Mystery tool

[Sheen]

Was rummaging in my family's collection of tools over the weekend, looking for a engineers square. I know my parents had one but no luck. Instead i found this. Anyone have an idea what this was used for? My grandfather used to be an upholsterer of railway carriages and my great grandfather was a master shoe maker. Connected to either of these trades? Thinking i could use it for my jewellery

[Dennis]

I think it's a wood chisel, Sheena.
Re engineers' squares, they're allrightish, but in the hands of the uninitiated like myself, you can get a more perfect sqare using 1.0mm grapph paper. I like the blue one, because it's easy on the eye.
You can also buy templates for squares, as use by graphic artists. Dennis.

[Nick martin]

At first glance I thought it was a graver, but after a closer look I agree with Dennis. Most likely a small chisel.

Nick

[enigma]

Looks like a mortice chisel for woodworking.

[CJ57]

Yes definitely a lovely old chisel

[china]

Definitely a mortice chisel

[Sheen]

Looks like a mortice chisel for woodworking.

Will look up mortice chisel to see what i can do with it

[ps_bond]

Would you believe cut mortices with it (as in mortice & tenon joints)?

[Sheen]

I think it's a wood chisel, Sheena.
Re engineers' squares, they're allrightish, but in the hands of the uninitiated like myself, you can get a more perfect sqare using 1.0mm grapph paper. I like the blue one, because it's easy on the eye.
You can also buy templates for squares, as use by graphic artists. Dennis.

Thanks for that dennis. I've been wanting something to make sure my corners are definitly right angles and not going off at a slant. Will check out my local art shop/stationers

[ps_bond]

Sorry, I was more focused on the chisel... I use a variety of engineers squares depending on what I'm up to; on the bench I have 25, 50 & 75mm (the 25 sees most use) - I've got larger ones for use around other tools. It's a good idea to check the square is, well, square - simple enough, scribe a line against the square (held against a straight bit of metal), flip the square over & scribe the line again. If they're parallel (or better still, on top of each other) then the square is square. Most of the time jewellery only needs to be square-ish though, it depends what you're up to.

Now I feel like listening to Huey Lewis...

BTW - I had written far more on the differences between mortice & bevel-edge chisels, but there was a glitch.