1/16th inch Chisels

[allen long]

Some weeks ago we were talking about 1/16th inch chisels. Thought I would try my hand at making a few. They were ground from Narex chisels. The wider of the chisels is from a Narex mortise chisel. The second picture shows she inserts in the handles which are brass and bloodwood. The item to the far left is a birdcage awl reground from a hardened rod used in a floppy drive. The handheld countersink to the right is my own design. The countersink business end is either US or European manufacture (I forgot which). I specifically chose the countersink manufacture with passing these down to my sons. You can see better pictures of the birdcage awl and countersink in the later pictures.

The shorter of the three chisels was actually a beautiful long grind (Think of Lie Nielsen shape). However it snapped off during heavy-handed tryout. These all wound up slightly under 1/16th inch after polishing. Amazingly, the Mortise chisel was originally full length and I was able to pound a through-mortise through a 7/8" cutoff from an oak stair tread. The thing looked like a Katana sword before I shortened it and put it into a new handle. What good is it? Not sure actually, but at this length it is pretty robust and I likes it . . . .

Kind Regards . . . Allen

[Andrew Fleck]

Good job, those look nice and just when I was all proud of myself for grinding a 1/4 Buck Bros complete with plastic handle down to 3/16", you post these.

[Frederick Skelly]

Wow, those look great Allen. What kind of wood is that?

[brad jansen]

Great work!

[Matthew N. Masail]

Beautiful! if Narex chisels came with handles even remotly like yours they would sell like hot cakes.

[Derek Cohen]

I have a rather nice fishtail chisel made by Allen (one would never guess that it started life as a Narex bench chisel). Here it is with a Blue Spruce. It hold its own in this elite company.



Thanks again Allen.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Very nice work, Allen, and love the fishtail chisel. Dumb question here- can you turn brass on a regular woodworking lathe or do you need a machinist setup? I now have access to a beautiful Jet lathe with 8' bed and despite the large bed intend to finally turn some tool handles on it.

[Jim Koepke]

Nice work Allen.

jtk

[Dave Anderson NH]

I'm not Allen. But the answer is yes Malcolm. There are a few caveats though and they are major.

1. Your tools must be very sharp.

2. Proper presentation and riding the bevel is critical. A wrong presentation of the cutting edge will rip the tool right out of your hands and is likely to cause bodily damage.

3. Take very light cuts and wear both safety glasses AND a face shield.

If you are a beginner at turning do not even attempt to turn brass, it's too dangerous.

[allen long]

Thanks for all the kind words everyone!!!

The wood is tiger maple. Poor lighting and photography on my part makr the wood a little hard to recognize. I use shellac to make the grain pop.

As far as turning brass, I prefer doing it on my Jet wood lathe. It is best if you start with a round brass stock. I have bought three or four sizes to turn to minimize waste. (From Enco or MSC wehen they have free shipping). I started out holding the stock using a Nova chuck. I now prefer using a collet chuck.

Brass is relatively easy to turn and shape using tool steel lathe tools. After all, there are tool steel end mills used for cutting steel. You don't need carbide tools. But I do keep a diamond hone hand to keep the edge sharp. It works best if you turn it a relatively high speed. You get smoother results that way. I have not tried longer brass spindles. I have turned aluminum up to about 4 inches in diameter. It is a lot more gummy than brass and a different discussion.

Thanks again everyone!

Many Kind Regards . . . Allen