Replies

1. 
   Glaucon | Mar 24, 2005 04:52am | #1

   I'd be careful about machine scraping them- if they get overheated, the temper may be affected.  Do it at low speed and cool them in a water bath frequently.  I wouldn't paint them- I'd oil them and keep them in a box with some dessicant.

   Glaucon

2. 
   cowtown | Mar 26, 2005 06:45am | #2

   I'd love to see some photos of em. Plumbers caulking iron are an entirely different device than a woodworking chisel. The hardest thing they would have come up against is lead. And I may be naive, but in quite a few years of oldtool experience, I cannot recall any reference or sighting of "elaborate patterns", not to say that they might not exist.

   I've seen a reasonable intact plumbers "roll of tools" from way back, and there wasn't any decorative or elaborate pieces in it at all.

   Anyway, from my naive practical perspective, a plumbers caulking iron ain't likely to translate to a WWing chisel , but maybe you just wanna ressurect them as plumbers irons.

   Still, I'd luv to see a photo of em.

   If yer curious, there are leather working tools which take the rough form of a chisel, but have different , primarily zig-zag patterns on them that were used in that trade. Other patterns include semi-circles of smaller semicircles.

   Manytimes I have heard the adage of if you cannot identify it as a woodworking tool, it is likely a leatherworking tool. Maybe you've heard this from others as well. Might not hurt to look in that direction to ID em before you try to ressurect em. Might save some heartbreak.

   Eric
   in Calgary