Small Detail Work - Technique Question

[don dougan <dondougan@zzzzzzzz>]

William;

There is a chisel I use for doing tight-in corner work in rectangular
openings that I have never seen in stone-carving tool supplier's
catalogs.

I learned about it after buying some old carver's tools and
experimenting.  Since the first one I found, I have purchased several
others - again, all from old stone carver's tool kits.

The tool is a skew chisel, which if you have any done any woodcarving you
are probably familiar with.   It is basically a flat chisel where the
cutting-edge is formed at anywhere between twenty to forty degrees to the
axis of the shank, rather than the common ninety degree flat chisel.

The ones I have were all hand-forged, are made for pneumatic hammers, and
vary slightly in design - in one the shank is deliberately bent about
five or six degrees a couple of inches back from the cutting edge.  The
width of the cutting edges vary also, the widest one I have is about 7/8"
wide, while the narrowest is about 1/2".

The one I reach for most often has a blade width of slightly over 5/8"
with the cutting-edge tapering to a 3/8" cylindrical cross-section about
an inch back, then tapers back up to the 1/2" square stock the tool was
forged from originally.  The 1/2" square stock has the corners chamfered
so it fits comfortably in the hand, and is about four-and-half inches
long before the two-inch striking end is turned to a 1/2" diameter
cylinder to fit in the pneaumatic hammer.  This one gives me the most
control, and I keep it very sharp, flipping it back and forth, up and
down,  to 'shave'  all three of the surfaces equally as I work into the
carved corner where three surfaces are intersecting.  The point of the
skew is always oriented into the corner, no matter which of the three
faces I am working.  I usually am using it with a Trow & Holden 1/2"
short-stroke hammer that has the air turned down to a gentle purr, just
enough to keep the piston from stalling.  Of course, I use the skew
chisel in conjunction with several appropriate widths of flat chisel to
work the non-corner areas of the work.

For what it is worth, the only hand-held skews (other than ones I have
made for my own and my student's use, usually from old wood chisels) I
have ever come across are traditional French wood-handled chisels made
for carving the soft limestones [stones commonly used on the churches and
cathedrals in Paris (and elsewhere in France too, I imagine)].  These
wood-handled carving chisels are still being made - I was in Paris last
week and stopped by the JOSEPH & FILS store (Pere Lachaise Metro stop)
for which (?) [someone on the list, Thank You!] had posted the website
address a few weeks ago.  All their carving tools are excellent quality -
many are still hand-forged - and they have a very good selection,
by-the-way.  And before you ask . . . "NO, nobody there speaks English" -
 though there is a very helpful salesman who speaks Portuguese and
Spanish.

Good Carving to You;

Don

http://www.dondougan.homestead.com/indexdd.html