Salvaging Abused Tools - Part 3 - Saving a Ward and Payne Firmer Chisel

OK, this lovely chisel has numerous problems.

A painted and abused blade, a beaten-to-death handle and a generous coating of rust to finish things off.

What did I see in it?

Well, it was made by Ward and Payne of Sheffield England.

As an old craftsman once said to me - "..... it is hard to find a bad chisel out of Sheffield over the period 1850-1950, but Ward and Payne were among the crown jewels of the best of British steel ....."

It is certainly worth restoring.

First, clean up the blade - brass wire wheel to the rescue again.

No pitting - Hooray!

The old handle was in pieces and being held together by a pair of nails.

Since this chisel will become a wide paring chisel, I will add a handle longer than normal.

It will use the existing brass ferule - and I'll round over the end to comfortably fit the palm.

It will never again be struck with a hammer, and rarely with a mallet.

I want it to complement my other parers which are handled in Japanese red oak. The closest that I have is American white oak.

The blade is in need of a re-grind. The current bevel sits at around 36 degrees - far too steep for paring.

I have established a new bevel at about 25 degrees finished.

The steel is hard, This is evident in the grinding process. It sings at a higher pitch on the grinder, and took noticeably longer to grind than the Titan that I did recently.

The back shows a convex profile, so some flattening on the stones will be necessary - a tedious job with harder steel, but worth it.

Here it is part way done - still plenty to do.

The finished flattened back. It is completely flat at the cutting edge and will continue to flatten with further sharpening in use.

Here is the finished bevel and micro bevel - very close to 25 degrees now.

It pares very nicely and the handle fits my hand well.

All in all it is an excellent tool, and will complement my other paring chisels very nicely. Its extra width will be a bonus for larger joints.

Well worth the effort of bringing it back into use.