A welcome distraction from my current project. Giving an I.SORBY chisel I picked up a while ago a new lease of life.

I Sorby.jpg

I had a short piece of beech that proved ideal. The beech was dirty and had honing oil on it and was destined for the burn pile.

Rough Blank.jpg

This chisel has a beast of a tang! As we all know, fixing a new handle is pretty easy on a tanged chisel. I just drilled pilot holes of different sizes at different depths. Chisel was then held in the vice and driven onto the tang.

Chisel Blank.jpg

The blank was well oversize and I cut it back with my D8

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_S4zWkj...=14baaqp2oxc2j

Once size was near enough I roughly set out an octagonal section and used a block plane to refine the profiles by eye.

Shaping Chisel Handle 1.jpg

Once I was happy I cut a small bevel to meet the boster. On a nice old chisel hande the handle goes down to the bolster. However, this used to have a turned boxwood handle (split) with brass ferrule. It was a compromise that gave the handle the feel I wanted and is similarin feel to a large carving gouge I have.

Shaping Chisel Handle 2.jpg

I shaped the top with a rasp and and rasped the top, I refined this a touch more with a file but left it at that.

Rasping Handle.jpg

A nice way to spend an evening.

Chisel Before Wax.jpg

Chisel Before Wax 2.jpg

A coat of wax later, time will add colour. I have a few more to do in time, for when the next distraction is needed!