New Old-Stock Sash Mortise Chisels by Stanley

These are sash mortise chisels. As near as we can tell, they were imported from England and Europe in the 1990’s as an experiment. Our friend who owns a local hardware store was delighted to show them to us. We have exactly three in stock, in two sizes. The difference between a sash mortise chisel and the Ray Iles English oval bolstered mortise chisels is that sash mortise chisels are less expensive to make because their sides are parallel, not trapezoidal. This makes them good for shallow mortises like the ones you would find on a window sash, but not really great for deep mortises that you get in furniture.

These chisels, 8 mm and 10 mm, are from Stanley UK, although one of them says made in France. They are properly made, probably in open dies and hand held forging. They are therefore not perfectly symmetrical. They were hand ground and the sizing is close, but not exact. These were assembled by hand by a cutler who made sure the balance was correct to the handles, which were drilled off-center to compensate for variations in the grinding. This is the traditional way of doing it. The other thing that struck us is these are oval handles. Most European sash mortise chisels have round handles because putting a ferrule on an oval handle is a nightmare.

We are calling them new old-stock because they are brand new and never used but it's hard to apply the term "vintage" to a 1990s product. We have a total of three in stock. When they are gone, they are gone.