Chiseling

“ The most peculiar, the truly characteristic feature of their bas-reliefs so far as execution is concerned, is the combination of incisiveness and looseness in their handling. We feel that the chisel, in spite of the haste with which it worked, has been strongly driven. It is not so in the case of other countries; as a rule where work is rapid it is also slight and superficial. ”

“ The effect is light and elegant, even now that neglect has drawn a veil over its splendour. Yet Nature here is not neglectful; her ministrations may be said even to aid the work of the chisel and the brush, so beautiful are they in their effects. ”

“ If we use chisels and pens properly we shall get a similar result—not absolutely the same—for no two chisels or two hands can be quite the same—but closely resembling it and belonging to our own time as much as to any other. ”

“ I've got a hundred things to attend to every day. I've got to make my own clothes, or take a long chance on a mail-order house. That's why, when I do get anything that looks passable, I like it to be noticed."
"That's so," he admitted. "That's natural. I never thought of it, Sheila, and that's the truth. Why didn't you tell me before?"
"Oh, heavens! Casey, I'm sorry I did now. Why do men have to be told? I don't get taken this way often. Women and dogs have to be thankful for small mercies. Only a dog can shove a cold, wet nose into his master's hand and get a pat and a kind word ”

“ The rule holds good in this respect as with every other tool in the kit. Use a tool for the purpose it was made for, and for no other. Acquire that habit.
Cold Chisels.—A cold chisel should never be ground to a long, tapering point, like a wood chisel. The proper taper for a wood chisel is 15 degrees, whereas a cold chisel should be 45 degrees. A drifting chisel may have a longer taper than one used for chipping.
It is a good habit, particularly as there are so few tools which require grinding, to commence the day's work by grinding the chisels, and arranging them for business. ”

“ You fellows are keen enough about spotting symptoms of swelled head in one another. Sometimes you overdo the thing. Now, there was Chesty Chisholm.
A charming fellow; not prominent, like you—that's right, blush and dodge behind yourself—but a nice, normal chap, of more than average intelligence and breeding, who had an efficient sense of humor and therefore a fairly adequate appreciation of the mutual attitude and interrelations of himself and the universe. But he had an odd gait, carried his shoulders with a conceited swing, looked chesty. So they called him "Chesty." ”

“ Weimmick as we went along, to see what he was like in the light of day, I found him to be a dry man, rather short in stature, with a square wooden face, whose expression seemed to have been imperfectly chipped out with a dull-edged chisel. There were some marks in it that might have been dimples, if the material had been softer and the instrument finer, but which, as it was, were only dints. The chisel had made three or four of these attempts at embellishment over his nose, but had given them up without an effort to smooth them off. ”

“ The widely-spaced characters are none the less distinct; their cutting is, in fact, marvellous in its decision and clearness. We feel that the scribe traced each letter with much the same care and respect as he would have shown in performing a religious rite. In the eyes of the people who saw these complicated symbols grow under the chisel, writing still had a beauty of its own as well as a mysterious prestige ”

“ It was lying on the hall table all through the time when Sir Chichester was questioning her, and she said never a word about it. She was much too clever. But she saw it. I was watching her when she did see it. There was no concealing the swift look of satisfaction which flashed across her face. I haven't a doubt that she herself dropped the key where it was found. ”

“ At a hundred yards He'll shoot an apple for you off the tree. GESSLER. Is that boy thine, Tell? TELL. Yes, my gracious lord. GESSLER. Hast any more of them? TELL. Two boys, my lord. GESSLER. And, of the two, which dost thou love the most? TELL. Sir, both the boys are dear to me alike. GESSLER. Then, Tell, since at a hundred yards thou canst Bring down the apple from the tree, thou shalt Approve thy skill before me. Take thy bow— Thou hast it there at hand—and make thee ready To shoot an apple from the stripling's head! ”

“ The blacksmith’s set of chisels consists of a hot chisel for cutting off hot iron, a cold chisel for cutting cold metal, a hardy, which sets in the square hole in the anvil, C-chisels, which are curved somewhat like the carpenter’s gouge, and a cornering or V-chisel, in which the cutting edges are at a right angle one to the other.
The hot chisel has its edge well curved in its length, and is kept cool by lifting it from the work after each hammer blow, and by occasionally dipping it in water. Lifting it also prevents it from wedging in the work. ”

“ When the teeth are large, as in the Beaver, and the jaws powerful, their force is something wonderful, tree-trunks of considerable size being cut down quite easily.
Perhaps some of my readers may not be aware that the Chisel is constructed on exactly the same principle as the tooth of the Rodent animal. It is not entirely made of steel, as is generally thought. In the first place, a valuable material would be needlessly wasted, and, in the next place, the tool would not keep its edge except with infinite labour in grinding. ”

