The last glueup

A dab of 5 minute epoxy, and the last piece was installed. The felt pads on either side “grips” the Big Boy Chisel and keeps it from rattling about – and it hold it in place, to a certain degree. I did not take a separate picture; here’s one after the felt was glued to the walls.

I removed the masking tape – you can clearly see where the Osmo hard wax oil has been applied.

I cut some 4mm (⁵/₃₂”) crimson wool felt to size and applied contact cement to one side. I masked off the walls inside the chisel tray to avoid getting contact cement where I do not want it. After the “stickiness” of the glue disappeared, I installed the felt and squeezed it using a quick-grip clamp. It is important to ensure good bond when using contact cement.

Here’s a gallery of the felt after I installed it. To me, the red felt adds all the posh qualities I could ever want. 🤩 The color goes well with the cherry wood, too.

I loaded up the box with my Ashley Iles Bench Chisels MKII. And as you might notice, there’s one place left to the right… right? Right. The “other” left……
Anyway, I have considered buying another chisel from Ashley Iles, but due to issues that followed Brexit – shipping to Norway from UK seems to have become a huge issue, at least for some companies. To the point that some – including Ashley Iles at the time of writing this – simply has chosen to NOT ship to Norway. Bummer! I get it, don’t get me wrong. But bummer!

I can move all the chisels over (the slots holding the blades must be changed accordingly) to get a wider chisel, or I could get a 3mm (¹/₈”) one (I do have a 3mm in my butt chisel set, so I don’t really see the need for another one). Perhaps the open space could just serve as an OCD check…

To be frank, having this set of seven chisels (plus the Big Boy Chisel, which One of course Just Has to Have^TM) is a slight overkill – I could do just fine with a set of four chisels. But – it is nice to have a good selection.

I have the following sizes:

• 50mm (2”)
• 25mm (1”)
• 22mm (⁷/₈”)
• 19mm (³/₄”)
• 15mm (⁵/₈”)
• 12mm (¹/₂”)
• 9mm (³/₈”)
• 6mm (¹/₄”)

Ashley Iles also makes the sizes 3mm (¹/₈”), 31mm (1 ¹/₄”) and 37mm (1 ¹/₂”) (a total of 11 sizes). The chisels are O1 steel hardened to RC60-61, and comes with an unconditional guarantee for life of the customer.

Here’s a gallery of the chisels in their new home:

Since it’s such beautiful weather, I brought the chisel trays out in the garden for a photoshoot. Enjoy!

Here’s the empty rack:

The back, which will rarely ever be seen, shows the book matched panel from white oak – wood I have felled, slabbed and processed myself, which I think is cool. By the way, the cherry too is from a piece of a log I got hold of.

Finaly, a solo shot of the chisel tray with all its inhabitants, gleaming from the beautiful summer sun.

I really like these trays – the butt chisel tray has proven its utilitarian value; having the chisels in the tray on the bench while working has been very useful. So there will be more trays. One for layout and marking would be useful. Perhaps one dedicated for the tools that live on the bench most of the time? Hmm…

Yet another shop infrastructure project under the belt. I keep chiseling away on that list…