Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)
Last of my recent chisel boxes with handcut finger/box joints. I made all three at the same time. These are all poplar sides with plywood bottoms and lids and poplar inserts. I've tried to make them all visually different with stains so that I can easily tell them apart. They have three different kinds of specialty chisels.I decided to stick with the upside down hasps that I put on the first two chisel boxes. It seems to work for me.The smallest is for some Narex dovetail chisels and two fishtail chisels I ground down from full size chisels. Its finished with a wipe on mix of tung oil, b.l.o. and poly then finished with clear shellac and wax.
The light colored larger box is for the Narex skew chisels (I use these SO much when cutting and cleaning up dovetails).The finish is another wipe on blend of Provencial stain, mineral spirits and poly followed by clear shellac and wax.
The last is for the Narex mortise chisels I bought last year. It has a wipe on mix of jacobean/ebony mix stain, mineral spirits and poly followed by amber shellac and wax.
The last six or seven boxes I've made have been tool cases for chisels and planes that have been rattliing around loose in drawers of my bench or in cardboard boxes. Making custom tool cases feels like killing two birds with one stone… cool box and a cool place to keep your tools. It also felt a little like a break from the decorative box series I started a couple of months ago. I am ready to get back to dovetails and miters with splines and maybe get a little more creative. Still… I'll probably have these boxes for many years to come so its time well spent.Big Thanks to LittleBlackDuck for the tips on making chisel booties. I was buying those silicon guards online and he suggested Plastidip and paper tape. I had to watch a youtube video to really get it but I made soooo many chisel guards and I still have half a can of the Plastidip left. Thanks LBD.
Guess you've figured out that I like Narex chisels. Its hard for me to compare them to anything but the beater chisels I've had but after flattening the backs (not much work) and sharpening, they work great and keep an edge. I do strop often while using but I hardly have to mess with the primary bevels. First two sets I bought (not any of these) I reground the bevels to 20 degrees on one set and 35 degrees on the other. The 20's are for chopping dovetails in softwood and the 35's are for hardwood.Narex is affordable and seems to offer great quality. Thanks for looking.
Jon