hacking knives

[PFSchaffner]

I admit to a weakness for the brute appeal of hacking or chipping knives.
Is there a better name for these things? I think of them as "striking" knives,
but I think I made that up. I've always imagined they are used as small hatchets,
to clear our mortises or the like during electricians' rough install work, but do they have
a more exact purpose? Of the three pictured below, the top one (a 'hacking'
knife, I guess) has no markings; the middle one (a "chipping knife"?) was
made by Utica Tools, with Bell System markings; and the bottom one (another
chipper), before being hammered on  was made by M. Klein & Sons, Chicago.

[bill300d]

No's 2 and 3 are in the 1968 Utica catalog and are called chipping knives used for splitting lead cable in telephone work. Wonder if Utica was the contract mfg for Klein.

[Aunt Phil]

I doubt there are 100 men left in America who know how to use those knives, lead cable may be hazardous if you lick it you know, and one never kniws when Billy or Beverly will pop a Personhole cover and drop in for a snack.

The top one is for cutting the circumference of the shield.  Center one splits the shield along the side of the cable, and the bottom one is for chopping a sheet to shape on a board. 

Any of them hurt like hell when they are dropped, and they all contain a microchip and flop out directing fins to guide the knife to your shin or foot right behind the steel toe.

[Papaw]

they all contain a microchip and flop out directing fins to guide the knife to your shin or foot right behind the steel toe.

Now that is funny right there!

[JoeCB]

So a question for aunt Phil ... with lead sheathed cable when spliced did the sheath have to be soldered back together over the splice?

Joe B

[Branson]

Thanks Aunt Phil!  Maybe it borders on heresy, but in the world of working with old wooden sash, these are called "hack out knives."  Until now, I never knew they were used for anything else.  I first met them when I started working with the Phoenix Planing Mill 30 years ago.  Nothing beats them for hacking out old putty when you have to re-glaze a window.  I found one of the Uticas -- the center tool -- and we all agreed that it was the bee's knees of hack out knives with a neat place to hammer.  Showed it to one of the local glass men and he fell in love with it (he loved in vain, though.  It's still in my go to window work box).  So, another tool appropriated from a different trade!  (like "electricians pliers" which in 1842 were made and sold as "bottler's pliers.")

[PFSchaffner]

For what it is worth, my McMaster Carr no. 84 (1978) calls the straight one a 'hacking knife' and makes it a general-purpose tool "for drive-cutting through hard-to-cut material, cutting out old hard putty, etc. Forged steel blade is extra heavy on top for hammer driving." Whereas the bent ones they call "cable chipping knives" "used for splitting lead cable. Splits cable clean." By McMaster-Carr 101 these had disappeared. Both versions of the angled one are in the 1979 Klein Tools catalogue, described as a "cable sheath splitting knife" (the skinny one with hammer head) and as a "heavy-duty cable sheath splitting knife, Bell System type" (the heavy one.) Oddly, the one I have with Bell System markings is NOT the one that they label "Bell System type." In the 1978 Utica-Bonney catalogue, they are both described simply as 'chipping knives.' ("For splitting lead cable, used in telephone work.")  The 1964 Buck and Hickman catalogue (London) shows a 'hacking knife' (straight) and a 'chipping knife' (bent), the latter with the "TOGA" trademark, but no description of purpose. And the 1915 Hammacher-Schlemmer shows just the straight knife, but calls it a "chipping or hacking knife." This is definitely a tool suitable for off-label uses -- much like a similar tool that I keep in my travelling collection, a VBW(German) no. 290 'slitting chisel' -- basically just a piece of tapered flat steel with one end sharpened with a double bevel; meant for slitting sheet metal but will do scrub work in anything.

[Aunt Phil]

So a question for aunt Phil ... with lead sheathed cable when spliced did the sheath have to be soldered back together over the splice?

Joe B

Probably should point out that lead covered cable exists in both telephone and power transmission, and was common for underground residential before Type UF romex existed. 

Also should mention lead can be both soldered and welded.  The welding portion of the trade is called "Lead Burning" and is a skillset unto itself.  Majoruse today is Xray room lining and lining of plating tanks.  Leadburning is done with hydrogen/oxygen torches because lead is a pure bastard when it comes to contamination of the surface.  You have a window of minutes to work in between scraping the oxide layer off lead to the crap has oxidized again, grab the scraper.  (Furniture scrapers work well)

When lead shielded cable is spliced or repaired, it will be recovered with new lead.  The new material may be sheet or tube, and the company if it is of any size will have a lead shop with an inventory and into this Century a few splicers who were good at dealing with the crap and made plenty of overtime.  Thermoplastic began killing the lead trade in the 1960s, plastic being lighter and much less skill required to work on plastic. 

Much if not most lead phone cable contained copper wires that were insulated with only paper covering, and the cable itself was pressurized with either dry Nitrogen or dried compressed air constantly replenished from the switching office.   

When lead telephone cable got water inside the technique for removal was pure joy.  1st the leak and contaminated area was located, then 2 points beyond the leak were located and nipples were soldered on to inject nitrogen (those tanks you see tied to poles from time to time) and drive the water out.  After "accomplishing" water removal a large opening was made into the shield, and some damn fool poured molten paraffin into the cable to drive off any remaining water in the paper and encapsulate the paper covered wires.   

Lead power cable is not treated in this manner, generally it is cut free, pulled out and replaced since it is constructed with rubber insulation.  Identifying a job where this is happening isn't hard, a very large man with a big wood chopping block and heavy ax will be smiling next to a manhole.

The final step in the repair will be soldering the lead envelope back up, and pressurizing it at the site of the repair.

YES, vacuum would pull the water out better and generally faster, BUT, pressure and nitrogen "Is how we always did it, so that's how we still do it" being the Bell System motto, vacuum is not even talked about.  Bell employees were not hired for their ability to think!

I've never seen a glazer chop putty out, generally they use either an electric putty heater or a torch in my experience.

[RedVise]

...and that folks, is why I check Tool Talk first.

Interesting stuff, Guys !  Thanks !


Brian

[Branson]

I've never seen a glazer chop putty out, generally they use either an electric putty heater or a torch in my experience.

I use a heat gun and a shield for the glass mostly, these days, but 30 years ago I used a hack out knife or a glazier's chisel.  Still have, and occasionally use both.  Phoenix Planing Mill mostly took our new sash to one of the glass shops here, and they were impressed with my hack out knife and would have bough several if anybody still made those like the Utica.