huge wood chisel

[Ed Steinkirchner]

i made this for a guy that has helped me for some time now, he calls me "Blacksmith", and has had me forge a couple things for him, and a few rough blades because he does stock removal knives. he asked to make him this and he said he had the steel and i could have what didn't get used in the chisel. he gave me three 2-2.5 foot pieces of 1 inch hex jackhammer bit.i had to upset the end to get enough mass to spread it this wide.

[Ed Steinkirchner]

here's the rest of the pictures

[Timothy Miller]

It looks like you have enough steel for two chisels. That is a big hunk of steel to draw down and spread by hand. Nice work.

[Steeler]

That really is a huge chisel! Nice work. Once again I'm inspired. I am seeing more and more potential in good steel that is usually scrapped or discarded. Thanks, Steeler.

[Sukellos]

Whatever your customer expects that chisel to do, it looks as though it ought to do it! Nice work!

The only other place I've seen wood chisels that wide was in lists of early American tools that were used for stripping the bark from logs and/or working down clapboards. Some had a 4 foot or longer handle and a crossbar so the workman could really lean into the work.

Eric Sloane shows some in A Museum of Early American Tools.

I was given a paperback copy back in 1974 and it's in pretty rough shape, with a lot of black smudges on the pages.

[Mainely,Bob]

In the wooden boat world those big chisels are called a "slick".They are used for paring.
Think of it being used to cut wood like a wood plane only in a tight area where a plane will not fit.
The reason they have that long handle is so you can grip it with both hands,tuck the handle under your arm and use your upper body and shoulder to power it.
A traditional slick had the socket bent so the handle would clear the work when in use and they usually had a slight crown to the edge to make them easier to steer in the cut and also a bit of rocker(convex along the back)to the blade so pushing down on the handle caused the edge to climb out of the cut.

A very useful tool and still in demand up here in Maine.