#HTE

Tools & Craft #67: Chisel Detective

A guy found this tool in his basement, had no use for it, and handed it to me. What can we determine by looking at it?

My first impression, because of the tool’s rounded nose, was that it was a turning tool. But it’s not. It’s too short—which of course could just mean wear. The dead giveaway, however, is the bolster. Bolsters exist so that hitting a handle with a mallet doesn’t cause the tang to drive further into the handle. In the days before ferrules (pre-1850) bolsters were wide and essential for preventing splitting the handle. Post ferrule introduction, bolsters were largely (but not entirely) redundant, and they got smaller and smaller. Turning tools, which aren’t struck, don’t need bolsters and therefore don’t have them.

So this tool is a gouge of some sort.

What kind of gouge? It’s not a carving tool. The lines of the tool are wrong, and the curved grind in front it pretty useless for carving. It’s a firmer gouge used by cabinetmakers. The curved nose makes it easy to shave off bits of wood to a line precisely.

The octagonal bolster, which is in very good shape and is pretty crisp, tells me that the tool is probably from the 19th or early 20th century. (I need to check the maker to be more specific). I’m also struck by how gracefully the neck tapers down, is interrupted by the bolster, and then picks up and continued on the tang on the same lines. The bolster was forged in and finished up with a file.

The front of the tool bears the maker’s stamp (Butcher) and the back is the trademark. I haven’t been able to track down details on the maker. I think I have more information on Butcher—but the information is my library, just about the only part of TFWW’s move that hasn’t been unpacked. A book I need is in a box, on a pallet, on a rack twelve feet up in the air.

The front also bears a faint stamp, from either the retailer or the user. I’m a little confused by it. That part of the tool near the neck would be hardened but not so much that a stamp would not work. The deep maker’s mark and brand were stamped when the tool was finished but not hardened.

If we look closely at the cutting edge, we can see that it isn’t perfectly curved and is worn a bit at the center. If you look carefully, you can see faint grind marks. This tool was used, but it was carefully used, and properly maintained for most of its life. There are clear grind marks on the neck that suggest that that part of the tool never rusted. The back of the tool has some evidence of putting, which suggest rust at some point but not a lot. The inside of the gouge is clear now but shows lots of pits. However, because the initials are fairly crisp I think the rust on this side was also pretty minimal. The rough inside texture of the gouge might come from pitting caused by rust that was subsequently removed, but more likely - based on the typical practice of the time - the gouge simply wasn’t ground on the inside when it was manufactured.

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This “Tools & Craft” section is provided courtesy of Joel Moskowitz, founder of Tools for Working Wood, the Brooklyn-based catalog retailer of everything from hand tools to Festool; check out their online shop here. Joel also founded Gramercy Tools, the award-winning boutique manufacturer of hand tools made the old-fashioned way: Built to work and built to last.