Who said Marples chisels are any good???

[Swingman]

SHARPEN a chisel?!? Damn ... I've just been moving them over to the screwdriver rack when they get dull.

[Bay Area Dave]

chuck, chuck, chuck. I was TESTING the Sears to see that it could handle the same wood under the same conditions. I wasn't doing a real project!

dave

C> Bay Area Dave wrote:

[Bay Area Dave]

I didn't use a hammer, Chuck. You aren't reading my posts very closely, are you? :)

dave

C> Bay Area Dave wrote:

[dave]

Dave, I don't usually come in on these discussions, but this time I gotta. I've got some Blue Chips - they work fine as paring chisels. I've got some Pro-touches, they're for beating on stuff with, not the same thing at all. I've got one Sorby mortise chisel, a Keen Kutter corner chisel and a handful of old mortise chisels. Each one is for a different purpose. I'm glad that your old Stanley bench chisels will work as mortise chisels, but it isn't their purpose in life. Why not use the right tools, you'll be less upset with the results. Dave in Fairfax

[Bay Area Dave]

guess you didn't read the insert that came with your Protouch?

dave

[e-mail] wrote:

[dave]

I thought that I had, but I didn't find them to be the same quality as my blue chips so I relegated them to coarser work. What did I miss? Dave in Fairfax

[Bay Area Dave]

that they are designated for use with a mallet and occasional hammer blows?

dave

[e-mail] wrote:

[dave]

I saw that, but that wasn't what I was saying. I never mentioned what to hit them with, just that different types of chisels are used for different purposes. I don't use hammers with chisels, mallets only. My motising and corner chisels are struck by mallets, paing chisels never are. I hope that makes it clearer. Dave in Fairfax

[Conan The Librarian]

I give them them as much attention as they deserve. (And in this case, sadly, a lot more.)

In one sentence you mentioned that they were supposed to be able to withstand mallet and hammer blows. In the next sentence you talked about chopping hinge mortises.

Can you see how someone might logically infer that the two were related?

OK, fine ... you win. All Blue Chips are a piece of crap (despite my experiences to the contrary). And you don't need mortising chisels to chop mortises. And you should be able to do everything from opening paintcans to paring a paper thin slice of endgrain with the same chisel. And it should never get dull or chip. And you should be able to buy it for less than $20. Happy now?

Chuck Vance

[Conan The Librarian]

You have my utmost respect. :-)

Your technique is probably better than mine. I find that I need the thick cross-section and square sides to make my mortises come out halfway decent.

Please do. While I don't know that I'll experiment much with the metallurgical side of things, it might be interesting to see the results and compare that back to the chisels we buy and see if we can draw conclusions on how they were tempered. (Or why we report such wildly different results with some of the same brands of chisels.)

Funny you should mention that. I guess I've figured mine are "good enough", because I'm like you. I don't think I've spent more than $40 for a chisel, and that was for a big old 1-1/2" honker I bought when building my bench.

But they still seem to do what I need them to do. Go figure. :-)

Chuck Vance

[Juergen Hannappel]

or got hot during grinding, as should not happen...

[Bay Area Dave]

I used a dead blow mallet

dave

[e-mail] wrote:

[Bay Area Dave]

I wasn't intending to chop deep mortises without getting dedicated mortising chisels, but what I'm trying to explain in this thread is that by cutting into red oak four times less than 3/16" deep, for testing the chisel, I found the edge destroyed. my Sears did the same thing and came away none the worse for wear. I don't intended to use a beveled edge chisel to chop inch deep mortises, but I should be able to tap the chisel into the wood to "mark" it.

Thanks for the snide comment.

I didn't say I had the Bluechip chisels. they are Protouch.

Again, you aren't reading my posts closely. I know, I know, my posts don't deserve any attention...

dave

C> Bay Area Dave wrote:

[Paul Hays]

On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 11:39:39 -0800, Bay Area Dave wrote (in message ):

All that means is that the *handles* are designed to withstand the impact of a mallet and hammer- the handle strength seems to be a big selling point with Marples, which has to make you wonder. Since when is handle strength the most important feature of a chisel?

[Bay Area Dave]

wouldn't they be discolored? I use to harden chisels for automotive use. Worked great; heat 'em and quench 'em in oil.

dave

Juergen Hannappel wrote:

[Juergen Hannappel]

Not necessarily, softening starts well before coloring (depending on the steel type, of course).

But makes then brittle, you should temper them after that, there are lots of web sites that tell you how. What do you use to heat them up?

[Bay Area Dave]

a torch. I still have those chisels. they are hard; not brittle, tough as a proverbial nail.

dave

Juergen Hannappel wrote:

[dave]

Still missing my point. Dave in Fairfax

[Bay Area Dave]

your point being that the chisels I bought are "paring"? I thought what I got were bench chisels. certainly not firmer or mortise, but just as certain they aren't paring, either.

dave

[e-mail] wrote:

[Bay Area Dave]