Chisel tweaking

I have some Shop Fox brand chisels I bought a while back from Grizzly.  They appear to be identical to the ones Paul Sellers talks about buying from Aldi stores in the U.K.   Although I paid more than Paul did, these were still quite reasonable.  Tonight I decided to give one of the handles the Paul Sellers treatment to make them look a little nicer.

I removed the handle by driving it off with a steel pin-punch, which pretty much destroyed the thin steel ferrule.

I tried several methods to hold the handle.  Holding it between bench dogs in the tail vise was the winner.  Raising the dogs above the surface of the bench allowed me to work the top and a little around the sides with a spokeshave.  Rotate and repeat.

I used a card scraper to remove the painted on label and get rid of the machine marks and most of the old finish.  Then I followed up with a file and sandpaper to blend and smooth everything.

The refined shape along side the original.

Machine marks were pretty evident before scraping.

This last photo shows the handle with two coats of amber shellac.  I think I'll spray on a couple coats of clear shellac just to build up the finish a little more.  I ordered brass ferrules from Lee Valley so I'll wait until they arrive to shape the rest of the handles.

I'm happy with the results, I think it looks a lot less clunky with the new tapered shape.  The darker color is a winner as well.