Barr Quarton Chisels

I've started making a wall mounted tool cabinet with plenty of dovetails, more of that later in the week.

I'm using my fine set of Barr Quarton chisels which are lovely to use with a really good heft, ideal for cleaning out larger dovetails.

Although they came to me razor sharp there were still a few tweaks needed. The first was to cut down the protruding handle top and mushroom the wood over in the Japanese style.

The ash handles came lightly oiled which is not enough protection for the open grained wood. In a short time the grain would start to fill with dirt and look unsightly, so I gave them three coats of Osmo Hard Wax Oil. The matt version suits the ash well and is keeping with the style of the chisels.

The last tweak was to refine the sides of of the 1/4" chisel so that they didn't damage the corners of the dovetail sockets. I did this on the rounded end of my belt sander/linisher, great care must be taken not to go too far as this will reduce the width of the chisel tip. The chisel at the top shows the sides before attention, I also took care to make the work neat, these chisels are not cheap!!