Popular Woodworking 2005-06 № 148, страница 84

Popular Woodworking 2005-06 № 148, страница 84

Arts & Mysteries

Advanced Chisel Techniques

When you know what you're doing, chisels can be wonderfully helpful tools.

If all you want to do with your chisels is adjust machine-cut joints or slice glue drips, any technique or tool will work. This sort of work is occasional in nature, and not particularly strenuous. But chisels offer woodworkers the opportunity to do much more.

For machine-using woodworkers, chisels provide the opportunity to explore new possibilities. You can cut shapes with a chisel that are not achievable by other means. For the beginner lacking specialty machinery, chisels can be used to cut all manner ofjoints quickly and efficiently. But this work requires more effort than the occasional paring of a joint.

For this sort of work to be practical, we need much more thoughtful tools and techniques. The trouble is, neither the tools nor the traditional techniques are well-understood. What we need is a professional to show us his tricks and the tools we'll need to perform them. That's where I come in. Oh, no, I don't mean me. See, the guy we need died more than 300 years ago.

In this, my second article on working wood quickly and efficiently with hand tools, we'll look back in time in hopes of discovering the effective and efficient use of chisels.

Paring

"This way of handling may seem a preposterous Posture to manage an Iron tool."

—Joseph Moxon, "Mechanick Exercises"

When examining period chisels, one can't help but notice the strange design of their handles. Surviving examples and period illustrations from the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries indicate chisels typically had tapered or wedge-shaped handles.

by Adam Cherubini

Adam Cherubini makes reproduction furniture using the tools and techniques of the 18th century. He demonstrates his craft at Pennsbury Manor in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on Historic Trades Days. You can contact him atadam.cherubini@verizon.net.

Executive Editor Christopher Schwarz makes a rabbet using an 18th-century chiseling technique: After scribing the lines for the joint, you can quickly rough out the rabbet by wielding the tool as shown. Then come back with a rabbet plane and clean up the joint to your scribed lines.

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Popular Woodworking June 2005