Wood Chisels, Gouges and Draw Knives
These are bladed, cutting or shaping tools, usually with an extended handle for striking or leverage for prying. They are used to shape wood by removing material. They’re primarily used during the fitment of wood parts into project components, or for decorative carving.
What is a Wood Chisel?
Wood Chisels are hand tools used to shave or chip wood. Wood Chisels can be operated by striking them with a hammer with some care. There are two main types of wood chisels – those used by carpenters and those used by woodworkers.
Carpenter chisels are broken into types by size and usage:
- Framing corner chisels are framers forged into a 90-degree angle to clean out corners. Generally 30-degree bevels. Usually with hooped, socket handles.
- Millwright or Factory mortise chisels are very long, very heavy mortise chisel designed for heavy striking with heavy, hooped handles. Many were 16” long and often made by manufacturers like New Haven Edge Tool who specialized in large chisels. Always with hooped, socket handles and a 35-40 degree bevel.
Woodworking chisels are broken up into types by usage:
- Cranked Paring Chisel – the blade is offset so the handle is above the surface of the work. These are mostly used by pattern makers to get into areas that are below the surface of the work piece.
- Skew Paring Chisel: has a 60 degree cutting angle and is used for trimming and finishing.
- Dovetail Paring Chisel – these have nearly a diamond shape to clean female sliding dovetail sockets.
The better quality Japanese wood chisels are made from laminated steel. There are different types of metals used in each chisel. The better ones are laminated by hand, over a charcoal fire. The combination of the metals makes a chisel that takes a very sharp edge, and is hard enough to maintain the edge for a long time. This technique produces a tool that have a harder edge, usually a hardness rating of Rockwell 64, compared to their western counterparts of around 62 on the Rockwell scale. There are two basic metals used in these chisels, white steel and blue steel. The names come from the color of the paper the steels are wrapped in. White and blue steel come in various grades that vary in carbon content. Both have low levels of impurities. White steel is a simple carbon steel. Blue steel contains alloying elements, and sacrifices some sharpness for edge retention, toughness, and corrosion resistance, although it is not stainless.
A lathe tool is a woodworking chisel designed to cut wood as it is spun on a lathe. These tools have longer handles for more leverage, needed to counteract the tendency of the tool to react to the downward force of the spinning wood being cut or carved. In addition, the angle and method of sharpening is different, a secondary bevel would not be ground on the tool.
A gouge, one type of chisel, is used, particularly in woodworking, woodturning and sculpture, to carve small pieces from the material. Gouges are most often used in creating concave surfaces. A gouge typically has a 'U'-shaped cross-section.
• Gouges with angled rather than curved blades are often called 'V-gouges' or 'vee-parting tools'.
• Straight Gouge
• Fishtail Gouge
• Spoon Gouge
• V-parting Tool - used for parting, and in certain classes of flat work for emphasizing lines.
• Veining Gouge - a specialized deep gouge with a U shaped cutting edge
• Framing Gouge – a large (2” or wider) gouge used to scrub wood for fitment in timber framing construction.
Gouge Parts:
• Sweep – The curvature of the cutting edge of a carving gouge. A lower number (like #3) indicates a shallow, flat sweep while a high number (like #9) is used for a deeply curved gouge.
• Bent – the curvature of the gouge length –
- Long Bent – A gouge, chisel or V tool where the blade is curved along its entire length. Handy for deep work.
- Short Bent or Spoon – A gouge, chisel or V tool where the blade is straight with a curve at the end, like a spoon. Use for work in deep or inaccessible areas.
- Back Bent – A spoon gouge with a reverse bent end. Used for undercuts and reeding work.
• Cannel – the curved inner surface of a gouge
What is a Draw Knife?
A drawknife is a traditional woodworking hand tool used to shape wood by removing shavings. It consists of a blade with a handle at each end. The blade is much longer (along the cutting edge) than it is deep (from cutting edge to back edge). It is pulled or "drawn" hence the name, toward the user. The draw knife provides a quick and simple way of removing large amounts of stock from timber billets. Much loved by the green woodworker, these tools have been with us since the very dawn of woodworking. There are two or three styles with variations, the most common are:
• Curved bladed style, with handles in line with the cutting edge, also known as the continental pattern.
• Folding-handles that allow the user to adjust the angle to gain maximum leverage
• Scorp - Also commonly called an inshave, is a deeply curved drawknife that has the perfect regular sweep and handle angles for rapid, aggressive shaving to finish the shaping job begun with the adze. Its deep sweep takes heavy cuts without excessive effort and without tearing at the edges of the cut.• Everybody that works with wood will at some point need at least a single chisel and the techniques to use it.
• Traditional furniture makers• Timber Framers
• Wet Wood workers.
• Carvers
• Retail Stores
• eBay
• Yard and Estate Sales
• Craig’s List
• What to look for
- Look for all the parts (iron, handle, *ferrule, *strike plate)
- Look for cracks or chips, especially around the ferrule
- Look at the length for stress and condition of the edge for bluing
- How flat is the back? Convex back = bad (takes too long to knap)
- Look for excessive pitting due to rust
- Cheap pot-metal or sheet metal materials and soft plastic in general = bad
- Metal striking plate is more of a carpenter’s chisel
- Anything marked "Stanley", "Witherby", "Winchester", “James Swan”, "Chas Buck" or "L&IJ White" is generally going to a collector for too high a price unless they are part of large, handle-less lots.
- Good brands include older (not newer) Greenlee and Buck Bros, New Haven Edge Tool, Ohio Tool, Crossman, DR Barton, Underhill, Union Hardware, Jennings, Sargent, GI Mix, Shapleigh Hardware, Eric Anton Berg, Dickerson, Gillespie, Wye, Dixon, PS&W or PEXTO, Robt Duke, Fulton, Merrill, Butcher, Stiletto, Hibbard OVB, Simmons Keen Kutter, Lakeside and several other old makers and hardware store brands are every bit as good as the collector prizes and are much less expensive. Most unmarked chisels of that era were usually made by one of the above makers for a hardware distributor and are also generally excellent.
- Stanley Defiance
- Eclipse
- Newer Greenlee, Buck or Stanley socket chisels made in the 1960's and later
- Any chisel with a vanadium finish like used on today's mechanic's tools
Flattening, Grinding and Filing - ,
• Flattening the back - the first step in sharpening a chisel. Once the back side is perfectly flat, and polished to the required degree, the front and side edges need to be addressed.
• Hollow Grind of the blade or chisel edge
• Stones or Scary Sharp method
• Micro bevel
• Stropping
• Flat Grinding perpendicular to the back past the knick.
• Evaporust or Electrolysis
• Phosphoric Acid (Parkerizing)
• Waxing
• Bluing
A sharp chisel gives you great control and allows you to remove paper-thin slices of wood, but it can be dangerous if you’re not careful.
• Clamp small projects.
• Cover the chisel blade when it’s not in use.
• Store chisels in a safe place, away from children.
• Wear safety glasses when striking a chisel with a hammer.
• Wear close-toed shoes (nothing like spearing a toe)
Short demonstration of chisel, gouge and shave use (paring, mortising, gouging)
• http://www.wkfinetools.com/
• http://ruckus.law.cornell.edu/mailman/listinfo/oldtools (email list)
• Bob Smalser
• Scott Grandstaff
(my notes were liberally taken from materials written by the above and from the web resources listed).
-- John
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