# Old Buck Brothers Chisels



## Litrenta

Hey fellow jocks!

I recently acquired a pretty full set of vintage buck brothers chisels from a next door neighbor who was moving into a retirement home. I lived a couple doors down from him almost my whole life and never knew he was quite the woodworker. I also got a nice Stanley Sweetheart smoothing plane that I would like to restore at some point as well.

Anyways, I also just recently got a lathe and wanted to turn some new handles for the whole set of chisels. I just wanted to get some feedback on the quality of the chisels I have. I looked around on google to see if I could find any specific information about the chisels I have. Almost all of them have a tang for seating the chisel and I was trying to determine if these are of good quality, etc. I'm also very new to woodworking so I'm trying to educate myself on the different types (bench, paring, etc) so any advice as to how I should probably sharpen these chisels to bring them into a usable state would be very much appreciated as well.



















Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
T


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## DaddyZ

My Opinion Buck Brothers are pretty fine chisels.

Check this out some good reading & ask all the questions you want

http://lumberjocks.com/topics/25043


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## Loren

Those are paring chisels. I have a few vintage Buck Bros
crank neck paring chisels. They can take a fine edge
but since I never hit them with a hammer it's difficult
to say if the edge is really durable.

Anyway, the old ones have a nice geometry for fine
paring cuts and are somewhat collectible.

In an odd twist, there seems to be some limited manufacturing
going on (or New old stock) of a version of those 
chisels in the USA. I don't know what the real story
is since Buck Bros has become a pretty junky big box
store brand, but here's where you can look at
the newer versions:

http://www.craftsmanstudio.com/html_p/C!007PC.htm


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## RichardHillius

Is there a reason you want to replace the handles? Personally I would take some fine sandpaper or steel wool and take the roughness off the handles than finish them with a good coat of paste wax and call it good unless there is a lot of handle damage which the pictures don't really show. A full set of vintage Buck Brothers is a good find and they should make excellent bench side work chisels with a little tune up. You don't show the backs which from my experience is the most problematic part of restoring vintage chisels. I have seen vintage chisels that you spend a few minutes lapping them and they are good to go and others where they are so pitted they are probably not worth the effort to restore to working order.


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## BillWhite

Not the best lathe chisels, but they are sweet for their intended purpose.
Put 'em to use as they were intended.
Bill


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## Wolfdaddy

That's a sweet looking set if chisels! I'm with Richard on this one. Don't rehandle them unless they are damaged beyond use.


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## Litrenta

Thanks for the comments guys, good to know the intended use of them as they'll definitely be put to good use for just that purpose.

So the reason I'm re-handling them is for a couple reasons. Even though they are paring chisels I think the person who I got them from ended up using them as bench chisels because the tops on most of them are pretty mangled and chipped from being struck with a mallet. The other reason is I just got a new lathe and I'm dying to make some new handles. I kept the same geometry as the originals and the new ones feel quite nice. With that being said, I'll definitely keep the original handles but I'm also OCD and love seeing an organized set of handles.

Richard,

The actual metal on these chisels is in amazing shape. The guy who owned them is one of the most meticulous people I've ever met so he kept his tools in great shape. The backs are already lapped and flat, i'll probably just touch them up as they haven't been used in about 10 years. And there isn't a spec of rust or pitting on them. The only thing is the bevel angle isn't perfect on them so I'll probably grind them down and then use my stone to hone the edge and then only use the stone from here on in for sharpening.


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## DaddyZ

^ 'Not the best lathe chisels'

Not Lathe Chisels at all.

Please do not use as lathe chisels could be a might dangerous


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## RichardHillius

Sounds like a great find. I love vintage chisels but I have said I'm not buying them anymore several times because of how much work restoring them can be. I still buy them when I see one that catches my eye however.


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## Litrenta

No, these will not be going near the lathe, that much I do know.


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