Chisel
An Essential Tool for Craftsmen and Sculptors Alike
A chisel is a hand tool with a long, flat surface ending in a curved cutting edge, used to carve or cut materials such as wood, stone, or firm clay. The edge may be driven home by the use of hand force or by a hammer. There are many different kinds of chisel, but they are all used for the purpose of carving or cutting hard materials.
Chisels are currently used in industrial applications, especially work involving steel and other metals, and craftwork, such as woodworking, sculpture, stone-carving, and metal engraving. They are used to make numerous objects for the home, and are especially valued for creating distinctive, recognizable house number signs.
Types of Chisels
Whether making the next acclaimed post-modern sculpture or tasteful and attractive home signs, there are numerous chisels and types of hammers needed for the job. Since most house number signs created with chisels are carved of stone, let's examine the chisels needed to do the job. Essentially, there are three different sets of tools needed, depending on the hardness of the stone being used for the creation of these house number signs. The chisels as well as their mallets are available in many different shapes and sizes.
Softer sandstones, such as bathstone and cotswold, require wood-handled mason's chisels, similar in appearance to woodworking chisels but crafted of a heavier duty steel. Wood-handled mason's chisels require a "lead dummy" to drive the cutting edge into the stone. A lead dummy is a mallet of soft lead which, hammered into the handle end of the chisel, carves the details onto each house number sign.
Bulb-end steel chisels are entirely crafted from steel, used to carve harder limestones such as portland stone, and heavier duty than the mason's chisels. To carve detail into house number signs and other crafts, these chisels require a traditional mason's mallet, a rounded hammer of strong Italian yew.
Finally, the most commonly available chisels (which also happen to be the strongest) are steel end steel and tungsten chisels. These must be used with either a large mason's steel hammer or a steel club hammer for greatest effect, and can be used for fine detail work or bold strokes on a custom house number sign.
Chiseled to Perfection
There are dozens of different styles of chisels, all sharing a distinctive look. You can always tell the work of a chisel by its curved edge; look for this easily noticeable signature on all sculpture, and you'll soon be able to recognize the work of chisels on masonry and in woodworking.
Personalized home signs created by skilled craftsmen and carvers fetch a much higher price than ordinary mass-produced house number signs, because it's obvious they were labored over by someone with a great deal of expertise. They may be wood or stone house number signs, but the marks of the chisel are unmistakable. Without the chisel, there would be no standard of quality sculpture or carving.