I collected them all

[Cochese]

I've been a big fan of the Narex standard bevel edge chisels since I bought my first starter set. I've since added more of them, a couple of mortisers, the skews and a corner chisel. After getting my planes up on the wall I decided it was high time to work on better storage for my chisels, which had been neatly placed in a shallow drawer that was a bit too small.

I decided that to make the storage for it I would need to have all the ones I wanted on hand to figure out how much space I needed. I didn't really need a 4mm and 5mm (along with other sizes) mortise chisel, but since I had come this far I've now got one of each size they make.



There's 23 chisels in total: 12 bevel edge, 8 mortise, 2 skew and a corner. They take up quite a bit of room, and I am looking for ideas. If I store them flat, they take up about 28" x 24" plus some. I saw an idea to turn the blades at a 45º.

[chopnhack]

You might cringe at this, but for your paring chisels you may want to cut the handle in half and roundover the edges. You can then nest them together in a tighter fashion.

Why am I suggesting cutting the handle?? It's not solely for storage purpose, but for utility. The narex handle is a bit long for up close work like holding the blade to start chopping a line, cleaning dovetails, etc. The blade tip is also a bit fat and could use some relieving so that you can use it for cleaning out dovetails.

Aside from cutting them, you can achieve similar density by arranging them in a W hanging fashion.

Are you going to store them on a rack or back in a drawer? Have you considered doing a tray to double your depth?

[mpc]

I'd hang them vertically on the inside of cabinet doors. You could make a shallow shelf with holes for some of them, and a deeper shelf with two sets of holes (outer one for handles of the next batch of chisels, inner row that line up with the first shelf for the blades of the first batch of chisels) so there's some vertical overlap. Kinda hard to explain in words... quickie sketch attached: dark gray=door, light gray=shelves, brown+silver=chisels.

Or imagine medium sized panels hanging on hinges arranged like the pages in a book. I have something like this in my shop, the "center spine" is just a few thick boards attached to each other; the boards get narrower as you climb the stack. This makes stairs on each side of the spine - running vertically; each panel then attaches to one of the stairs so the panels naturally hang with space between them for tools. Each panel "page" is a little less wide as it gets closer to the fixed panel on the wall to make up for the stairs. I included two pics of the pegboard panels I use in my shop. So far they've worked well. They don't have to be pegboard of course, slat-wall (French cleat) style panels would work well, as would plain flat panels with custom tool holders glued/screwed in place. I already had the pegboard on hand so that's what I used.

mpc

[Cochese]

I don't think I could cut them. The handle is what made me invest in them after having the HF chisel set.

I do want them in something. While the chisel steel hasn't seen any rust or corrosion, the upper ferrule is another story. On the ones I've had the longest, you can see the ferrules are hazy in the picture. It's some sort of corrosion, which I will have to clear up and then prevent from reoccurring, probably with some moisture control via silica packets.

I'm investigating which route I want to take. I've seen great solutions such as drawers, wall units and carriers that store in a standard cabinet. The carriers are particularly interesting, because I could store all 23 in two carriers (6 per side) and it only take up a minimal amount of space. In fact, I am leaning toward that. I'll post pictures of the idea a bit later after I have a chance to evaluate how hard they would be to make.

[LCHIEN]

Thinking how I'd design a holder... here's a few specifications I'd consider

what are the key dimensions:
1. Diameter of the handle
2. Length of the Handle
3. Max Blade length
4. Max Blade width
5. Max Blade thickness

And requirements
1 it has to be enclosed for moisture/rust control?
2 Need to access each w/o moving another or not (e.g. think layers)?
3 Do they need to be displayed (e.g. visible)?
4 Minimal footprint (is space an a premium)?
5 Wall or drawer (e.g. flat or horizontal)
6 Need for future expansion ( or do you have every last one of them they'll ever make?)

some of these requirements might conflict so you have to list in priority order the ones you want. e.g. layering to save space (4) might not be compatible with 2 and 3.


By the way, that's a nice looking set!

[Cochese]

I was reminded of these when they were reblogged on TWW, but I had seen them months before and was impressed with them.

http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/viewer-projects/brians-alternative-hand-tool-storage/

Mine will be double-sided, so I'll only need two for the chisels. I'll make an additional one for the files, my screwdriver set can reside on the reverse. I would have to check the height of them, but it's possible they could sit inside a cabinet on the lower shelf of my workbench - if the holdfasts would clear the top. Otherwise, they'll go in a standard cabinet against a wall.

I do have room on my wall for a traditional hand tool cabinet, but if I can use up other spaces I could potentially add Rockler's wall mount dust collector.

[cwsmith]

Woah... They have a "corner chisel"? Now, I haven't seen that.


I have the Narex set from Lee-Valley, which have the darker stained handles. I originally got six of the bevel-edged chisels for Christmas one year and the following summer bought the six mortise chisels. Then about a year or so ago, I spotted the two skew chisels on the Narex European home page and sent a letter to Lee-Valley to see if they were planning on stocking them or if they would at least look into it. A few weeks later I got a letter saying they were looking into it and to my surprise they were added to last year's catalog.

So, all told I now have a total of fourteen Narex chisels which fit perfectly into one drawer of my HF woodworking table. I don't have much need for anything wider than 26 mm bevel edge, but I'm thinking that eventually it might be nice to have the complete set... but now they have the newer style with the tapered bevel.

Eventually, I'd like to get whatever I have in a wall cabinet, probably hanging vertically in two doors, with my few planes in the cabinet and a drawer in the bottom to hold the honing guide, water stone, and accessories. At the moment though that's just in "my head" so to speak.

Regarding your comment about corrosion. I keep my chisels well oiled and a cloth covering them in the drawer. Even though I keep the humidity in my small basement shop to around sixty, I did notice some haze on a couple of the ferrules. It was easy to wipe off though. But, I then took the time to wipe a couple of coats of clear shellac on the handles and ferrules and then apply Johnson's past wax. Gives the dark handles a nice look and hopefully will keep any oxidation away from the steel ferrules.

The blade steel is chrome-manganese which I believe is not quite as susceptible to oxidation as regular high-carbon steel; so hopefully just a good oil film is sufficient. I do have a problem with my older Sheffield, English-made Marples, which though not rusted per say, have some darker stains on them despite the oil film.

I must say that I much prefer the Narex chisels, as they handle very well and seem to hold an edge quite nicely.

CWS

[Cochese]

Haven't had a chance to test the corner chisel out, just took it out of the bag the other day for the photo.

Here is my initial Sketchup for the racks, the measurements for the bottom and chisel holder themselves are guesses. The overall shape is pretty much final though.