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Hi

Can anyone recommend a good place to buy a curved bracing chisel in uk.

Dont want to spend to more than £20 really

Thanks

Instead of shelling out a lot of money, all I did was just put one of my Marples into a vice and bent it to my liking. Works like a charm.

Jeff

Was wondering if that was a possibility. .. thought because its hardened it might shatter
What size chisel was it

Cheers

You don't need a curved chisel to carve braces, just flip a bench chisel over to carve the scallops.
Have a look at this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz-2OL_b-oU

Cal

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Remember, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers!

Hey Cal

Good video cheers

But do want curved chisel as i think it will make it easier to carve the shapes .. especially the concave parts of the bracing

Cheers

I think Axminster have them

You can also take an oxy-acetylene torch to it wherever you want the bend, it will bend like butter. Just make sure you keep the torch away from the sharp end of the chisel.

I purchased a curved chisel but do not use it, the upside down chisel like in the Martin video works way better. I radiused the corners so it does not damage the top if it slips.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

I know you said twenty quids, and uk but I can't help to head you to wilco flier's chisels : http://wilcoflier-toolworks.blogspot.pt ... isels.html
50 eur and in the nederlands. Really high quality stuff, and made to your specs. Recommended.

Anyway, just an heads up.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

I did too. Sort of on accident at first, but then I just went with it!

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Pat

There is no way on earth you can heat a chisel sufficiently to bend it without the heat destroying the temper at the edge. Actually, you will ruin the temper long before the chisel gets hot enough to bend.

After the chisel has been bent to shape, you can , of course, re-temper the edge if you know what you are doing.

Yes it looks as though a curved chisel would work better for scalloping braces, but.... it really doesn't work any better than a regular bench chisel. You will find in order to cut the scallop (concave area) you will have to work from either side toward the middle of the brace with either style of chisel. I find that I can control the cut much better with the bevel reversed than with it upright. I think most would find the same.

But if you want to spend more money..... go for it.
Cal

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Remember, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers!

Upside down chisel for me too.

There is a way and I have done it exactly like I stated. If there was any harm done at all it was not even noticeable and by the way it was a Northern Tools crappy China chisel so who cares anyway since it is a very seldom used tool but still it does the job. Having said this, I wouldn't modify a pricey tool like this, there are too many cheap tools out there to experiment with.

Hi Cablepuller,
I bought the Two Cherries curved chisels from Axminster, thinking as you are to use them for braces, but I never do! Like everyone else it is an upside down regular chisel or a veritas palm plane

This verges on religious discussion

Both ways work (curved chisel, upside down bench chisel) I tend to lean towards the curved chisel. There, I've weighed in with my vote on a choice that has no right answer.

(or, I should have said, two right answers)

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

OK, I'll throw in my $0.02. If you're so strapped for cash, save yourself a tenner and get a set of these - prep them as he shows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki8tt-VjwqI

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I bought a set of those chisels. Turned one into a belly chisel. They are a bit crude but who cares about the 'lands' when it's not important? The steel seems perfectly good to me.

Nice common sense approach in that video. For the OP's £20 should be able to get some decent chisels and everything needed to sharpen them well enough to do the job

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Saw a video of Dana Bourgois (sp??) voicing a top, and he used a curved chisel and a small finger plane, but he used the chisel upside down - best of both worlds?

Ed

This is not a good idea. With heat you'll ruin the temper and the blade won't stay sharp. You can put the temper back in it but it will take you considerable learning and expense to master the process. If it were easy everyone throughout history would be Smiths equal to the Samauri but they're not.

Also when you heat metal you alter the chemical structure of it and weaken it. Best to do it once and leave it alone.

-j

Listen, you are are over thinking this a bit. I don't pour buckets of heat on a chisel, I put a very small, very hot flame a good distance from the edge such that the edge doesn't change color. I'm not a sword maker but my day job is metal working.

Sorry, couldn't resist it.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

"Saw a video of Dana Bourgois (sp??) voicing a top, and he used a curved chisel and a small finger plane, but he used the chisel upside down"

My point exactly. Why not use your money to buy a small finger plane - You'll get a lot more use out of that than you will out of a curved chisel (unless you don't own any chisels yet.)

Cal

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Remember, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers!

If you can make a curved chisel like this out of a flat chisel without overheating the edge, you are a better man than I ... and if you made a Youtube video of the process it would go viral in no time ...