Chisel mark

[scottg]

"I have no suitable wood to make a handle"
  Then I discover you can make a handle from the end of a broomstick
"I don't have any sacrificial broomsticks"
  Sadly, I have a box of broken hickory handled hammers..
"I don 't own a spokeshave"
Then I discover an old file will work just fine
"Even if I made a new handle, I don't know how to attach it"
  OK,fine, after reading several artickes ok wkfinetools, I realize a complete moron can attach a handle to a tanged chisel

Help me out here, I need more excuses to continue procrastinating...

  Well Rusty I can help you a little. 
Lets see, a broomstick is often birch so while it'll make a decent file handle I wouldn't want to hit it much.  Broken rake handle or baseball bat?  Now there is a string of fine chisel handles waiting to be born.

And you can definitely use just a file, but a spokeshave is so much more fun!! This gives you the excuse of heading to the swap and and get yourself a selection. Get some iron and get some wooden ones too. Both are totally great. You get to learn to restore and sharpen!!  Pick up a small drawknife while you are there. Can't decide between sizes? Get several!! :)
 
Its just a temporary stay of execution though......... hehehehe
  yours Scott
   

[Branson]

Lets see, a broomstick is often birch so while it'll make a decent file handle I wouldn't want to hit it much.  Broken rake handle or baseball bat?  Now there is a string of fine chisel handles waiting to be born.

And you can definitely use just a file, but a spokeshave is so much more fun!! This gives you the excuse of heading to the swap and and get yourself a selection. Get some iron and get some wooden ones too. Both are totally great. You get to learn to restore and sharpen!!  Pick up a small drawknife while you are there. Can't decide between sizes? Get several!! :)
  yours Scott

Yeah!  What Scott says!  The metal ones are easiest to get acquainted with.  My favorite, and the one I would start with is a Stanley 53 or 54 with the adjustable mouth.  The wooden handled shaves are fussier, but there are some with screw adjustable blades that make things simple.  Love small drawknives (and big ones too!).  My favorite is a 6" carriage maker's, but I have a 4" Buck Brothers that runs a very close second.

[scottg]

I always hear that about wooden shaves being fussy. But I have never found it so.
  Only takes a few minutes to set an old one up all the way up from scratch.
After that, a minute to sharpen and set the blade, whazammo!! Easiest cutting tool I own!
   My grand daughter could handle one fine when she was 4, maybe even three!!
I love how easy they cut. Effortless!!
Sometimes I will take a few shavings off from behind my back, like Jimi Hendrix, just for show!
A wooden shave is always the very first tool I hand any total newbie I get in my shop. First one.
  In a few seconds they are peeling off curls to beat the band, and loving it.

   I don't have any trouble with the normal Stanley #51 either.   I guess it was because it was the first kind of shave I ever owned?  So I just got used to tapping the top of the blade with a small hammer to set it.
   Shaves don't usually move the blade until its time to take it out and sharpen it again.  Not like a plane where you need to move it sometimes. Shaves are more set it and go, type tools. 

I never found a Stanley 55 or deep concave shave, and I'm always looking. I've had a couple of chances but didn't get them
for one reason or another.
   yours Scott