I’ll be picking up one of these later. Pictures whenI get it home. Each side of this thing is about 3/4′ wide. The whole steel part is almost a foot long. It was my grandfather’s. Since he worked almost 50 years in the railroad as a Section-hand, and later section foreman, I thinking this might be about that kind of work. The “hole” this would make, is about the same as a track spike. It’s a “socket style” chisel, the wood handle is long gone. The area where the handle once sat, is heavily mushroomed over. Would this be worth the effort to “rehab”?This is very old steel, but there is almost no “pitting’ on it. Must be all the old cresotte inbedded in it. We’ll see how it turns out.
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Replies
I would treasure this chisel
I would treasure a tool that had been used by my grandfather or dad. If this was mine I would restore it - fix up the mushrooming and add a vintage-correct handle, but largely leave the steel as if (just remove any rust or dirt). I very much doubt that you will ever use it as there were mainly used when building roofs, I believe.
Regards from Perth
Derek
Timber frame
Green with envy. You have a timber framing corner chisel. I'll ditto the restoration, even if you never use it. It maybe sort of obsolete but I do use sort of obsolete tools a lot. Tools are always being reinvented.
Thanks for bringing up some fine old memories. I have some tools I inherited from my grandfather. Some nice, well used hand saws, a draw knife and an old wooden set of two pulley hoist blocks are the ones I've used the most. I like them and I think about Grandpa when I use them but "cherish" is a strong word for an old tool. I cherish my wife , kids and grand kids. I've got some other stuff from Grandpa, oil cans, folding ruler, pipe wrenches. I know with certainty that I don't cherish the old plumbing snake he gave me but it is useful. I cherish the memories I have of my Grandpa who was good with his hands and tools, played guitar and sang, was a gold miner and was always smiling and winking at me.
Bret
Big corners
Just imagine working on the M&Ts of a Trestle Table, using this to square things up.
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