Harris Tools

[Mike Henderson]

I bought some chisels today at an estate sale - the box they came in was marked "Harris Tools" but the chisels themselves are unmarked. I went to the Harris Tools web site and found the chisels listed, but nothing about the company itself - including where they're located.

While I didn't pay that much, I was disappointed with the chisels. While they look like socket chisels, they're actually made like Japanese chisels. The attachment of the handle to the body is via a tang, and there's a ferrule at the bottom of the handle that is ground smooth with the body, just like a Japanese chisel. I would not have bought them if I had seen that, because I was planning to make new handles for them.

The chisels look fairly modern, but when I measure the width, they're not close to being accurate. The 1", 3/4", 1/2" and 1/4" are all narrow, and the 3/8" is wide. I'm guessing that the chisels were actually metric sizes which were just advertised as English sizes.

I haven't used them yet so I don't know how the steel will hold up.

Not that I needed any more chisels but I have a weakness for them.

Anyone know "Harris Tools" or have experience with their chisels?

Mike

[Mike K Wenzloff]

So make new handles for them. I don't understand what would prevent you from so doing.

On the website, I do see the mm measurement in parenthesis. Usually when I see that it has meant they really are metric and the imperial is the nominal measurement. Then again, I have no experience with Harris tools and so don't know what they were aiming at.

As for nominally sized chisels? I have rarely had an issue with nominally sized bench chisels. I know none of the really old ones I have are "accurately" sized.

Hopefully the steel will be adequate for your intended usage.

Take care, Mike

[Mike Henderson]

Thanks for your response, Mike. What I find hard to do in making handles for Japanese style chisels is to get the ferrule aligned well after putting the new handle on. If the hole in the handle (for the tang) is off just a bit, the ferrule doesn't line up. Sometimes it seems that I have the hole properly centered, but in driving the handle on, the wood on one side gives a bit more than the other side and the ferrule is not lined up. I've re-ground the metal to make it smooth again, but overall, I find it harder to make new handles for Japanese style chisels than for either socket chisels or western tang chisels. But maybe I'm doing something wrong so if anyone has some pointers, I'll appreciate them.

So you're right, I can make new handles for them, but I don't find it as easy a task as a socket chisel.

Mike

[Tony Zaffuto]

Mike,

I have a wooden spokeshave by Harris Tools. Got it about 4 or 5 years ago and if I remember correctly, it was made in the Carribean somewhere--Honduras, Dominican Republic??? Got it from Traditional Woodworker. Quality is as good as any better modern spokeshave out there.

In the time since I got the spokeshave, I've noticed Harris has expanded their offerings. I saw the chisels you have on the site a year or two ago and again IIRC, what caught me was they are virtually identical to Woodcraft's house brand, Woodriver. Again, IIRC, I remember seeing something about those chisels being manufactured somewhere in the Pacific Rim.

I've got to add here, that some of these lesser-known chisels may be a real surprise. For Christmas, with my wife's help, my 8 year old daughter got me a 4 pc. set of Narex chisels. I have many, many chisels, from vintage Witherbys, Stanleys, etc. to modern AIs, LNs, etc. The steel on the Narex, for a $6.00 chisel has to be the best bargain out there, with an edge that lasts better than the AIs in some maple I've been working on. I reshaped the ugly handles to fit my hands better, and as far as prep work goes, the backs were flatter than most of the AIs I've bought. The flats on the sides are a bit bigger than I like, but the belt sander may take care of that.

T.Z.

[willie sobat]

I have the Harris Tools' spokeshave, travisher and chairmaker's devil. They are fine tools. I read an article on the company several years ago. The company was located in Costa Rica. At that time I believe the tools were manufactured there. At the time they were being billed as a sort of up and coming boutique type tool manufacturer. They were stocked by Garret Wade and some other retailers. Then they sort of dropped of of the map. I'm not sure what they're up to now.

