I have small hands and weak eyes.
I find normal length bench chisels too long. Plus, I rarely need the normal depth of the cut normal chisels provide.
Butt chisels’ handles are too short to use with a mallet.
Are there SHORTER chisels out there?
Shorter than the 8 3/4″ – 9″ ones I see everywhere?
Japanese chisels look shorter, but don’t seem to be, actually.
AND, if I need to make my own, got some advice?
(I was thinking of buying old ones and cutting off part of the blades and resharpening..lot of work.)
Dolly
Replies
How about these?
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=30029&cat=1,41504
Although I can't find the link at the moment, there is a relatively inexpensive brand of Japanese chisels where the blade extends about an inch or so from a longer wooden handle.
The down side to the extra-short blade is that sharpening must be done without the aid of a sharpening jig.
Otherwise, a butt chisel is about as short as I've seen.
I have a set of stanley model 60 butt chisels that I got from a relative. They are pretty short but have a metal cap on the handle to be struck with. I'm not sure I understand what you mean when you say the handles are too short to be struck with a mallet?
For several years I've been chopping dovetails with American Pattern Ashley Isles chisels from http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com and am very happy with them.
I also like shorter chisels at times. I got mine from a furniture factory when they chucked them out as "too short". They were Stanley made with Butyrate (?) handles which I removed and put on my own. Wonderful steel, despite being some sort of high chrome steel- so that stands in the face of the "chrome steel = junk" fable.
You could find old chisels at flea markets etc and shorten them to suit- that is when a belt grinder comes in handy....
The two in the middle are shorties.
Lee Valley has some "Butt
Lee Valley has some "Butt chisels" that might work for you. The Japan woodworker had some Crown tools butt chisels that had very nice handles, I don't see them on the website but if you call them they might still have a set.
Good luck
Troy
Ditto on the Crown butt chisels. They come in a set of 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and 1". There have been some variable reports on the steel in Crown chisels, but all those who own the Crown butts love them. I have not used them just seen them, and they are Cute!
Regards from Perth
Derek
You know, I was looking at those in Carbatec some time ago, and they struck me as being mini chisels ie the handles too are small which may make them inconvenient to use. To me a short chisel just has a short blade, whilst the handle remains "normal" .
Crown Chisels
Derek,
I have a set (1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8) that I use for chopping dovetails. They are very light, and easy to control and to hold straight with a few fingers, and can take a good pounding. I find them very easy to use without a lot of effort. They seem about average for taking and holding an edge, but because they are short they don't work with a lot of sharpening jigs.
The bad news is that they are very thick, and have high sides, so I've had to take mine to the grinder to turn them into bevel edge chisels to get into dovetails. Even after that, because they are so thick it is necessary to relieve the waste side, especially when chopping out the pinboard for half blind dovetails. I wouldn't even try to do any fine paring with them. If I could find a high end set with better steel and thinner blades I'd buy them, but I haven't seen any.
Anyway, they work fine for most purposes, but I'd be a little careful about using them exclusively for really high end work.
Simon
If you're looking to make your own chisels, Starrett can supply flat ground O-1 steel in various thicknesses and widths.
Fastenal or any other Starrett dealer can order it for you.
http://www.starrett.com/download/340_p626_629.pdf
Texas Knifemaker Supply will heat treat/temper for you if you don't wish to do it yourself, although you might want to see if there's a bladesmith in your area you can deal with directly.
There are also shorter old Buck Brothers socket chisels, the ones that say "buck brothers cast steel" and have delicately ground sides. They make very good joinery chisels.
They are a bit softer than stanley 750s, but I like the ground on them more, and they are by no means too soft to use. The sharpen very easily and take a very good edge.
There are also short japanese chisels, but they don't always have delicate sides, and their balance isn't quite as nice as the buck brothers socket type.
Another cheap option is to take any chisel you like with handles not so long as some chisels (so the balance isn't wonky), and cut them off and then grind a new bevel into them. If they're cheap chisels, there's no reason to wring your hands about removing a large amount of the chisel.
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