

That's the eventual plan (see chisels I've finished earlier in this thread), some might get done sooner if I have an immediate need for them.

The 1-1/4" chisel I finished higher in this thread, got a good workout on a 8x12 traditional timber frame chicken coop I just finished up.

 

[Corndoggeh]

Chisels I rehandled last summer using Jatoba. Some of them were in extremely bad condition and required me to do some reshaping and regrinding side profiles.

 

[Cleave]

Chisels I rehandled last summer using Jatoba. Some of them were in extremely bad condition and required me to do some reshaping and regrinding side profiles.

Looks great!

 

[Cleave]

1. I'm becoming more sure the new chisel and hammer handles shown above (my post on 8-21-2020) are black walnut.
2. From the recent chisel acquisition, I have two mostly done - I just need to finish flattening the back and sharpening the 2" chisel.

 

[Cleave]

Here are the first three finished chisels, with elm handles.
In turning the handles for sockets, I finished fitting to the socket but retracting the tailstock, and forcing the rotating work into the chisel socket. The handles fit tightly in the socket with a good mallet blow on the first try - much easier than whittling it freehand.

There's an unbranded 2" x 6" timber frame chisel, this one had a convex back so took quite a bit of time on the belt sander and HF diamond stone to get the back flat.

Then there's a 1/2" x 7-1/2", its either a Lakeside or James Swan.

Then the little bent neck tang chisel has a logo that says Mount with a big swooping C around it. This one won't get carried around much so doesn't need a sheath.

 

[macgee]

Chisels I rehandled last summer using Jatoba. Some of them were in extremely bad condition and required me to do some reshaping and regrinding side profiles.

Very nice job Corndoggeh, they look very nice and functional. Well done!

 

[slowtwitch73]

Here's some from a toolbox that has been in the family for 5 generations. From left 2 Witherby's, unkown, New Haven Edge Tool Co, Ward Master Quality, and Ohio Tool Co.

I included a picture of the stamp on the unkown chisel. It's an older stamp.. rectangle with an arched word ending in "ICO", possibly a word horizontal in middle, and then a lower arched word possibly ending in "TRA" or FRA". That's what I'm seeing a anyways.

These are fresh out of the toolbox... On my to do list to whip them into shape.

 

[Cleave]

slowtwitch73, looks like one of those handles needs to be re-chiseled!

 

[slowtwitch73]

slowtwitch73, looks like one of those handles needs to be re-chiseled!

That's a very rare Noseeum & Sons chisel.

 

[Cleave]

That's a very rare Noseeum & Sons chisel.