| A lady came and asked me very recently if she could | | | | doubt the hardest and the finest grain edge steel |
| have some advice, holding a box full of old tools. I'm | | | | you could get. We are looking at early twentieth |
| usually wary when people do this but in this case the | | | | century here between the wars. As manufacturing |
| box of old spanners turned out to be a goldmine. | | | | processes improved and became more structured so |
| Almost unused Marples, bevel edged chisels probably | | | | the expensive labour intensive hammering was |
| made in the 1950s or 1960s. This is the golden period | | | | reduced. Other elements were added to the steel |
| of Sheffield toolmaking. | | | | and different methods developed so that instead of |
| I get asked a lot about the value of using old tools | | | | forged steel in the modern post ww2 we have "cold |
| and my answer is "it depends upon the tool". There's | | | | rolled steel". |
| no doubt in my mind that the quality of the steel | | | | Cold rolled steel is tough, takes a good edge and |
| was better when these were made. In that time | | | | holds that edge pretty well. Most of the blades that |
| when mechanisation was limited they were to a | | | | we have seen in use since the 1960s would probably |
| degree handmade tools, each slightly different from | | | | fall into that category before the advent of A2 steel. |
| its neighbour. Getting an absolutely flat back, | | | | Cold rolled is okay but it isn't as good as cast steel |
| necessary to sharpen properly, on a Marples or a | | | | heated and hammered. |
| Ward Cast steel blade can take a lot lot of doing. | | | | So these are the qualities that you need to consider |
| So, what you lose in accuracy you do gain in steel | | | | when looking at the second-hand chisel in the market. |
| quality. The structure of carbon steel is not unlike | | | | Is it genuine cast steel, if it is then is flattening the |
| long grain rice. An assembly of grains facing in all | | | | back of the blade going to require so much work |
| different directions. If those grains are heated and | | | | that it's not worth having? I gave an apprentice of |
| hammered the long axes tend to move so that they | | | | mine two long Ward pairing chisels, a famed Sheffield |
| are buy and large pointing in the same direction. | | | | maker. I said if he could flatten both those blades in |
| Heating and hammering steel changes its structure | | | | his spare time he could keep one of them. It took |
| making it finer grained. The earlier steel that was | | | | him the best part of a month of evenings. But we |
| hammered more so-called Crucible Steel because it | | | | each got a superb pairing chisel. |
| was made in a small pot called a Crucible. This was no | | | | |