doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Secret Handshake Chisels

I didn't want to further drift the other thread so am starting a new one showing pics of the chisels set I made in Ed Shulin's TSJC stockmaking class in 1976.

This shows the current back of my workbench with the Trinidad made chisels on the lower right row and my set of mini-chisels as the upper left row.
The mini's I made when working on M/L guns in the 80s. There are two dog-leg, like Ed's "recoil lug chisel" and two super-mini dog leg used for relief carving, a 45* right & left. The mini-scrapers have antler tip handles.

This close-up show the different degree of usage by the accumulated patina of the handles. As Dan pointed out the scraper the most used.

Cutting ends: each forged, filed to shape, polished, hardened and tempered. The gouges formed re-hot with male and female dies supplied by the school.

I've been using these on every stock I've made ever since...
I used wooden file handles on mine but used the red plastic, same as the other guys on my bench-made screwdriver set also a TSJC class project. I branded mine with an iron given ot me bby my dad years later when I began teaching and had others in my shop. I've since taught many students ot make these chisels.

I was delighted to see Dan's chisels when he showed up for class last summer. I have two former TSJC student coming for seminars this summer and will continue the "secret handshake" notion.

Any other secret hand shake guys out there?

They did away with the chisel making by the time I attended TSJC. We made a Remington model 6 action instead. I would have found the chisels to be much, much more useful. I usually buy vintage English chisels and modify to my needs. Good stuff, thanks for posting them.
Steve

Two of my set of three plastic handle screwdrivers from T-dad. One for removing stock bolts. The third screwdriver was taken to Las Vegas about 1985 when I joined the ACGG to put my guns together. I had taken them down for airline travel. I left the most used screwdriver in the display room and never saw it again. I missed it so much I actually asked at the lost & found at the El Rancho the next year.
A couple of blue handled Brownells I frequently use these days.

Ed Shulin teaching stockmaking in 1976. We all made out first stocks from the blank, after completing our chisel sets. Long hair, and while-line spacers were in fashion. Wilton vises on all the benches.

If I could have figured there was any way I could go to a school to learn gunsmithing when I got out of high school, they would not have been able to get me out of the shop. The last several years I have been fortunate enough to be able to go to Trinidad each summer and teach a NRA gunsmithing class. (not walnut and steel guns unfortunatly) I have come to look forward to it greatly. It is a great time just hanging out with shooters, gunsmiths, and future gunsmiths and talking guns for a week. It is incredible how many great gunsmiths have come out of the Trinidad program. They evidently received a very solid foundation in the school to build upon. So much of doing quality work is just having the right attitude, deciding that if you are going to do it, then you are going to do it right.

John

Henry Cheatham lived about 70 miles from me but if I had lived in Ocala I'd have been an apprentice gunsmith instead of a vet opththalmologist.

Hey Steve, I'm still using the scraper I made in your shop often. This was easily one of my favorite parts of your seminar.





Finally moving into a place this summer where I'll be able to forge tools. Can't wait.

Thanks for the pic, Evan. I was looking for that one the other day.
I've taught many to forge and make chisels and scrapers as I was taught. The ability to make one's own tools opens many doors.

That was a fun and rewarding day in the shop.

You're welcome. It was a memorable week to say the least. I agree there's a lot more you can do once you realize you can just make things yourself. Using tools I've made is akin to hunting with a gun I've made- its rewarding.

What did you start with to forge your scraper? Just hex stock steel? Screwdrivers? Pardon my ignorance, we didn't get to forge our own tools at CST in Denver when I went.