Marples chisels: trying again

[Scoony]

I have a set of the older blue handle Marples and they seem to have good steel. Those are my beater chisels.

I actually like the AI chisels, that is except for the 1 1/2" chisel. All the others in the set hold a keen edge. That larger 1 1/2" must have missed the proper heat treatment as the edge crumbles easily. Very frustrating chisel to use. I should have contacted Joel about that, but never got around to it.

[Tony Z]

I have two fine Greenlee chisels which were made in 1930. I have used them more than fifty years. The Greenlee brand stopped offering chisels maybe 75 years ago, but has operated continuously since 1862 and offers other tools.

Around 1979, as a result of the hand tool renaissance, they thought they would pretend to bring back their chisels by having their name branded on Sheffield products. They had an ad in Fine Woodworking and offered a catalog of edge tools, but it may not have lasted a year. At the time it was pretty easy to look at one of their chisels or gouges and identify which English company was making it.

As I said earlier Warren, identical to the Blue Chip chisels, except for the plastic handle being green. Found them down your way in an antique mall

[CStan]

The Marples will work just fine. If you have a simple sharpening set up that doesn't involve a lot of drama and Sturm and Drang, quick touchups at a slightly higher frequency than some other chisels are no big deal.

[Mike Brady]

Note to W. Mickley:

You mentioned that Greenlee discontinued chisels In the 1940.  I have several Greenlee chisels that were NOS and made no earlier than the 60's and could easily be 1970's.  These are socket chisels with hickory / leather washer handles.  They tend to be long.  Greenlee was located in Rockford. IL and was/is known for their electrician's hand tools.  I'm not sure they are still in business, but the modern electrician is going to still have Greenlee tools in his tool bag.  They are much like the Klein tools that are still made today.

[wmickley]

I dug up an advertisement for Greenlee from the March 1980 Fine Woodworking.

Reintroducing a fine time honored line of premium quality woodcrafting tools.

"England Germany and America"

They had carving, screw drivers, marking, augers, etc.


Of chisels they had Marples type plastic handled chisels, boxwood bench, boxwood paring, heavy duty socket with steel ring, and socket with leather on the handle. I wrote for a catalog some months later, but they were apparently already out of business.

I did a search of magazines and found ads for Greenlee chisels up to about 1956, quite a bit later than I remembered. Popular Mechanics.

[Tony Z]

I believe the green plastic handled Greenlee chisels I have were contract manufactured for Greenlee, by the same firm that made Bluechip. I have Few vintage Greenlee tang chisels and they are vastly different, although the green plastic handled chisels have decent steel.