gallery Archives - The Wireless Woodworker

Restoring a Vintage Chisel

January 23, 2017
by Tim

Chisels are without a doubt the most useful tool in a hand tool woodworking shop (other than your own hands!). Whenever I’m in the shop I always have a chisel either in my hand, or within arms reach. I flop back and forth between new and vintage chisels and don’t really have a preference as long as they’re sharp, so I’m always on the lookout for a good deal. I came across these two massive chisels at a local flea market and picked up both of them for $0.50 – a nice bargain considering the steel was in great shape.

The chisels are marked G.I. Mix and Co and were probably made around 1900-ish. They are both bevel edge socket chisels, one a 2″ and the other 1-1/4″. Neither one came with a handle and the steel was a little dinged up, but absolutely no big deal for a user tool. Here is a video of the process I go through when restoring a chisel – including getting the steel back into shape, turning the handle, and adding finish:

And some glamour shots of the completed project:

If you prefer not to watch the video, my normal restoration process for a chisel goes a little something like this:

Get rid of the old busted handle (if still attached)
Hit all the metal with a soft wire wheel on the grinder
Let them soak for a night in Evapo-Rust
Rinse them off well and immediately oil, then use the wire wheel again to remove the black oxide rust residue and oil again
If needed, repair/file the socket
Rough grind the bevel
Clean with Mineral Spirits, then TCE (wear gloves!)
Blue the metal – I do three coats. First coat applied with cotton balls, second applied with a gray scotchbrite pad, third applied with 0000 steel wool, and a final buff with paper towel
Turn the handle
Add 1 (or more) coat of stain/filler and buff across the grain after it has dried to a paste (~15 mins)
When completely dry, apply 4 coats of Tru-Oil, rubbing with 0000 steel wool between coats
When dry, rub out with 0000 steel wool and paste wax
Sharpen the chisel blade and get to work!

The products I use during the video are as follows:

Evapo-Rust

Brownell’s TCE Cleaner/Degreaser

Brownell’s Oxpho-Blue

Stock and Stain Filler

Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil

I hope you enjoyed the latest video and if I’ve helped you refurbish an old chisel please feel free to let me know!

Blog

The Frame Saw

June 28, 2016October 16, 2018
by Tim

I love nearly every part of working in a wireless wood shop and that includes most of the initial milling of rough lumber. The one part of hand work I don’t enjoy so much is re-sawing. I typically buy most of my lumber in 8/4 thickness, so for any projects requiring thinner stock I need to resaw it down to the correct thickness. I enjoy scrub planing rough lumber, and even like flattening boards by hand, but when it comes to re-sawing I find it mind numbing and boring. Maybe it’s because while planing I’m constantly thinking about the grain direction, but when sawing all I’m doing is trying to keep saw between the lines – boring. What I would like to do is get this process out of the way as soon as possible, but with only an 8 tpi hand saw, it tends to take quite a lot of time – not any more! Enter the frame saw:

The saw plate and hardware is the 31.5″ frame saw kit from Bad Axe Tool Works and the design is based on Tom Fidgen’s frame saw from The Unplugged Woodshop just elongated to fit the lengthened saw plate. The wood is 8/4 Ash that I had leftover from the Workbench build just quickly finished with an oil varnish blend (equal parts satin varnish, BLO, and mineral spirits).

Construction was pretty straightforward and is just like you see in the pictures. The two side supports are connected to the top and bottom with a dual mortise and tenon joint. No glue was used (the tension on the saw plate gives the strength needed), so I can tear it down and store it flat if need be. I spent quite a lot of time on shaping the handles, which angle backwards and downwards, because I wanted it to be comfortable. I used a plane tote as a template and set out with a few rasps to shape it.

I’ve only used it a few times since completion, but I’m really happy with the way it turned out. The handles turned out great and as much as I want to get through this part of milling quickly, I could comfortably use this for hours. It just eats through wood and makes fairly short work of smaller re-sawing tasks. I’m still practicing sawing in a straight line – it is very difficult to steer once the kerf is set, but adding a shallow kerf with a hand saw (I’ll be adding a kerfing plane at some point) makes this much easier. I also don’t plan on sawing veneer with this saw, so for coarse re-sawing tasks the accuracy isn’t completely necessary.

Blog

The Workbench

February 29, 2016December 18, 2016
by Tim

The workbench build is complete! See my first ever video and some final pictures of the bench. Links to the construction blog posts are at the bottom of the page.