A ridiculously wide chisel I call “The Butcher’s Chisel”

[Make Things]

It was part of a tool contest last July.

[rossbotics]

Very crafty

Doug

[Make Things]

Thanks Doug. A little long in length but I’m still proud of that video.

[Philip Davies]

You went to a lot of trouble to make a nice handle, using some techniques I am not familiar with. An heirloom piece, perhaps? A two inch wide chisel is not ridiculously wide. I have at least one commercially produced which is wider, and I have made a great many chisels and gouges, from repurposed tools, leaf springs,etc, all with wooden handles, some as wide as yours. But I was rather expecting to see you harden and temper the steel blank. Had this been done beforehand? The most time consuming part of making handles is fitting a ferrule WHICH STAYS TIGHT! So your cast resin obviates that difficulty. Fruit branches are cheaper though!

[Daturat100r]

You went to a lot of trouble to make a nice handle, using some techniques I am not familiar with. An heirloom piece, perhaps? A two inch wide chisel is not ridiculously wide. I have at least one commercially produced which is wider, and I have made a great many chisels and gouges, from repurposed tools, leaf springs,etc, all with wooden handles, some as wide as yours. But I was rather expecting to see you harden and temper the steel blank. Had this been done beforehand? The most time consuming part of making handles is fitting a ferrule WHICH STAYS TIGHT! So your cast resin obviates that difficulty. Fruit branches are cheaper though!

In the old days 2"-3" chisels were common and not a butchers tool in any way though were often way longer and not struck but used as a paring chisel pushed from the armpit and called a carpenters Slick
Would have to agree with quote ,cool to hang on a wall but an unferruled and/or socketed striking handle made this way would just shatter with a couple of blows with a hammer, epoxy is way too brittle, even though the tang comes right thru to the striking face(which is never successful in the long term anyway).If it is pre hardened and tempered to take a durable cutting edge before shaping the tang will snap off or shatter.A little research and practice in metallurgy of forging ,hardening and tempering and a look at a few old school wooden handled chisels and combine that with your obvious passion to make tools I'm sure you could make a good looking functional and durable chisel

[Make Things]

Yep on the tempering. The video was already at the 13 minute mark, which was much larger than the intended time of 10 minutes. Besides, it was for a tool contest and felt like using the barley twist as the main attraction. Somebody had asked me that in the video comments and I told them I’d show them how I did it with the next Chisel video...which was the video I post a few weeks ago.

[Make Things]

In the old days 2"-3" chisels were common and not a butchers tool in any way though were often way longer and not struck but used as a paring chisel pushed from the armpit and called a carpenters Slick
Would have to agree with quote ,cool to hang on a wall but an unferruled and/or socketed striking handle made this way would just shatter with a couple of blows with a hammer, epoxy is way too brittle, even though the tang comes right thru to the striking face(which is never successful in the long term anyway).If it is pre hardened and tempered to take a durable cutting edge before shaping the tang will snap off or shatter.A little research and practice in metallurgy of forging ,hardening and tempering and a look at a few old school wooden handled chisels and combine that with your obvious passion to make tools I'm sure you could make a good looking functional and durable chisel

I very much appreciate your reply, although I disagree with a comment you made about resin strength. This thing can take a beating. Both this chisel and my volcanic rock chisel have stood up well, even though they’re made out of resin. Much stronger, I would guess, than a wood handle.

As a slick it would be too short. I called it the butchers chisel as it has a lot of weight and feels like I’m swinging a meat cleaver. Overall, it was a fun build.

Thank you again for taking interest in this video!

[DIYer]

Thanks Make Things! We've added your Wide Chisel to our Chisels category,
as well as to your builder page: Make Things's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Wide Chisel by Make Things

tags: chisel