Greetings,
A couple of weeks ago on another forum, a question about making traditional octagonal chisel handles came in from a fellow who was frustrated by his first tries. Hoping to help him out a bit, I decided to do a brief write-up of my efforts along these lines. It is intended to be more suggestive than formulaic, and is somewhat preliminary. If interest warrants, I intend to rewrite it to some extent, and make it available as an article on our website.
Since, a couple of people have suggested that folks here might be interested in the write-up, so I thought I'd make mention of it. It is a PDF file, and should download to your computer by clicking on this link (211 k):
http://www.planemaker.com/docs/octhandles
Incidentally, it doesn't cover boring the hole for the tang of the chisel. I usually do this by boring two or three "stepped" holes of varying widths and depths, then using the square tang as a "reamer" until the tang is within an eighth of an inch or so from being seated. Then a few smart raps on the end of the handle, with the chisel tang entered in the hole, will usually seat it. I would be interested in other's approaches to this. (It is often suggested that tangs were heated and "burned" into the handle, but I've never seen any evidence that this was a common practice.)
Hope this will be of some interest.
Don McConnell
Eureka Springs, AR
A couple of weeks ago on another forum, a question about making traditional octagonal chisel handles came in from a fellow who was frustrated by his first tries. Hoping to help him out a bit, I decided to do a brief write-up of my efforts along these lines. It is intended to be more suggestive than formulaic, and is somewhat preliminary. If interest warrants, I intend to rewrite it to some extent, and make it available as an article on our website.
Since, a couple of people have suggested that folks here might be interested in the write-up, so I thought I'd make mention of it. It is a PDF file, and should download to your computer by clicking on this link (211 k):
http://www.planemaker.com/docs/octhandles
Incidentally, it doesn't cover boring the hole for the tang of the chisel. I usually do this by boring two or three "stepped" holes of varying widths and depths, then using the square tang as a "reamer" until the tang is within an eighth of an inch or so from being seated. Then a few smart raps on the end of the handle, with the chisel tang entered in the hole, will usually seat it. I would be interested in other's approaches to this. (It is often suggested that tangs were heated and "burned" into the handle, but I've never seen any evidence that this was a common practice.)
Hope this will be of some interest.
Don McConnell
Eureka Springs, AR