Monday, September 13, 2021

Corroded cold chisel question

A reader sends in this picture of a cold chisel he has found.  I find the hitting end unusually small, sis it used to be a point before someone started hitting it? But in any case, corrosion has eaten the detail of the makers name to the point of unreadability. My guess is Brown, other guesses, might be Boyd or Row, or Bow? anyone?


Thanks, Inno!

 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

To my eye that first character looks like a W.

Anonymous said...

The chisel edge seems sharper than most cold chisels, although that may be just the previous owner's work. Could be a hot chisel, but it doesn't seem quite right.

rdguy

meddleshop said...

the tapered hammer end makes me think it was for soft stone carving (marble, sandstone)

Dave said...

I second the stone carving reply. For some reason stone carving tools tend to have tapered handles (maybe because they're moved as they're struck?); look at the 5th from the left in this set:

https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images1/1/0211/23/vintage-toothed-stone-carving-masonry_1_c57b0411f6a1a158df29130f73e9b480.jpg

It looks a lot like the chisel in question.

Plus the deep pitting tells me it's made of a different steel than a cold chisel (no scientific basis just my gut).

Anonymous said...

If you squint, it looks like "R BOYD" or something similar. There seems to be a larger space between the first two characters, which would make sense for a first initial/last name.