Chest Gamble

[jake]

Jun 27, 2008 15:21:19 GMT Alf said:

but you know how it is.

Cheers, Alf

Umm, ahh, yeah. *months float past*

[jfc]

If you need to get rid of a set of those doubled up stumpy butt chisels Jake please let me know . I can see them being very handy in tight spaces .

[jfc]

Are they rounded bevels i can see on those pig stickers ;D

[mrgrimsdale]

Jun 29, 2008 6:23:35 GMT jfc said:

Are they rounded bevels i can see on those pig stickers ;D

So they are! And well used by a busy woodworker by the looks of it. No time to fiddle about with obsessive sharpening if there's work to do ;D ;D
What about the others? As far as I can see they seem to have single bevels. I bet they aren't perfectly flat*. We are all dying to know Jake.

cheers
Jacob
*NB rounded or convex bevels really implies just not particularly flat. The actual shape doesn't matter (within reason) if the edge is OK
PS a collection like this can be an insight into how a hardworking and presumably competent woodworker, uses and sharpens his tools. As Jake sharpens them one by one (in his no doubt excellent way), the evidence is lost

[jake]

Some of them are rounded, some are approximated to convex with a series of three or four wide bevels, others are flat most of the way, and slightly rounded at the end.

Not many of them are 90 degrees across at the end - maybe that's the next stage in your sharpening techniques?

[mrgrimsdale]

Jun 29, 2008 12:01:30 GMT jake said:

Some of them are rounded, some are approximated to convex with a series of three or four wide bevels, others are flat most of the way, and slightly rounded at the end.

What you'd expect really - a busy geezer who doesn't give an eff about bevel details as long as he can get on with the job ;D

Not many of them are 90 degrees across at the end - maybe that's the next stage in your sharpening techniques?

Funny you should say that, watch this space!


cheers
Jacob

[jake]

I dug out the drill section properly (and uncovered a further roll of drill bits in the base of the chest):

Here are the shell gimlet bits:



Close up of a couple of them - one of them lacks the lead screw, I'm sure Alf's thread will identify it for me - a shell with a twist:





Shell bits:



Brad point bits:



Countersinks:



Tapered reamer, some twist drills with square shanks, and an expansive bit (with a spare longer expandy bit)



Some bits that look to my ignorant eye like they are engineering bits for some sort of machine tool?



Lots of proddy/scrapy/chiselly things, that don't look as if they are for woodwork (much like the collection of big cold chisels, etc, in the first picture I posted the other day) - what the hell did this guy do?



Curiouser and curiouser - more oddities - screwdrivers, fine, but look at the size of some of them - hand-made micro screwdrivers, the smallest can't be more than 1 or 2mm:






Some odds and sods - another weird bit, converted by hand to fit in a brace, a couple of mini-scrapers (thicker than a normal scraper, but much smaller as you can see), some turnscrews (one hand converted from a centre bit by the looks of it, and the very cute and amazingly well made T Smith stamp:




More of the stamp - hand-filed, converted from a chisel by the looks:






The jennings pattern augers:




the irwin pattern augers (demoted to a roll in the chest, and no fancy hand made covers for these!





The gimlets:



From the sheer extent of the above selection of drill bits, I have to conclude that this bloke was always boring.

Next up: the wooden planes:

[jake]

I guess the boring bits really are boring.

The planes are quite plain too.

This one stands out as having a bit of glitz - not sure it's in any way my favourite though. It certainly is very neat and tidy (in contrast to some of the stuff, clearly not much used). It's a Marples, from memory, and it is dated - which I do remember - 1948:



l




The bit which surprised me - not having handled a wooden plough before, and especially given the twin wedges which lock the fence, was that the depth stop is wound up and down very smoothly by the brass knob (must be a threaded or rack and pinion mech or something, but I've yet to explore it properly) - I expected it just to be something cruder like a lock-nut.

