Handles for Tanged Chisels

[Michael O'Sullivan]

I picked up some tanged Swan turning chisels on the bay, and they came with separate handles. Is there a rule of thumb for what size hold to drill for a given sized tang? Also, do people customarily use some epoxy to hold it in place, or just pure friction?

[Mike Minto]

michael, you'll (obviously) have to drill a hole large enough in diameter to match the widest part of the tang that will be inserted into it; that's all the larger i make my holes - smaller is better in this case. i then fill the gaps on either side of the tang's flats with half-round pieces of wood, using epoxy to glue everything in when the fit is right. hope this helps, mike

[Steve Mawson]

What Mike said for sure.

[Michael O'Sullivan]

Thanks. I wasn't sure if you should drill them a bit undersized to make a tighter fit.

[David Walser]

I'm trying to recall how I saw an old timer do this years ago (before I was married -- we just celebrated our 27th anniversary). If I recall correctly, the hole drilled was large enough to allow the tang to fit about 1/2 the way. Then, the tang was heated until it was cherry red and the tool was driven into the handle. This allowed the tang to burn a custom sized slot into the tool handle and locked it into place.

This was done at a blacksmithing demonstration. I've always assumed it was an accurate representation of what was once common practice. Maybe it was just a good show -- lots of smoke.

[David E Keller]

Richard raffan has a CD that covers this... 'turning wood' I think. He drills an undersized hole and just gets the tang started in the handle. Then you turn the whole thing over and bang on the butt of the handle and the tang will slip into the hole. No filler and no glue. I've assembled several this way and it works very well.

[Ern Reeders]

Same here but if the wood is hard it doesn't work too well.

A stepped hole works better but is time-consuming to do.

A pro turner friend just grinds the tang parallel. He's hard on his tools but it works.