Stanley Everlast Chisel Construction Questions

[Mike Deschler]

Along with woodworking, welding and maching, I've taken on a new interest of forging and blacksmithing with the intention of perhaps making a few tools for the shop. I would like to start with some chisels, punches and perhaps plane blades.

I think most tang chisels should be fairly easy to reproduce once the metallurgy problems are resolved and a construction plan is formulated. The Stanley Everlast Hard Headed chisels (type 50???) are however of great interest as this to me is the most practical solution of transfering energy from an impact on the handle to the cutting edge via the solid steel construction through the whole length of the tool but it's construction is something I am having a problem visualizing. It appears that the chisel is comprised of many pieces with some pretty significant or innovative techniques of assembly.

I understand that Stanley published some information in one of their 1923 tool catalogs which described the construction of this chisel and I would love dearly to get a copy of that article along with any other articles describing the construction of this classic tool.

I have several Everlast chisels but do not want to sacrifice one to learn how they were built so any help would be greatly appreciated.

In addition, I am looking for any other references about tool building/blacksmithing especially about chisels which would be pertinent in this case.

[Hank Knight]

Mike,

Stanley made some cutaway versions of their Everlast chisels to show the construction. They were sales demo models. I don't own one, but I have seen them and they appear on E-bay occasionally. For most, they are only a curiosity, but one would probably answer most of your questions - except how Stanley did it. You might contact some of the old tool dealers and see if they have one for sale.

Hank

[Tim Sgrazzutti]

Mike, I have a 1" everlasting with the handle separated from the blade. I'll try to get you some pics soon, but in the meantime, this is what I can tell you.

The blade appears to have a round tang, onto which a socket is pressed onto.........there's a match line where they meet, that you should be able to see on yours. The socket is around 1/2" deep inside, and the tang comes up into it around 1/16". The steel in the handle just looks like a mushroomed rod inserted through the wood handle, with a leather washer in between. The rod is flush with the end of the handle where it goes into the socket. How the two parts were attached to each other, is where my mystery begins. Neither of the ends of steel appear to be fractured on the surface, so I have a hard time believing that they started out life as one piece. They definately need to be attached to each other, because the socket isn't deep enough to hold the handle on by itself. If I were to do it today, I would friction weld them, but I don't think that technology existed when these were made.

I would be curious about what others think of this, as I have considered repairing it, but the only solution I can think of is to expoxy the two parts together. I haven't done this, because I have a 1" LN chisel (which I love), and because I've toyed with the idea of using it in the LV gizmo that turns a 1" chisel into a cheapo shoulder plane, of which I don't have one yet.

Let me know what ya'll think, and I'll try to get some pics of this posted soon.

Tim

[Corvin Alstot]

In addition, I am looking for any other references about tool building/blacksmithing especially about chisels which would be pertinent in this case.

www.voicenet.com/~rburton/everlast.html
This site shows a cross section of a everlast chisel.
There is a steel ring which slides up the chisel shaft after the one piece handle is added to secure it to the chisel

On the Old Tool Archive, message #144824 starts a discussion of this topic.

[Tim Sgrazzutti]

As promised, here are some pictures of my broken everlasting. I took them from angles that would show the features I described in my previous post.

Any suggestions on how to repair this would be appreciated. On the other hand, if it's not repairable, does anybody have experience with the veritas chisel plane? I was thinking it could be useful as another life for my poor broken Stanley, as the steel seems to be excellent, and I don't have the funds for a good shoulder plane.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...61&cat=1,41182