[Alf]

Sorry, Jake - meant to come back to them when I had the proper time to look. Naturally that's not this moment either! If I don't return anon, give me a kick up the posterior.

Cheers, Alf

[wizer]

I wonder if the 'mith' of T SMITH could be files off?? If so i'd be interested.

[jake]

That would be sacrilege, Wizer - it's so nicely made! So much so, I'm thinking of changing my name(s). ;D

[mrgrimsdale]

My name is T (for Titus) Smith - and somebody recently swiped a box full of the collected tools of me, my father (Thaddeus), my grandfather (Theophilus). Any information leading to their recovery would be appreciated, and rewarded with a free bradawl.

cheers
T Smith

[jake]

Sod off - you'll soon be claiming you're called G Ward, and T Smith stole loads of stuff off you in your childhood (two names on a bunch of the planes - T Smith has tried mostly to obliterate Mr Ward).

[jfc]

Mr Ward here . Has anyone seen my old planes ? I last saw them when i was working with that toerag Mr T Smith !

[mrgrimsdale]

Oops yes sorry Mr Ward. Was me wot borrowed them, I meant to tell you. Now some a***ole as nicked the hole b***in lot. Wuddya believe it!!!! Probably flogged em on ebay

cheers
Titus

[jake]

I've stamped them all with 'Gollum' now, as they're mine, all mine.

You can see the Ward/Smith thing pretty clearly on the rebate planes - one's a 1.5" skew - seems to be J Gields(?), Nottingham. No markings on the blade, very well used. The other 2" T rebate has no (maker's) markings at all, on body or blade. Again, very well used - really thick chunky blade on this one, must be 1/4" thick.







These really do have rounded bevels.

[jfc]

These really do have rounded bevels.

That must have been that Titus fellow , never could hone a dam iron that man ! ;D

[jake]

Some moulding planes:



and some more moulding planes;



I've never used these before, but having sharpened one up, they are very impressive despite their simplicity and apparent crudity. I think I may be converted. Where's that wooden plane slope?

A couple of coffin planes, the bigger one is a marples with a metal toe:




little one has no marking on the body, a marples blade and a mathieson chipbreaker:

[jamesarthur]

This is fascinating, glad you had to put out the stash for the box and not me.

I have two questions, first in the picture showing the mortise chisels, there is one with a distinct curve in the end, what would that have ben used for, perhaps a curved bottom in a mortise?

Secondly the link did not oopen for me do you any pictures of the actual chest itself, with dimensions if possible, that sort of stuff really interests me?

Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing.

James

[jake]

Jul 25, 2008 16:16:30 GMT jamesarthur said:

This is fascinating, glad you had to put out the stash for the box and not me.

Hey James, thanks - I'm glad someone is interested - I was about to let the thread die, as it seemed maybe it was a little pointless, boring and possibly self-indulgent (and the photo stuff is a lot of effort compared to just typing some words).

I have two questions, first in the picture showing the mortise chisels, there is one with a distinct curve in the end, what would that have ben used for, perhaps a curved bottom in a mortise?

It's a lock mortice or swan's neck chisel - and, yes, they are used for cleaning the bottoms of blind mortices - but flat, not curved bottoms - the curve in the chisel just puts the edge at a cutting angle at the base of the mortice.

Secondly the link did not oopen for me do you any pictures of the actual chest itself, with dimensions if possible, that sort of stuff really interests me?

The link was to the ebay auction, and it's long expired. Sure, I can do some details of the chest for you at some point. Remind me if I forget!

[jfc]

From the amount of views and replies i'd say a few of us are interested Jake

[jake]

I meant apart from you and Titus.

[colincott]

You can add me to the list of interested

[paulchapman]

And me

[engineerone]

so who is this tight ar*e you are complaining about jake ;D ;D

it is always nice to see such a complete collection, and get some idea of how people looked after their hand tools in my youff, when i was more interested in motor bikes and birds than woodwork ;D

paul