Erwan
50 Cal.
My grandfather always told me : '' I am not rich enough to buy cheaply ''. I've realized, now that I'm old man, that he was absolutely right, and I got the most out of it all my own life....
chisels....lesson learned.
- Thread starter rocullen
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Pete G
76 Cal.
You can NEVER have too many chisels/gouges.
JOHN ZUREKI
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This old "saying " holds true; "Buy the best and you will only cry once".
Anybody or is this top secret . There’s got to be a select few everyone should have but certainly not all afterall they have chisels for the chisels
Okay!You can NEVER have too many chisels/gouges.
The chisels from Track of the Wolf are good. Pfeil are better, but they are double the price. I prefer the full size chisels. You can use them with two hands or with a mallet. Much more control that way.
Thanks for your input!
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I'm still scrounging for old chisels at flea mkts. . No matter if you have old or new , learn to sharpen ,Get a Hard Arkansas stone and use it. Use an old leather belt to strop after stoning. My favorite chisels under 1'4 " are made from high quality screwdrivers. They ain't pretty , but work like a bandit and , the company I used to work for bought them.
This thread reminds me of a story I once read about Hershel House. He was visiting a friend who had just finished building a rifle. The man was a good craftsman but could not engrave so he asked Hershel if he would engrave his name on the barrel for him. Hershel agreed and after looking around the mans shop found an old rusty piece of broken file. He quickly ground a proper cutting edge on it and masterfully, signed the mans name on the barrel.
Expensive, high quality tools are nice to have but the hand that holds the chisel is the most important part of the equation.
I have a butt load of chisels but I have found that 90 percent of the inletting required to stock a rifle is done with the same three or four chisels, best to buy the ones you need instead of a set. Another thing, expensive high end chisels are useless if you do not know how to maintain and sharpen them. Clean, precision inletting requires razor sharp tools.
I was going to stay out of this thread but I can't help myself, This subject has come up before and my thoughts on buying expensive chisel sets was not very well received. If you are a part time builder and you are going to build one or two rifles buy you some affordable chisels. Do your homework, learn how to sharpen them and regrind and temper them if necessary. Learn how to use them. I have nine rifles and pistols under my belt. i have found that experience has served me better than the the price I payed for my chisels. Just my thoughts, YMMV
Expensive, high quality tools are nice to have but the hand that holds the chisel is the most important part of the equation.
I have a butt load of chisels but I have found that 90 percent of the inletting required to stock a rifle is done with the same three or four chisels, best to buy the ones you need instead of a set. Another thing, expensive high end chisels are useless if you do not know how to maintain and sharpen them. Clean, precision inletting requires razor sharp tools.
I was going to stay out of this thread but I can't help myself, This subject has come up before and my thoughts on buying expensive chisel sets was not very well received. If you are a part time builder and you are going to build one or two rifles buy you some affordable chisels. Do your homework, learn how to sharpen them and regrind and temper them if necessary. Learn how to use them. I have nine rifles and pistols under my belt. i have found that experience has served me better than the the price I payed for my chisels. Just my thoughts, YMMV
Well, I was gonna stay away from "re-temper them" comments, but......
How do you know how to re-termper them if you don't know what kind of metal you are working with?
Different metals require different temps.
Joemolf....What kind of chisels you need depends kinda on your technique. All of this is hearsay, so take it with some salt; Some people use veiners to outline their work, some use gouges. Those that use gouges will probably need a larger selection of sweeps to cover all of the possible curvatures. Seems to me, the shallower sweeps could tend to be a bit wider than the deeper sweeps with the exception of a narrow #3 to get in to tighter spots of relief.
Maybe if I give you some 'misinformation", an experienced carver will correct. So, in that vein, I hear that a shallow sweep, #3, is good for removing background wood. I would assume both narrow(4mm or so) and some wider.
At least a couple of good straight chisels, I think they are referred to as #1. A skew chisel or two could be handy I would think.
Again, I AM NOT EXPERIENCED AT GUN STOCK CARVING, so please don't go buy chisels on my word/thoughts.
Hopefully someone more experienced, as in doing it for profit, can chime in and correct my mistakes.
How do you know how to re-termper them if you don't know what kind of metal you are working with?
Different metals require different temps.
Joemolf....What kind of chisels you need depends kinda on your technique. All of this is hearsay, so take it with some salt; Some people use veiners to outline their work, some use gouges. Those that use gouges will probably need a larger selection of sweeps to cover all of the possible curvatures. Seems to me, the shallower sweeps could tend to be a bit wider than the deeper sweeps with the exception of a narrow #3 to get in to tighter spots of relief.
Maybe if I give you some 'misinformation", an experienced carver will correct. So, in that vein, I hear that a shallow sweep, #3, is good for removing background wood. I would assume both narrow(4mm or so) and some wider.
At least a couple of good straight chisels, I think they are referred to as #1. A skew chisel or two could be handy I would think.
Again, I AM NOT EXPERIENCED AT GUN STOCK CARVING, so please don't go buy chisels on my word/thoughts.
Hopefully someone more experienced, as in doing it for profit, can chime in and correct my mistakes.
All chisels are made from 10 series high carbon steel, a very forgiving and easy to harden steel to heat treat. Plenty of information available out there if you are inclined to look for it
Tazman1602
32 Cal
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With Great Difficulty!! O.D.
Thanks well said!
My mentor in the gunsmith trade told me to never buy ‘sets’ of anything. Buy a tool when you need it and can’t make it, chisels, guages, reamers, taps, etc, etc. and buy the very best you can. My years in the trade proved him right. Almost always used only a few individuals within the sets of anything I did buy because they were the most critical and most often used for the procedure at hand.
Brownell's "Gunsmith Kinks" has an excellent section on chisels - selection/sharpening/etc. if a person prefers print over internet. Brownell's has always carried excellent tools and supplies for gun work. Some specialty tools I have a hard time finding elsewhere. Nice folks.
ohio ramrod
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I was gifted a set of high quality German made chisels about twenty years ago by a friend who inherited them from his father. They made my craftsman chisels look like junk, I have never regreted buying quality tools, but often regretted buying tools that were not up to the job.
I've built over 200 guns with cheapy Harbor Freight chisels. Replaced the handles, and was good to go. I've had this set for years, but if the steel quality is still as good as it was then, they take a sharp edge and hold it very well. Some seem to think they need to spend a lot of money to get anything done.
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Fly.........Do you want cut angle data , or the kinds of stones , grit , how to strop???? etc
