>Naw, this is a working handle, plastic and metal, plain, functional, rugged, and not an ounce of grace and beauty.
That's that newfangle stuff. Hard for a carpenter to make... For paring chisels with tangs, I like a nice, simple,
octagon handle. The first one I made from a section of the broken handle from my grandfather's old hoe. Nice
piece of ash. It's served me well for about 35 years on a no name cast steel 3/4 inch chisel. It does say "use
me" and I probably use it more than any other. Made some others out of dogwood, but don't like them quite
as much.
>I love my Marples, they work fine for what I use them for, but they just don't have that nice warm 'use me' look..
Good tools, Marples, though I tend towards D.R. Barton and W Butcher myself, in chisels.
Your Marples chisel reminds me ... About 25 years ago, I was in the scene shop for the San Francisco Opera.
One fellow had an open tool chest, filled with wood working tools -- a lot of them vintage. I had to look. The
crusty old fart came over and closed the lid. But we got to talking, and he took me for a tour of the chest. The
tool chest and much of its contents had come down in his family (along with the 275# Peter Wright anvil in the
shop). Along with his grandfather's wood handled Marples was a set of the blue handled Marples like yours.
It was a testament to quality and craftsmanship.
