How To Remove Old Chisel Handles?

[Vaughn McMillan]

I've got one or two old Millers Falls lathe chisels that I'm using for trying out different grinds and such, and have decided I want to put longer wooden handles on them. Before putting the new ones on, I have to take the old ones off. I can think of several ways to hack, beat or burn them off, but before doing something stupid, I figured I'd ask here. Suggestions?

TIA

 

[Griesbach]

Vaughn,

I just put mine up against a verticle disc sander and took off one side and then the other till I could break it free.

 

[Gretch Flo]

Millers Falls tool

I've got one or two old Millers Falls lathe chisels that I'm using for trying out different grinds and such, and have decided I want to put longer wooden handles on them. Before putting the new ones on, I have to take the old ones off. I can think of several ways to hack, beat or burn them off, but before doing something stupid, I figured I'd ask here. Suggestions?

TIA

Millers Falls tool (quality tools)was a big industry in my hometown of Greenfield, Mass. But alas, they went out of business years ago-a shame-not sure what happened as I had left for college. Gretch

 

[Brian Hahn]

removing handles

I cut the handle off about 3" from the tool end. Since the tang is usually only 2" long, this is a safe place to cut. I hold the handle in a vise and use a hand saw. Hand saws are easier to repair or replace than power saws. Then I put the tool with handle stub in the vise, tool pointing down with the ferrule against the top of the vise jaws. Then I use an old chisel to start splitting away the handle stub. With an old chisel, I'm fairly aggressive, splitting right down the center of the handle. With a good chisel, I'd work towards the center to keep from accidentally hitting the tang. The whole process only takes a minute or two.

Tools the are epoxied into the handle are a different matter entirely, and for those I heat the blade right by the ferrule until the epoxy melts and decomposes. DO THIS OUTSIDE!. You don't want to breathe the fumes. While the tool is still hot, I use a pair of pliers to pull it out of the handle. The epoxy decomposes long before the blade gets hot enough to worry about loosing the temper, even for carbon-steel blades.

 

[hockenbery]

You may be able to beat it off very quickly.

Unless the tool has been glued it in.

Glue is usually no necessary so

Clamp the tool in a vice then use something you can beat on to clamp to handle and knock it off.

Tools that will work are vicegrips on the handle
on a tool ike a spindle gouge you can slide a box wrench over the tool and rest it against the top of the handle

Happy turning
Al

 

[john lucas]

I've never had trouble getting a handle off using my deadblow mallet and a Crescent wrench. I clamp the tool bit in a vise and then put the chrescent wrench around the blade so it slides up against the handle. Then I hit it as close as possible to the blade and they usually just pop right off.
If you heat the blade to soften some a glue put a pair of vise grips on the blade to keep the heat from running up the steel and changing the temper on the blade. If It's High speed steel don't worry about it. You can't hurt HSS heating it this way.

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

Many thanks, all. It's about as I'd suspected...heat, beat, or cheat it off. 😀 I'll give it a try this evening. Thanks again.

 

[dkulze]

Hey John,

Just wanted to throw out a thanks for the vise grips to stop heat from spreading idea. It never occurred to me to use them as a heat sink but, now that I think about it, there are lots of possibilities for using them that way.

Thanks,
Dietrich

 

[john lucas]

Deitrick I've haven't ruined any tools using heat but have burned my fingers so I came up with the heat sink idea to prevent that from happening. Then I got into blacksmithing and learned more about heat treating and using heat sinks to control it.