UpCycle an Old Chisel 

Those old chisels have great character.

Merci, Andy It is fun to improve an old tool and keep it longer. I visited Paris in 2012, enjoyed it greatly. Hope to visit again this year. Thanks for watching...Cip

Hi Aaron,Glad you liked it.Regards, Cip

Glad you found the video useful.

Greeting s Hizo! I have a lot of old tools from my father and grandfather. New wood handle tools are so expensive. Cheers

Thanks for subscribing. Hope to be in London October. Cheers, Cip

Would be great to actually meet you in person.

Joanne Taylor Thanks Joanne. I like making things look new.

Thanks for your nice comment. I like to make things new again. The Oak wood was recycled from a piece of an old end-table. I had been save that piece for a good while, finally got to use it. Cheers, Cip

Cip's Wood Chips I think I know the feeling. Last year I restored a few old Stanley planes and pair of hand saws back to usability. There is something rewarding about taking something almost ready for the trash bin and making it back into a quality tool. Some day in the far flung future some lucky person will be handling one of your Upcycled chisels and may even think back on how it got there. Who knows? They might even see your video here and witness you making it for them! Thanks for your time.

InformationIsTheEdge I am in the process of rehandling my plastic handled marples,nothing wrong good well made but the smell of the handles is awfull,apparentley its the manufacturing process so i too am looking for some decent wood,nice bespoke any ideas?

malcolm oxley I am not particularly qualified to know good advice from bad so I'll pass along what I've learned and you can do the research. The gentleman in this video used a very attractive piece if oak, which I believe is white oak. Very solid, dense hardwood that will resist blows from a mallet. Maple is another hardwood that folks like. It's not as dense as oak but less expensive and some like the look better. Personally, I quite like hickory. My Pop grew up on a farm and all of the tool handles that took the most abuse were made of hickory. Axe handles, wheel barrow handles, hammer and hatchet handles. If it took a beating, hickory was always part of it. Some folks like Walnut because it's a bit easier to tool and can have some striking grain patterns. As it happens, I have a few chunks of white oak that have been drying in my basement for a few years. Some trees came down in a bad storm and the power company left them on the roadside. So if it were my project, it would be oak. Best of luck with your project. I hope you have a good time, learn some cool stuff, feel the satisfaction of doing a job well and have a beautiful upcycled tool when it is all done!

I thin the sanding sealer, too. I thin it just enough so that it spreads easily. Kind regards,Cip Mendez

Howdy Kleinjahr! It may be my cutter but it crushes its way through the copper. That is why I cut them with the hacksaw and clean them up with a file. Thanks for the tip. All the Best.

AJ Pierce Yes, it turn out quite well. Thanks for watching Figgy.

Thanks,

sdcrysto Thank you for watching

Howdy SMD! I am only familiar with Nova chucks. They work well and have a wide variety of jaws. Nova is also sold under the name 'Record Power'. Other woodturner use Vic Marc which might be a better brand. A less expensive brand is Barracuda sold by Penn State Industries (.com). Cheers.

Mike Waldt Hello again Mike. For a wood handle gouge, I would clamp the flute end in a vise being careful not to damage the flute; close to the feral. Take a scrape block of hardwood, oak would be would be good, and place the end grain against the feral. With a hammer or mallet strike the block, knocking the handle away from the gouge. Most wood handle chisels are not glued. Plastic handle are often difficult to remove.. That is why I cut them off.I hope that helps. Cheers

Cip's Wood Chips ferrule. jesus christ.

Cip's Wood Chips Thanks Cip appreciate it. cheers. Mike

Glenn Storey It must be wonderful to have such a command of the English language. I see from visiting your channel you have picked a lot of people up on their misspelling, well done. Lucky that the community has such a diligent observer.

Howdy Brad! I turned things much slower than most. I probably turned this at 1,000 RPM. 1,200 max. Thank you for your question. Cheers.

I enjoy your work, also. Cip

Thank you for your comment. It was very cold in the shop that day. I need to cut those sleeve to 3/4 length. Cheers.

Robby Helme I made handles for some of my grandfather's old chisels. Take a good look at the old handle, maybe glue it back together to use it as a pattern. Find a good piece of wood and make a new handle. You may as well give it a light sanding and sharpening. I keep mine grandfather's mostly for show.

