Replies

1. 
   mwenz | Jan 01, 2008 09:41pm | #1

   Hi Malcolm--welcome back!

   I a search in the Old Tools List archive, I found a few references to Jaxon chisels FS. One post by Tony Seo (http://www.oldetoolshop.com/) mentions off-hand it was a hardware store brand.

   Further searching finds drawknives, brace bits, and I believe a spokeshave. There are a few chisels on eBay but I didn't look to see if they are current listings.

   An internet search finds a Jaxon Hardware store founded in 1957, but that seems odd if there was such a variety of branded tools. So I suspect if it was a hardware store brand, it was an older one. While that name might seem odd for such a coincidence, I have also found a more recent hardware store with the same name.

   I can find no patents assigned to the name, so there weren't any novel ideas patented.

   You might try dropping Tony an email or posting to the old tools list.

   Take care, Mike

1. 
   Malcolm | Jan 01, 2008 11:59pm | #2

   THANKS!Are you looking for a job as a research assistant!? (I could use one, but couldn't afford to pay one).If Jaxon is a store brand, and I'm sure it was, then I wonder who manufactured the tools? This socket chisel is very well made, and a nice piece of steel (sharpens well, holds an edge well).I seem to recall that the eBay trader thought it dated from the 50s.HNYhttp://www.macpherson.co.nz

1. 
   mwenz | Jan 02, 2008 12:14am | #3

   Ha--thanks for the compliment. It may well have been the 1950s then. Don't think there were a lot of players making socket chisels in the 1950s that could have pulled off such a varied line of tools. Perhaps Stanley. Maybe an email to Stanley may prove fruitful.

   So how's government life treating you? Have any time at all for shop stuff? Furniture? Planes?

   Take care, Mike

1. 
   Malcolm | Jan 03, 2008 06:30am | #4

   Thanks MikeI haven't been in my shop for more than 30 minutes at a time since Fall 2006. Other projects, the day job, whatever ... always something in the way.However, I've managed to carve out a couple of weeks this Jan, and will make a short run of my signature treasure boxes (using a set of techniques and dimensions I've been refining since about 1980). I have a Scottish infill plane casting, dating from the earliest days of infill plane making in the UK, that I'll re-make, and a couple of part-fabricated small smoothers that develop some design ideas from a couple of years ago. Today my MiniMax wouldn't start, which caused some spitting of tacks, but I removed, sharpened, and replaced the three knives in my under and over planer/thicknesser, and continued the epochal tidy-up, and it still feels good! This time, I'll take some pics of the box fabrication - I've made hundreds of them over the years, and have an approach that's a bit unconventional, but produces very nice little boxes.http://www.macpherson.co.nz

1. 
   mwenz | Jan 03, 2008 08:24am | #5

   Hi Malcolm--if you're willing to share the boxes with us, I'll be on the watch!

   I too have an infill project in the wings. Probably slated for completion sometime in 2009...

   Take care, Mike

2. 
   Malcolm | Jan 03, 2008 01:15pm | #6

   CheersHope to get my MiniMax back up tomorrow, and will complete a few hundred 25mm square tiles (veneer on ply, abalone/paua and mother of pearl etc) to be pieced together as lid panels.It looks quite funny cutting tiny little perfect squares on a saw that takes up half the floor space in my shop!Will shareMhttp://www.macpherson.co.nz

2. 
   christinegr43 | Nov 21, 2018 02:32am | #7

   When lifting a smooth-faced sheet of 3/4" MDF or some of the subfloor sheets that are now out there, this method is not easy for me; nor could I recommend it to everyone. 

   Google Street View has captured some surprising images.