doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Stock Making Chisels

Find,borrow or by what ever means possible get the book "The making of tools" by Alexander G. Weygers. This will give you a flying start into making your own in the manner and style that will fit your needs. There are others but this is the one that explains it best to me.
A source of tool steel stock is always a interesting sojourn in itself. A couple of possibilities are: Automotive springs. What used to be common junk but is now difficult to find is the spring material from early VW's front suspension which worked on a torsion principle. They are a nice size to work from. Old files are another scource if they are worn out and dull or even ruined they are best for you and cheap. Finally my good friend A. W, Rule from England used to make his chisels from (Silver or Silver's steel not sure) but his tools were nice and worked well. Old good quality chisel stock no matter the condition can be forged into helpful tools. Drill rod works well also. The trick to all of this is learning to anneal and hardened into a tough usable tool. Who knows you may end up with a new career or vocation. You never know until you try. Wathing the dvd "the gunsmith of Williamsburg" will help you understand where to go from here.
The making of handles for your tools is another way to use the cut offs and scrap from your stock making endeavors.
I hope that this helps rather than scaring you off. Be bold go ahead and try it what do you have to lose other than a little time. With any luck you will enjoy the experience
Happy Exploring
John McClure

I bought a set of Miller Falls with the standard length handles from Herters in the 60s and they have served me well to make many stocks.I got a set with the short palm handles later and like them and have some Buck Brothers which are good also. Bobby

It seems many of the books and references ont he subject are long out of print and info like this is pretty hard to come by. If any of you guys have a few minutes to spare and could take a photo of some of your "less typical" chisels that you use frequently, I (and it sounds like at least one other) would really appreciate it.
thanks

Bobby;
I have a set of those Miller's Falls chisels purchased from Herter's. I suspect I bought mine in the 60's as well, still use them occasionally. Haven't really done much stock work in a while now, but they served me well when I did. There were 6 in the set & I kept these as were, but somewhere along the way I picked up a set of 12 really cheap chisels. These had fairly narrow blades & I would shape them as needed for tight spots. They would in fact though take a good edge. Suspect they were simple carbon steel but this is all one really needs in a chisel, red heat being seldom produced while inletting. Plain high carbon steel is hard to beat for taking an edge.

In my area there are/were many pattern shops and I always look for yard sales and also have had good luck advertising for patternmakers tools.Have gotten 2 patternmakers vises and several complete tools chests that way.Not wanting to start a row but Buck Brothers chisels seem to be the chisel of choice around here.Have found a lot of owner made tools also and they are often really handy.The best stocker I know does a lot of the work with a Bridgeport and he is a crackerjack with hand tools also.

Here are some of the small chisels I mentioned earlier.




Upswept square ended, these are very useful.


Gouges that can be used with a tiny hammer or by hand.


The workhorses, straight and square-ended.


Pricks. Very sharp and useful for getting tiny chips and curls out of holes.


Round ended. Limited usefulness, but occasionally needed.

These are all just very small inletting chisels that have worked well for me. The gouges are particularly useful when inletting a sidelock's guts, and other tight curves, holes, etc. Nothing fancy about them, just handy and hold an edge well. Sorry for the quality of the pics, macro setting didn't work too well.

Stan

Stan thanks for the pictures. Whitey

Big thanks!!!

I had a five year apprenticeship with the patternmaker/modellmakers dept and the first year was spent learning to sharpen and care for the chisels and plane irons correctly. The main point that was stressed to me was to ensure the flat side opposite to the bevel edge was absolutly made flat by wiping the blade on an oilstone-later diamond stones in a figure of eight movement until all the front area where the edge is to be is flat. Otherwise an edge cannot be achieved.
This stays with you for life.
Martin

A good place to start is viewing the video " A LOOK INSIDE HOLLAND & HOLLAND". In the section on stockmaking several different types of chisels are shown that are common to stockers. I am confident this video is available in America.

As the photos in the reply above illustrate, stocking tools should be made in short to medium lengths as compared to say cabinet makers chisels. Almost all stockers make their own chisels as they find their individual requirements dictate this. Silver Steel (called drill rod in America)can be used to make chisels and turn screws. Better to use W-1 vs. O-1 if you are not experienced with heat treating, however.

And whilst I mention cabinet makers: the English cabinet makers turn screws make the best heavy duty gunmaker turn screws after they are re-ground and heat treated on the tips. I have two sets of the Sheffield made cabinet makers turn screws (Crown brand, I seem to recall)--one set for use and one for backup. Of, course I have a great deal of the traditional gunmakers turn screw that I use as well.