A fine old Witherby chisel

I am slowly sorting through a box of battered old chisels I bought for not very much a few years ago. One of the first to catch my eye was this oddly thick one with a somewhat unique handle.  Quite a bit of rust on it, but only a thin layer.  Not well treated over the years, it has been sharpened into a fairly useless skew as well as given a poor handle.   I cleaned the rust off lightly before this shot.

As I cleaned the rust off the socket, a mark became clear.  It is hard to get a photo of, but the T. H. Witherby mark is quite clear. Looking at the various patterns, this chisel appears to have been made sometime between 1859 and 1868 in Milbury, Massachusetts, before Witherby was sold and moved to Winsted, Connecticut.

The blade is so thick that I wondered if it might be a sash mortise chisel.   It has some real heft to it.  With some digging, I was able to find an 1890 catalogue from Winsted Tool Works.   Witherby did not make mortise chisels at the time.  I found two quite similar socket chisels, a framing chisel and a firmer chisel.  The angle of the socket looks more like the firmer chisel to me.  Besides, the framing chisel handle is dull.

Back in 1890, a 1-inch Witherby firmer chisel would have cost a worker $12 dollars - a hefty cut of a carpenter's $20 weekly earnings.  I feel oddly privileged to have it come into my hands.(Edit: I have since noticed this was a wholesaler price...they were sold by the dozen, so $1 apiece)

I did a light cleaning on tit, basically to remove all rust and anything loose enough to come off in the work, but otherwise taken off as little as possible.   The makers mark is a little clearer, definitely earlier than the 1890 type.   Reground to a 30 degree bevel straight across, and then started out trying to make an imitation of the original Witherby handle.  I was not able to tell whether or not the original would have had a hoop, the 1890 illustration sort of looks like it might, yet that hoop tapers and appears to have grain.  Given the heavy work a 1" firmer would be doing, decided to go with it.

Made a bit of a mess of my by-eye imitation, the waist is a bit narrow, and the taper to the shoulder where the socket meets the handle ended up being too aggressive and the shoulder is more exposed than it should be.  On the other hand, I really quite like the look of it (curly maple scrap, finished with boiled linseed) and it feels surprisingly well balanced for what is a very hefty chisel.

Sharpened it after flattening the first inch or so of the back, and it is ready for another 150 years of service.

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