I agree with what’s been said.

I should also add that you are very fortunate that it’s only the handle that is broken. They can snap off the blade an inch or so below the socket and hey-presto, you’ve got a stubby Butt-Chisel!

The peened-over edge of the handle shows how much punishment it took. If you have such a tenacious piece of Oak to require that much clout, then a full sized pig-sticker is for you.

However, the reality is that ultimately, however glamourous chisel handles are, they are a disposable commodity and will wear/split with normal use of their lifetime. Personally I prefer to use repeated short taps with a wooden mallet – you have much more control over the cut.

Going back to the origins of socket chisels, they were large tools forged for heavy duty carpentry framing or ship work. Cabinet chisels used a tapering tang – much more economical for a tool-maker to produce – cheaper, too. Handles for those very old hand-made sockets rarely survive because they were disposable, split… replaced… split again. Often knocked out by journeymen for economical storage as they moved from job to job. The older chisel sockets from the 19th C were swaged to shape when forged are no two sockets were the same. The carpenter whittled his own handles to suit from scrap wood. Moving on in time to the Stanley era when the socket chisels were made that the Veritas/Lie-Nielsen type is based on and the socket was refined by being machine-bored. The advantage is that each one is now interchangeable in a set.

However, it’s not all doom-and-gloom; It’s only a new handle. Take the old one out and if you slice it down the middle, preserving the socket-end, you’ll have a template-shape to make the new one and subsequent handles, both long and short. A sharp tap on the socket usually releases the bond and you may make short, stubby handles for tapping with a mallet or longer ones for accurate paring work.
It’s possible to whittle the socket shape by hand, alternatively a complete new handle is less than 10 minutes on a lathe, finished and polished.

Select some straight-grained wood; traditionally chisel handles were made of Box, Ash, Beech (in that order of quality), however many years ago I laid in a stock of apple from an ancient tree that came down in the Great Storm of 1987 and I can vouch for good, straight Apple wood for handles – that tree was brilliant.

good luck

Apologies…… it appears to be a straight-forward socket chisel a la Stanley/L-N from the picture.

I’m trying to visualise a combination socket and tang on a chisel that size. Any chance of a picture showing the marriage before assembly?

I’d guess that the whole thing is CNC-made….. even so, lathes are versatile pieces of kit – all turners are problem solvers.
I would venture that Veritas would be able to help. I’ve always found them good in that respect.

I think that Paul Sellers’ technique using bevel-edged chisels is to tap with that nylon hammer, removing small chips, getting progressively deeper. I admit to wincing slightly when he levers with that chisel, but the modern ones he uses have a much thicker cross-section in the blade. I wouldn’t risk that with my lovely, old all-forged pre-war Marples, which are quite thin about the shank in comparison.

Good luck….. please let us know how you get on.

Thank you, Greg.
As I see it, the socket recess in the chisel has a central, cylindrical tang that penetrates the handle, while the root of the handle is retained in the socket. A complicated thing to manufacture, if I ever saw one.
The L-N version, although it appears the same, mimics the pre-war Stanley 700 series, which is what I thought that it was.
A lot of manufacturers over the years used a shoulder design that looks like a socket, though was in fact a flat shoulder with a tang.

The Stanley 5001 series came out in the 1960s/70s and used something similar but minus the deep socket.

Well I hope that Veritas are sympathetic. As a consolation, if you are in the UK, I could probably make a new handle on the lathe, though I’d need the chisel to do it.

good luck

Having watched Mr. David Charlesworth’s videos, I believe in reserving the little Veritas brass mallet for the very final chop on the gauge line.

There are advantages with mortice chisels, I think. One can take thicker bites and chop deeper, and their flat sides are easier to keep along a mortice guide. The ones from Lie-Nielsen are very accurate and precise, as is my 1/8″ Veritas; and they do retain a sharp edge for a long time. Their only negative aspect, which they by construction share with all mortice chisels, is that they are awkward for short mortices less than 25 mm).

My right index finger does not take kindly towards being mauled between the chisel and the wood when I’m clearing the waste. So, I prefer a swan neck chisel, which also reduces the risk of damage to the mortice edge.

The attached photo of two mortice chisels and one bevelled chisel will, hopefully, show that the 1/4″ to the right is quite robust.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by Sven-Olof Jansson. Reason: Typo