Another Project - Dovetail Chisel

[Dennis Mills]

Hi Folks,

As if I didn't have enough to do, I made the mistake of stopping by the Bend Habitat Restore while there for a meeting. I saw this 1/2" Stanley Handyman butt chisel and picked it up. Why? 

From the same vintage Stanley chisel I had for 50 years I cut off the plastic handle and replaced it with a lighter one made from ash. I also reground the sides of the chisel to reduce the lands so there would be no brusing of wood when chopping out dovetails.

Since this is the same chisel (1/2" Stanley) I thought I would make another dovetail chisel from this one. You can see the as discovered chisel at the top of the attached image, and the dovetail chisel I made from its cousin.

Do I need another chisel? No, but the first one has worked so well that I thought another woodworker would like one. Interested? Contact me. I don't know if I will sell it (for very little), give it away, or raffle it.

And if you are in the neighborhood you can stop by and try the original one out.

Dennis

PS: I can talk ad nauseum about the attributes of a chisel like this.

[Dennis Mills]

Hi Folks,

I thought I might share the status of my dovetail chisel build. There are five pictures. The first one you should look at is chisel_with_no_handle. This shows the chisel once I have removed the plastic handle --> hacksaw plus some chisel work.

Next up is rhs_ground_lhs_not. If you look closely at the lhs side bevel, you should see the intersection of that bevel with the front bevel behind the edge. This is telling you there is a large land on the lhs. If you look closely at the rhs side bevel , you will see the intersection of it with the front bevel is right at the edge. This is an indication of a small land on the rhs.

Looking at lhs_large_land, although blurry, shows a large land (flat spot).

rhs_ground_little_land shows a small land, a little less than 1/32" in width.

Lastly, both_sides_ground shows the top of the chisel once both side bevels have been ground. Notice the side bevels intersect the front bevels almost at the working edge of the chisel.

I ground these bevels free hand on my 1 x 30 belt sander. I ended up with multiple bevels (removing the tool from the grinder to water cool it). To fix that I rolled the side bevels on the portion of the belt not supported by a platen. This gave me the smooth finish I wanted.

Handle is next. I have already reground the front bevel (nicks when I got it), lapped and polished the back, and sharpened it.

Dennis

Anybody interested in it?

[Dennis Mills]

Hi Folks,

The chisel has a handle, held on place with epoxy. Made from ash with a single coat of natural boiled linseed oil. I may round over the top of the handle a little more and will add more coats of oil.

I still haven't made up my mind if I will give it away, charge $5, or raffle it at a later SAW meeting.

Let me know if you have an interest in this. Even if you don't intend to cut any dovetails it is still a fine chisel - Stanley always put good steel in their chisels, at least the ones made in the US.

Dennis

[Dennis Mills]

Hi Folks, 

The chisel has found a new home.

[Patrick A Welch]

Very very nice 

Pat Welch 

Have a Jim dandy day 

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From: central-oregon-...@googlegroups.com <central-oregon-...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Dennis Mills <dennis.m...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 17 June 2026 13:17:54
To: central-oregon-...@googlegroups.com <central-oregon-...@googlegroups.com>; central-oregon-...@googlegroups.com <central-oregon-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Another Project - Dovetail Chisel

 

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