[Mike K Wenzloff]

Hi Mike,

Being that I have only made a couple replacements for a couple different people, I probably got lucky. But it worked. I think they turned out well because the handles, like yours, were intact.

I used a lathe, handle stock chucked into a 4-jaw chuck. Used a drill chuck off the tailstock to drill a hole. Used a live center on the tail stock of sufficient size to fit the drilled hole--be careul to not use much pressure when adjusting the tailstock. Because the piece is actually held well by the 4-jaw chuck, it only needs to keep tension on the tang end. Then it was a matter of carefully matched the taper on the "socket" end of the old handle. Then went to town on the rest of the handle.

I suspect if the tapered ferrules (socket) was handmade, it would be more an issue fitting a handle as the insides would be perhaps not true.

I ran into two different shapes on the tangs. The two chisels I did for one person basically had a nominal-sized round shank for a tang. The other two had a square tang that tapered off to a point at the very end. The first pair was easily matched by either a letter or numbered bit I suspect. The other pair I used my typical tang chisel drill bit--a tapered pocket screw drill bit. Both of them I drilled a skosh undersized and heated the tangs and assembled. However, one can go for jst a hand-pressure fit and use epoxy.

Take care, Mike

[David Keller NC]

"If the hole in the handle (for the tang) is off just a bit, the ferrule doesn't line up."

Mike - there's a fairly simple way to deal with this, assuming you're comfortable with shaping the handle on a belt or circular sander rather than a lathe. You just drill the hole in an over-sized blank, mount the chisel, and shape the handle to your liking on said belt sander.

It's also possible to do this on a lathe - one makes a custom tail center for the edge of the chisel that will grip it between two wooden jaws, chuck the handle end as normal in a lathe, and away you go.

If you've some hard-to-split wood laying around (such as elm or dried hickory - poplar sometimes will work as well), you just make a series of holes with a drill that outlines the width of the chisel, hammer it into the blank, and chuck this in the lathe.

As I understand it, this is the method used to make traditional english "pig-sticker" mortise chisels with oval handles.

[Mike K Wenzloff]

While these are not tang mortise chisels, the tang is similar/same to those on oval bolstered mortise chisels but a little smaller tang.

You can see from this picture the shape of the tapered pocket screw bit is a very close match. For smaller chisels, I use the smaller PS drill bit.



Just mark the length...



Drill...



And turn the handles...



Easier than what Mike faces because his have tapered ends.

Take care, Mike

[Mike Henderson]

That's an excellent idea, Mike, using a tapered drill bit. I always did the traditional thing of drilling with different sized drills to different depths. Your idea is much easier and faster.

I'm going to try some of the ideas various people have proposed here. Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

Mike

[Just a comment about Japanese chisels and getting the ferrule to align with the body of the chisel (since the Harris chisels use the same mating). I notice that the area where the ferrule meets the body is always ground on Japanese chisels. What they do, I suppose, is press the ferrule onto the bottom of the handle, then press the handle onto the body, then grind the metal down until the joint it smooth. Works well and gives a nice smooth surface.

And maybe that's the only way to really get a nice smooth joint there. The metal is fairly beefy in that location so it will tolerate multiple grindings.

Oh, and getting the ferrule off the old handle is not an easy task either.

It's just a lot easier to re-handle a socket chisel.]

[Jim Holman]

Mike,

Address is:

Harris Tools
Interlink 281
7801 NW 37th St.
Miami, FL 33166

As I remember they appeared 10 or so years ago with some high end infill planes and have since branched out. For some reason I believe they are importers but I have no facts to back this up. FWW tool review in 1999 stated:

12/1/1999

SUMMARY REVIEW

I had high hopes for this chisel sporting a cocobolo handle. The blade looks surprisingly like the Garrett Wade house brand, and in fact, both blades bear the marking, “Cr-Mn Steel.” An employee at Garrett Wade said he “believed both chisels are made at the same plant in Czechoslovakia." The tool scored an “average” on the toughness test. The price is for set of five chisels listed.