Subject: Re: Chisel sockets

From: "Marrin T. Fleet" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1996 14:40:59 CST6CDT

> Date:          Fri, 05 Jul 1996 22:42:38 -0400
> From:          [email-masked] (Clay Spencer)
> Subject:       Re: Chisel sockets
> To:            [email-masked]
> Reply-to:      [email-masked]

> At 6:56 PM 7/5/96, [email-masked] wrote:
> >Does anybody know how the sockets (not tangs) were made on chisel's.  Was
> > the socket formed from another piece of metal then forged welded onto the
> >chisel or was it a continuation of the chisel that was somehow drawn out,
> >flattened, shaped then forged welded.  Are there any books that would explain
> >this process.
> 
> In Robb Gunter's class at John C. Campbell Folk School several years ago,
> he taught making the socket from pipe (3/4" black) by tapering it in a V
> swage until it fits tight on a tang. The open end of the socket could be
> drawn some over a bick ot slender horn. The short tang was fullered and
> drawn from the spring stock used for the chisel. Then we fluxed both pieces
> and forge welded them together.
> Clay
> 
> 
> 
Another way, used in many tools fro the 19th century, was to fuller a 
"fan" instead of a tang.  Roll the fan into a cone, and forge weld
the overlap.  Tools from this period also showed evidence of a 
separate piece slipped over a short tang, and tenon welded inside the 
socket, much as described above.

Clay:  Have you - or others - tried the "fan" method?  I have seen 
evidence of it by examining sockets on old chisels, and having seen 
one where the weld was not good, and came apart.  It seems to me this 
would be harder to do, but possibly stronger.  What do any of ya'll 
think?  "JE1111" touched on a question I have been meaning to pose 
for a long time!

Marrin T. Fleet
[email-masked]
Admin. Computing Services
The University of Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee  38152
901-678-3604

---

From: Jim McCarty <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 1996 08:55:01 -0500

> The University of Memphis

The gigmaker I mentioned awhile back used this method to make a socket 
for his gigs. He didn't weld them -- I mentioned this and he said, "If 
you can get a piece of wood (the handle) to spread this socket apart 
I'll kiss your ---." Guess he knew what he was doing as he has made 
many gigs. He had a mandrel made from a piece of axle that he used to 
shape the socket. Your cross pein gets a good workout making these.
-- 
Jim McCarty
Father Helias Forge
Taos, MO
Editor Rural Missouri Magazine
Newsletter editor, Blacksmiths Association of Missouri

³Foolish consistencies are the hobgoblins of little minds³