Ahhhhhhhhh chisels
The more you know the less you can be sure of........ heehehehhe
Even from one company to the next nobody ever agreed on chisel names.
The long flexible chisels were often ordered by the patternmaker trade, for working long smooth parts of master patterns for casting. Lots of other people liked them too, so the name got crossed into a lot of other trades. Paring chisel is often used currently, but everything has been called a paring chisel at one time or other.
The only thing you can sure of is, the longest chisels cost the most so there are the fewest still around today. That's about it.
I have one socket chisel with a 16" long blade. It has a 10" long handle.
What do I call this?
Not for lathe turning because vibration will loosen a socket handle and it will fall off.
Lathe chisels always have tang mounts (one of the few things you can -mostly- be sure of) :)
Firmers and framers often mean the same thing, except sometimes classified by size. If the working part of the blades are 6" or under, sometimes firmers. Blades over 6", framers.
But only in certain places.
Millwright chisels are no different from framers, and nearly as big as shipwright chisels.
Shipwright chisels (millwrights and patternmakers used them too) are just massive in every dimension. They have what some people call "beer mug" sockets.
This means a regular socket chisel handle just falls in and wallows around, they have huge sockets! These chisels are extremely thick and heavy in every way.
All these names really just mean, "big chisel".
If I am carving a boat frame its a shipwright chisel, and if I am cutting barn frame parts........ well you get the idea.
Mortise chisels are often fairly short and at least 3 times as thick as they are wide, with a tang mount and a heavy bolster.
But sometimes they are really long with oversized sockets instead.
Sometimes they are only barely heavier than regular chisels, and then they are referred to as sash mortise chisels.
Since you can make a square hole with practically any kind of chisel (if you are careful) I expect every chisel might have been called mortise at some time and in some place.
Butt chisels have short blades. Portability was key in butt chisels. Many people agreed on that name for a couple hundred years.
Except they have been sold under many other names by various companies.
Stanley called them several things themselves, over time.
Chisels that have medium length (around 4" blades) might be the most common size ever made. Practically everyone in the chisel business made them since antiquity.
90% of new chisels fall into this category, and many of the worlds most famous woodworkers use(d) them too.
Regular standard cabinetmakers professional bench chisels, tang or socket, had 6" blades.
For around 150 years this seems to be one of the few things everyone agreed on,
because every company that made chisels called them the same thing during this period.
They were the perennial best sellers of chisels all through this time, selling more than any other.
But then styles changed and everyone went back to 4" blades as standard --bench chisels--.
This is another name that means nothing. A bench chisel is the one currently laying on the bench, that's it. hehe
Each of these chisels can be found under many different names across the country and across various trades. One guys framer, is another guys firmer, is another guys sash mortise.
And everybody calls everything paring chisel because paring wood is what every chisel does.
No one seems to be exactly sure when bevels were added to chisels. From Egyptian times to some time during the industrial revolution, all chisels had straight rectangular blades.
Then bevels started being offered some time between 1840 and 1870 (I think).
After 1870something everyone made them if you wanted them. This much we know.
A long bevel up each side of the face of the blade gets you into corners a little better and makes the chisel a little lighter in weight to pack around, and only reduces the overall strength of the chisel by a percentage.
My own guess, based on simple logic, is that someone was cutting bevels pretty early, maybe more than one company. But as in most things when it comes to woodworkers, it took a generation or more to catch on. Woodworkers of all kinds are notoriously set in their ways, and change comes slow.
I would look to Sheffield England as the likely start, since massive machining was their specialty around this time. Having ground plain chisels into beveled chisels more than once, I can tell you, you would prefer to have meaningful horsepower to do the job.
But never discount the French when it comes to embellishment and some innovation. They would be doing it the hard way, but they would do it just the same, if they wanted.
Never trust the Scots either. They got into embellished tools too.
The jury is definitely out, pending undiscovered information.
Chisel handles could often be ordered when you ordered your chisels.
So if you wanted smooth round ends because you were going to primarily push the tool by hand, you could get them. Leather stacked ends were supposed to be a crossover for hand or light mallet work either one. Steel or brass rings, or solid caps, on top to the handle, could be had for heavier mallet work.
You could order any theses handles mounted to any kind of chisel.
"Pigsticker" mortise chisels (the name often given to the super heavy straight tang chisels)
were meant to be pounded straight down into wood with wild abandon. These chisels almost always have straight plain oval wood handles. As if a section of sledge hammer handle was lopped off and mounted.
Most pounded chisel of all? With the plainest handles? Go figure.
Many people surmise that these handles would be pounded to perdition quickly, so no need to embellish them. And yet probably thousands are still around with decent handles.
Octagonal Spanish boxwood with fancy ends were at the top of the price range early on.
You could order them for any chisel "set".
(Another word that means nothing. Chisel sets came from 3 chisels to probably 88 chisels)
You could get them alone and mount them to your own chisels too, if you wanted.
English or Turkish boxwood was also available, and sometimes sold as Spanish boxwood to the uninformed.
Then when fashion changed, suddenly all boxwood was "English boxwood" because it had the fashionable name. Could have come from Morocco by that time, for all anyone really knew.
And Moroccan boxwood might have been stronger and prettier too.
But if "English boxwood" had the fashionable name, that was what was advertized.
A large percentage of other wood chisel handles were dyed bright yellow in imitation of boxwood, for generations. The practice lasted as long as people remembered what boxwood was all about.
Rosewood, mostly meaning Indian rosewood, was available as soon as regular trade with India was established. Still is available.
Other types of rosewood were sometimes substituted, and sometimes the "substitutes" were actually stronger than Indian rosewood.
Honduran rosewood, for instance, is very hard strong wood.
Brazilian rosewood has been essentially wiped out, but musical instrument makers
(and local farmers just clearing land for corn) are more responsible for that.
When it comes to chisels...................
Ain't nobody don't know nuthin no more.
yours Scott
