Tool type
Vintage bench chisels
The everyday chisel. Old catalogs split them into firmers, with a stout square-sided blade for heavier work, and bevel-edged chisels, whose thin side lands get into dovetails and corners. Marples' 1984 catalog notes that the bevel edge had become the general-purpose chisel and its best seller. Length mattered too. Stanley's 1929 catalog sold firmers for ordinary work, shorter pocket chisels and short butt chisels for setting hinges. Handles fit two ways, on a tang through a ferrule, as on most English chisels, or in a socket, the cone-shaped end common on American chisels like the Witherby, Buck Brothers, Greenlee and Stanley 750. Makers sold replacement socket handles in their catalogs, so a missing one is easy to put right.
8 models we cover.
Marples · Bench chisel
M444Marples Blue Chip Chisel Set
1968–2000s (Sheffield-made until about 2008)
$80–$150 typical ask
23 on eBay
Marples · Bench chisel
No. 377Marples Boxwood Bevel Chisel
1909–1998 as catalog No. 377
$35–$100 typical ask
6 on eBay
Sorby · Bench chisel
Bevel edgeSorby Bevel-Edge Chisel
1918–1941
$35–$50 typical ask
13 on eBay
Witherby · Bench chisel
Socket firmerWitherby Socket Firmer Chisel
1840s–1955
$25–$70 typical ask
33 on eBay
Witherby · Bench chisel
Socket framing, 1 inchWitherby 1-Inch Framing Chisel
1840s–1955
$55–$110 typical ask
6 on eBay
Buck Bros. · Bench chisel
FirmerBuck Brothers Firmer Chisel
1900–1917
$20–$35 typical ask
124 on eBay
Stanley · Bench chisel
750Stanley 750 Socket Chisel
1930–1969 (Sweetheart logo until about 1935)
$65–$170 typical ask
31 on eBay
Greenlee · Bench chisel
No. 230Greenlee Socket Firmer Chisel
by 1928 into the 1970s
$25–$45 typical ask
53 on eBay
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