Timber Framing Chisel Resurrection

[Prairie Swamp]

$10 flea market find. Cleanup for using on a project. New oak handle.

Turns out it's a laminated blade which means it on the older side.

Limited cleanup on the backside as the tool steel laminate is very thin.

 

[kirvesmies]

nice...but can you shave with it?

 

[Prairie Swamp]

Still shaving end grain on seasoned Ash after chopping 8 joist pockets.

It's taken years of working on it but yeah I can usually hit "sharp" pretty quickly these days.

 

[kirvesmies]

 

[HandForged]

Be careful with it, those older chisels were only hardened on the last 1/4 of the blade. Which incidentally is what made them so nice to use as the rest has flex but something to keep in mind.

 

[Prairie Swamp]

Be careful with it, those older chisels were only hardened on the last 1/4 of the blade. Which incidentally is what made them so nice to use as the rest has flex but something to keep in mind.

Yeah it really was a no lose situation for what I had into it. Turns out I was really pleased with how it held an edge. Chopping end grain seasoned Ash is a bitch. I touched up the edge after about 10 joist pockets so I'm pretty happy with that.

 

[g-man]

Nice find. What are you building out of ash in the image? Is that an outside deck?

 

[Prairie Swamp]

Kind of a long story. In my 7 acres of woods I had dozens of large Ash trees that were largely straight and sometimes without branches for 40 feet or more. Well the Emerald Ash Borer from Asia killed them all. So I bought a sawmill to try to save them from going to waste (I heat with wood but could never burn it all before it rotted.) So I've got thousands of board feet in a barn.

I'm building a small cabin in the back yard to use some of it up. Because I have 4 X 10's I'm using them as rim joists I guess. I poured concrete pillars as a foundation to avoid a full foundation, and also to let it breathe well underneath. I timber framed the floor joists in just because. I could have used steel joist hangers I guess. I was working in the barn because the weather has just been heinous. It's rained all January. Then all that got a coat of penetrating epoxy. What you see there is out on the foundation now. The rest of the building will be stick built entirely of Ash including 2" flooring, as well as wall and roof sheathing.

I'll post up a separate build thread on it.

 

[Prairie Swamp]

Replacement Joists

• Prairie Swamp
• Jul 25, 2017

Replacement floor joists in the old bank barn. Original floor joists had been blown out by overloading with straw bales. The replacements are 4 X 10 X 15' Ash. Takes some decent sized trees to get those. I was surprised to find that Ash is 10% stronger than Oak as a beam (floor joist.) It's a shame they'll all be dead soon.

 

[HandForged]

The shape of that thing makes me think it originally started out as a Spud bar. The concave in it gives it away, then someone somewhere along the line thought it would make a good chisel...LOL. I make a few reproductions for some timber frame guys locally a few years back. I put a slight bevel backwards on the sides so that the cutting edge was a MM or two wider to make removal from a deep pocket easier.

 

[Broski]

Still shaving end grain on seasoned Ash after chopping 8 joist pockets.

View attachment 2168546

It's taken years of working on it but yeah I can usually hit "sharp" pretty quickly these days.

Are you making the pockets completely by hand with only your chisel ? if so my hat is off to you

 

[Prairie Swamp]

Are you making the pockets completely by hand with only your chisel ? if so my hat is off to you

Sorry for the late reply. I use a saw to cut the sides of the pockets as far as you can - a 45 degree triangle shape basically. Then for the rest it's a mallet and chisel, checking with a square. Neaderthal wood working.