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John Blazy
04-17-2003, 11:21 PM
Ok ok ok. I know this'll make me look a little too insecure in my manhood, and I'm baring one of my deeper insecurities, but after reading all the stuff lately and throughout the forum on slicks, I must ask for some clarity and . . oh please . . affirmation on my current belief that I own a beautiful Greenlee slick.

Follow me down a digressing road (screenplayed like one of Ralphie's childhood experiences from "A Christmas Story") of drool drama for a moment, and picture yerself in my shoes at a flea market one day about sixteen years ago, a boy shortly out of furniture design school with visions of firmer chisels in his head as he pokes around for old stanley corrugated - bottom planes for ten bucks, and finds buried deep in an old cardboard box . . . oh oh could it be . . IT IS!! Handle-less and encased in black scaly rust and rounded over from horrible abuse is the most beautiful tool imaginable, a socket slick of at least two inches wide! And oh did it ring enough to call every dog in the neighborhood when I hit it with a wrench, proving its heat treatment.
I sheepishly ask how much if I bought another little stanley chisel with it, and seven bucks later I was already hollow grinding in my head, driving out in bliss.

Getting the socket cleaned up to add its new ash handle, I unearthed this name under the now gleaming steel, "GREENLEE" and I felt like Indiana Jones finding the Well of Souls.
Oh the finely tailored suit that a belt sander, grinder, and a waterstone can dress this baby.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid60/p8d12571ad9e5b71f1870f5637c0fee86/fc520d1a.jpg
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid60/p0d01e1d15a0a02944282ee426fc79a6c/fc520d19.jpg
So anyway, back to my query. I've blissfully believed all these years that this is a true slick, as I had read so many years ago that any chisel two inches and wider is a slick. Buuuttt . . . the distinguished Dr. Fleming and others have made reference to slicks of 2-1/2" and wider, and I slowly pictured a large bubble and Dave holding a pin near it.

Now I know that the handle should have been a long, non-struck handle, but I love the aesthetics of the steel slam ring I made from 1" black pipe - and the heel of my palm pushes it oh so nicely when I need to, as I, of course would never strike it with my mallet ;) .

So I am asking for affirmation that this is indeed a slick.

If I hear "its just a chisel", I don't think I could handle that kind of rejection. I mean, I've timber framed with it, used it professionally to this day, its always laid on my beech workbench back-surface up, its never scraped glue off concrete (I think), and and and most of all, I have seen the elephant as mahogony flew off (slow motion pan) the gunwhale planks of my WOODEN BOAT , destined to be parted by the warmed steel of its razor edge.

Just a little affirmation? Please???

Does size really matter ?!?!? :D

[ 04-17-2003, 11:26 PM: Message edited by: John Blazy ]

Dave Fleming
04-18-2003, 12:25 AM
POP BAM Psssst, there goes your ballon JohnO!!!
<insert big sneaky grinning evil face here>

:) :) :) :)

That is a Bevel Edged Socket Firmer Chisel.

Nice tools I too have a set of those beauties.
1/2 inch to 2 1/2 inches.
Hardly ever used since slicing open the heel of my left thumb on the first day at Nelson Hanson in the waaaay bygone years of my apprenticeship.
Was cutting the plank rabbet in the Aus.Red Gum stem, sigh.
Dunno why but they never seemed to get called for. All wrapped up in a nice Chrome Tanned leather case made by a leather worker in Seattle.
And NO I am not interested in selling, trading or bartering them!
Haven't been made since 1973.
Ayup, no Red Rider 100 shot BB Gun for you.
YOU WILL PUT YOUR EYE OUT, RALPHIE!!!

PS: Spalted Ash looks good for the handle

[ 04-18-2003, 01:42 AM: Message edited by: Dave Fleming ]

Mrleft8
04-18-2003, 09:00 AM
It's not JUST a chisel.... But it isn't a slick...

John Blazy
04-18-2003, 11:46 AM
Like Luke Skywalker after hearing "I am your father!", I say "NNNOOOOOO . . . NNNOOOO . . . "
Say it isn't so!!!, Dave, say it isn't sooooo!!! :( :mad:

Must I now look upon my boat as an illegitimate child?
Incomplete without the use of a true builders slick, all the glue joints in this true metaphor of my life may just now fail, and the cracks appear by the thousands as the sky goes black and I shrivel into obscurity.

You say you like the handle though? (puppy dog enthusiasm)
Actually, it is clear ash, just is real dirty from ACTUAL USE throughout the years with a little bit of black gelcoat drips back when I was mold-making years ago.

Its still a slick to me!!! But I will call it the right name now that the Reverend Dr. Tool Fleming has rightly identified it. He even named when they discontinued them - amazing :D

tealsmith1
04-18-2003, 01:12 PM
Can we call it a slick lookin' chisel? :D

Dave Fleming
04-18-2003, 01:22 PM
JohnO, it would be a slick albiet a sexy one with the bevel edges, if it had a sweep to the underside(side facing wood). But in truth the bevels would serve no purpose as a slick.
Think of that socket firmer bevel edged chisel as a refined mortice chisel. Stout enough to do heavy timber work yet sophisticated enough to do some nice paring and large dovetails.
Mine have the factory Ash handles with steel hoops. SWIMPAL, keeper of All records pertaining to spent money, usually by me, says I got the set from Pastime Hardware in El Cerrito, CA., sometime around 1965 and it was about $70 for the set of 7 chisels.