letter-cutting chisels

[abknight@zzzzzz]

Norman,

You had asked where can you buy lettering chisels.  I thought to ask a
proffessional letter carver from the Portland, Oregon area, Pete Andrusko.
Here is his response, he mentions a tool supplier in Florida which must be
Montoya:

Actually, I use normal chisles to do letter-cutting.  It's more a question
of how they are used to achieve what one is attempting to do.  I have - on
occasion with chisles used for finer, more detialed work - ground the four
edges of the shaft slightly, specifically those edges closest to, that
approach the cutting edge of, the blade - so that the 90degr. edges will
drag less on the wall of the letter as it's being cut.

Other than that basic, infrequent modification my chisles are likely from
the same source as everyone else - either, Trow & Holden in Vermont or from
a supplier in Florida (starts with an "M", but the name doesn't come to mind
at the moment) that I think imports most of his stuff from Italy.

I suspect any chisle could be used to satisfactory effect, just bear in mind
a carbide tip will retain its sharp considerably longer.  Chisles need to be
razor sharp for soft stones - good to use a diamond lap -by hand- to keep
the blade sharp and not remove too much carbide, too fast.  For hard stone
letter-cutting, chisles need to be blunt (I have separate sets of chisles
for different types of stones and letter sizes) this does include some
brittle and hard marbles and limestones - but mostly granites and basalts,
and is especially for letter-cutting hard stones with letters over 2in, it
is probably best to cut the stone first with die-grinders and diamond burrs
to rough shape and then finished with low-oscellation pnuematic hammers
(with somewhat dull blades to keep the carbide from fracturing and chipping
against the hard stone) in order to get the details and sharp edges cut into
the stone properly.

Hope you're doing well! Pete