Perhaps I am stretching it getting three posts out of reconditioning just one chisel, but because it was a side project it ended up taking quite a while. After having turned the new handle, I put a layer of boiled linseed on it every day for at least a week after each round of fussing it with fine files and sanding it. The irregular side of the socket really had me leery of going too far for a loose fit. The finish developed a really pleasant lustre, really quite pleased with my first results working with apple.
I finally reached the do-or-dare point where I was confident I could get a decent fit, put the chisel into a vise, socket straight up, and drove the handle down with a few solid taps with a mallet. After some initial resistance for the last millimeter or so, I was able to push it to a really solid fit. I left the butt end of the billet on to serve as a hammering surface, most of it broke apart, but leaving the chisel in the vise I cut the rest of it with a fine crosscut pull saw. A little bit of finish sanding, then a few rounds of BLO, and done.
For comparison, here are the before shots with the handle it came with, although already having cleaned the rust off and ground a new edge.
I decided to take a light hand with cleaning up the metal surfaces, abrading off any rust and anything loose while leaving most of the patina built up in perhaps a century and a half. The only exception was the first inch or so from the edge, which I flattened for performance reasons. Interestingly, there is a hollow that became quite visible. From there, a trip to the waterstones - I use a jig for sharpening most edges, including chisels, but I have been working on developing my sense of hand-sharpening. Back when this chisel was forged, I would have needed to learn early on how to sharpen a chisel quickly and get back to work, so I figure this chisel will be one I work on improving my skill with.
The chisel feels oddly delicate, with the long thin blade and the narrow waist of the handle. Definitely not a tool for heavy mallet work, more for refining the fit on joints, although I suspect it is sturdy enough. In 1895, a seven chisel set of Merrill & Wilder firmer chisels sold for $4.60, in the Montgomery Ward catalogue - a carpenter of the day would have earned around $20 per week, and Merrill was a well-respected name for edge tools that outlived both Merrill and Wilder.
As an aside, I started experimenting with different lighting for taking photos, using secondary lights to reduce shadows. I noticed quite a difference, and at some point just invest in some dedicated lighting. The original handle shots were done with a single cross light, throwing a heavy shadow. The lighting for the 'after' shots above has a light over the right shoulder from the lens, one overhead, and one bright one from the back, which eliminates most of the shadows. Technically, I guess that is a better shot, but there is a little more glare in the center, which oddly makes some bare metal looking orange or almost like rust. The pair below have a clear but not dark shadow, but the metal comes out much better. Maybe a little too much glare on the handle.
The last have just a single light, eliminating the shadows from the overhead light, but throwing a significant shadow from the left and losing some detail. The metal looks better than the first option, but the wood of the handle looks worse. On balance, I think I prefer the one with a light shadow.
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