I offer as examples Lie-Nielsen’s socket chisels and Blue Spruce ToolWorkks bench chisels. Tom and David’s tools are wonderfully made, inexpensive for what they are, and have mettalurgy to die for. Yet, both (and all others by other makers, as far as I’m aware) are too thick. Typically, the metal of the chisel is about 1/4″ in depth, and that’s about 1/8″ too much. The extra steel may well make the chisels suitable for wailing on them with a railroad spike mallet, but it makes them ungainly in use in the cabinet shop. Even 3/32nds thick would be welcome.

If you have any pull with a tool maker, encouraging them to produce something thin would be very helpful.

Ha! I wonder how many got that joke…..

Many of my friends who have many chisels often have many of the same sort of chisel, which is probably not typical of period craftsmen.

I don’t want to leave anyone with the impression that I think it’s importnat to have a chisel that measures .250000″. The point of the blog is that you may well need a 3/8″ chisel and you may even need something inbetween 1/4″ and 3/8″, plus something smaller than 1/4″.

1/4″, 1/2″, 3/4″, and 1″ aren’t really going to cut it. In my opinion, depending on the sort of work you do, it may not even be a good place to start.

I have to second Gary, the I too don’t measure my chisels before using them, but I think that I mostly use my 10 mm, 12 mm, 25 mm, 30 mm and 37 mm, (3/8″, 1/2″, 1″, 11/4″, 11/2″).
They seem to do for my uses. I try to make some shaker style furniture, but only based on the looks, I follow my own design, so I am not sure if that can be called period furniture.
Brgds
Jonas

To be honest, I really have no idea what sizes the various chisels I use are. When selecting one, I eyeball what I need.

The manufacturer had to designate sizes for the market, else how could people know what to buy or the manufacturer know what to make? It’s like dado planes. Every now and then you come across an oddball size. Planemakers advertised special orders so I am sure at times someone needed a particular plane for a large project. Or that someone was simply very obsessive about measurements and demanded precision.

Grinding was done by hand for a very long time in Sheffield. Grinders (people not machines) were capable of tremendous precision, but they tended to be precise about things other than width. The draft angle on the sides of a mortise chisel are often very precisely ground. Width of mortisers is often quite good as well.

Many chisels actually tapered in width, narrower towards the bolster. That can introduce small (minute) variations in width as the tool is shortened thru use. 1/32″ is quite a large difference from nominal if you think about it. I’d have to audit my chisels to see how much they vary. I would expect at least .010 off nominal (which is significant for many operations you or I would perform).

Adam

I agree with you on the subject of Australian woods and chisels. I purchased a nice set of Australian made chisels and I have to say, they were impossible to use. No matter how I sharpened them, how hard or soft I malletted them, the cutting edge broke and the wood was unharmed save for some denting. I have a suspicion the problem resided in my technique.

Being from Australia, the chisels are used counter from how I would normally apply one. Holding the chisel handle in one hand, firmly against the wood to be cut, I would hit the cutting edge with my mallet. Time after time, all I achieved was to dent the wood, chew up the mallet and dull the chisel edge. Clearly, Australian chisels are made to be used on wood native to Australia and not from New England.