Adam Lynch Thanks for the comment, Adam. It is interesting that this video is getting so many comments this week. It is getting difficult to find chisels with wood handles. I thought this would be a inexpensive way to make your own. Kind regards.

noooo, do it the old fashioned way. Oilstone/waterstone, rub some jewellers rouge on a block of wood, run the bevel and the sole on it and then do the same with a leather strop......RAZOR sharp!

chris randell I agree. A lot of satisfaction from sharping tools by hand. Wood carving chisels need to be many times sharper than a fine razor blade. Tried using my Dremel only once.

malcolm oxley Hello Malc! I am not a expert on chisels. I see many made from Ash a few from Walnut. I think it mostly needs to be hardwood with straight grain. The wood needs to be able to absorb shock without splitting or chipping. Well that is my opinion. Cheers

Cip's Wood Chips well iv'e had a go Cip's7 chisel handles and 18 file handles done totally enjoyed it,thanks again for an excellent tutorial,one of the handles is made from what we call over the pond as privet and it proved to be a really good choice.cheers

Greeting Jacob! Thank you so much for your comment, This video got more comments than I ever expected. Which is very pleasing in many ways. I made new handles for my dad's and grandfather's chisel that were damaged or just missing. I was missing several sizes. Wood handle chisels are expensive. I wanted to see if I could convert a plastic handle to a wood handle. I do have a video on making a new handle for a socket style chisel: ru-vid.com?o=U&video_id=GOzWiGCXirU Thanks again...Cheers

NYWoodworker Thank you for your suggestions. These videos are a sharing of how I did the project. There are always many and often better alternatives. Cheers

Thanks, Mac

Jaime Gonzalez Hello Jaime! This one of my most popular and most fun to do projects. Thanks for watching. Cheers.

Greeting! Yes I am perhaps the slowest turner. I seldom turn anything above 1000 RPM. It was very cold that day. I used Oak because that what I had laying around the shop many people prefer Ash or Maple. Most of the work I do with a chisel requires mostly pushing and maybe a slight tap of a mallet. All the Best to you.

Olá Carlos! Muito obrigado

Howdy Sam! Very useful information. Thank you for your comment. Kind Regards.

I think you are thinking of Red Oak and if so I would agree. But if he is using white oak then that is a totally different story and a good substitute for hickory which is the absolute best IMHO. But white oak comes in a close second---better than maple and walnut, although some would say not quite as pretty. I think made of white oak it will probably outlast all but the youngest of us and if it does break he can of course just make another :)

That is the problem with youtube... idiots telling people what to do

+ScotsFurian That wasn't negative. It just wasn't praise. A broad distinction to be sure. Your advice is sound and well reasoned. On the matter of, 'leave well enough alone' I was in complete agreement! But when I saw the finished product, I was totally on board with upcycling. A good epoxy would likely hold just as well as the groove you mentioned does on the plastic handle. If Cip busted that new handle, he could make another! One has to admit the finished product looks quite good too. So, here I am in middle ground. You make sense AND I dig Cip's upcycled chisel. For now, I'll just enjoy the video.

InformationIsTheEdge Like life nothing is black and white., I often find myself contradicting myself as there is no right or wrong but there can be better ways of doing things or achieving goals. I like cips aproach and re-use ,i dont like the term upcycling, more hipster fad jargon' as much material as possiable to help both the environment and my pocket. This is not a new idea, the war years were hard and while i am too young to have endured them i know my history well enough to have learned from it. The finished product looks well and will work well enough but to further my philosophy its material, time and energy being used on something that didnt require repairing in the first place ! Totally wastefull in all respectsd apart from asthetics. He mentions that hes worried about smashing up his mallet as the handle has a metal cap for a hammer. To me , having being trained to use the right tool for the job, id use a hammer and not a mallet. Sigh. I really didnt mean for this to sound like a rant but maybe it is. The more i think about it the less i like this video but it would be a good way to repair a plastic handle chisel if it were broken. Silver linings eh !

ScotsFurian I can certainly see the value in your ideas of the right tool for the job and, if I may paraphrase slightly, not fixing what aint broke. Perfectly sensible. I quite liked your post as it made me think in a manner to which I am unaccustomed and as my handle suggests, I dig that kind of thing. Oh, one more thing! I quite like your thumbnail of the homonid from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

+ScotsFurian Not so sure about that tang being to short. I have Lie Nielsen chisels. The tang on this one is longer then mine. Of course mine are socket chisels. Maybe that makes a difference.

+Damian Grouse Hello Damian! Thank you for your subscription and comment. This is a popular video and I got a wide range of reactions. The video was about taking something useful laying around the shop and making it into something more useful to me. When I bought the chisel it was rusty and the cutting edge was dull and chipped, It was engraved with the initials of the local junior college, but good steel. I keep the chisel sharp and use it often. Kind regards.

+Cip's Wood Chips Thanks for your response, It must be hard to keep up with all the comments. My comment was "my two cents worth" and with inflation they don't buy as much anymore. Take care!

should say use not ruin