Spicy White Steel Paring Chisels

These are a set of chisels I made for a friend who likes Japanese tools. The steel is a steel called 26c3, which is something you don't see much of commercially because it's a water hardening steel and you have to be able to control warp with it. It is almost identical to white steel #1 from Japan and about as clean/pure, but made by an engineering steel mill in the US. it's very plain, very little alloying, and can be very smooth sharpening and blindingly sharp by feel - as easy to sharpen at 64 hardness (which is what these are) as something like O1 at 61/62 hardness. My samples tested about twice as tough as O1, which means these parers are both harder, but would also take double the bending force to break. Great steel, just not commercially viable because it takes skill to heat treat properly. 

They're freehand ground, and the bolsters are mild carbon steel forge welded to the bar. I'd like to forge them all out of a single round of steel, but 26c3 is only available in flats up to 0.25" thick. 

Handles are older cocobolo that I got from a clock maker who sold coco from 1970 on ebay. he'd bought it and was afraid to use it until he had a perfect project and aged out / because disabled (if you buy good wood - let it age a little and then use it while you still can!!). 

These are differentially hardened, so full hardness up to the shoulder of the tang or a little shy of there, but for durability, the hardness tapers to none or close to none at the bolster - they can be adjusted and will be nearly unbreakable in use. I test my chisels with a 30 oz verawood mallet in rosewood when done, and these are no exception. The should be able to hold an edge like that malleting or paring - all of them. 

I put top curvature in these chisels because it's something you can do freehand and it just makes a better chisel. Somewhere in the late 1800s, cutting costs or changing process led to disappearance of a chisels that were stout at the shoulder but had an eccentric curvature so that you get better balance, feel and a bit end that doesn't increase in thickness for quite a while. The side lands taper down with curvature, and also become very small near the edge, but they are not eliminated completely both because zero lands is hard on fingers, but also because it makes for a very brittle corner. 

I'm not a professional maker and don't make stuff for sale, but I think it's nice as an amateur to find something you'll make (not the only thing) where you'll try to match or better anything made professionally. it took me a long time to realize that it was worth doing - it involves failing and learning a lot vs. when i started out, i just wanted to buzz through everything. 

It takes me about 3 hours each to make these freehand. The metal parts are tapered to thickness at the anvil as much as possible before going to grinding and heat treatment. Grinding is all done freehand at a pair of belt grinders, no grinding jigs and heat treatment is done hand and eye - which simple steels like 26c3 will respond well to if you take the time to learn to get the most out of them. I prefer to forge the chisels all one piece from round and have the taper more radical than this (thicker at the tang), but sometimes you just can't get the steel you want to use in the shape you want to use. I checked with a Voestalpine supplier and they don't have anything thicker - so it's unfortunately not just a "we don't carry it" thing.