“ Being placed in a support or rack against the wall, and quite upright, a chisel—or rather, a series of chisels—are drawn across the surface in straight lines, and perpendicular, by the use of a large T-square. Every time the chisel is drawn with pressure across the varnished back of the glass a portion of the silver is removed, leaving a straight line quite clear or transparent, and, in fact, laying bare the surface of the plate glass. ”

“ A chisel (fig. 29.) is first employed, and connected to this handle by its screw at top. If the ground is tolerably soft, the weight of the two workmen bearing upon the cross bar, and occasionally forcing it round, will soon cause the chisel to penetrate; but if the ground is hard or strong, the workmen strike the chisel down with repeated blows, so as to peck their way, often changing their situation by walking round, which breaks the stones, or other hard substances, that may happen to obstruct its progress. ”

“ Seventh day.—With third hammer and seventh chisel will surely charm the porphyry.
“But, no! my latest asterisk is jagged in outline instead of sharp. I wonder what attempts others have made. Any one living in or near a blacksmith’s shop would have an advantage, for the chisels are always wanting hardening, or rectifying in some way; and my blue papers soon disappeared. If obedience for the sake of obedience is angelic, I must be an exalted creature. ”

“ Nevertheless, some very good work has been done by boys who had nothing better than a small gouge, a flat chisel, and a penknife. The true artist can work in any material and with the most indifferent of implements.
Tools
At the start a numerous assortment of tools will not be necessary, as the flat work and chip-carving will naturally be the first department of the art to be taken up by the young carver.
Six or eight chisels constitute a good set, and those shown from Fig. 1 to 6 will answer very well. Fig. 1 is a plain, flat chisel with a straight edge, as shown at A ”

“ Nay, you can’t even copy a thirteenth-century moulding or capital: you can’t reproduce the carvings you are going to remove—you have no eye for the delicate and simple curves: your chisels are so highly tempered that they are your masters, not your servants: they run away with you when you set to work and insist on turning out sharply cut cusps, all of the same size, all of them smitten with the blight of sameness, all of them straddling, shallow, sprawling, vulgar, meaningless ”

“ And as the white chips from the chisel flew
Of other matters languidly he dreamed,
For easy to his hand that labor seemed,
And he was stirred with many a troubling thought,
And many a doubt perplexed him as he wrought.
And yet, again, at last there came a day
When smoother and more shapely grew the stone,
And he, grown eager, put all thought away
But that which touched his craftsmanship alone ”

“ The tools used in this operation are very simple. The chisel, or jumper, as it is called, varies in size according to the work to be performed, and its edge is more or less pointed to suit the hardness of the rock to be bored. If the hole is to be small and not deep, it may be bored by a single person; with one hand he manages the chisel, which he turns at every blow so as to cross the previous cut, and with the other hand he strikes it with a hammer of six or eight pounds’ weight, occasionally clearing out the hole by means of a scraper. ”

“ The same process is then repeated in another direction, so that the new bands cross the old at an angle adapted to the nature of the design. Several independent chisellings may be necessary before the lines of the diaper emerge clearly, but throughout the whole operation no measurement of any kind is taken: the artist is guided entirely by his eye, though the slightest failure to estimate the dimensions correctly, or the slightest deviation of hand or chisel would at once destroy the work. ”

“ The Dutchman ejaculated something in his own language. I judged it to be a hasty disclaimer.
"But why not knock her on the head?" he growled. "It would be simple. The boat is all ready. She could be taken out to sea?"
"Yes," said Chichester meditatively. "That is what I should do. She knows too much, that is certain. But the 'Colonel' is a man who likes to play a lone hand—though no one else must do so." ”

“ Now we are putting up our own glass factory. If we had devoted all of this energy to making changes in the product we should be nowhere; but by not changing the product we are able to give our energy to the improvement of the making.
The principal part of a chisel is the cutting edge. If there is a single principle on which our business rests it is that. It makes no difference how finely made a chisel is or what splendid steel it has in it or how well it is forged--if it has no cutting edge it is not a chisel. ”

“ The many names by which men call him may each find some answering trait in the laborious work of the chisel. In the lines of that majestic and benign image are shadowed forth the mild king and father, the hearer of prayer, the guardian of civic order and family love, the protector of the stranger, and the power who gives fertile increase to flock and field. ”

“ Chiswell stretched himself luxuriously.
“It don't do to share other people's anxieties,” he said. “Great thing in this world is to keep trouble off your own shoulders. Do that, and you may reckon you've done pretty well. ”

“ He preferred the ribald, man's-size oaths of the shanty men, the crackling blasphemies which embellished their speech. In fact, though he did not know it, he was passing through a process of change; shedding the lightness of extreme youth, hardening a little, coming to the stature of a man. ”

“ If you wish them to live and increase, you must chip off a bit of the rock on which they are growing. With a chisel, or even a knife, you can do it without difficulty, for the soft slate scales and crumbles under a slight blow. ”

“ Exactly! Now, Mrs. Chichester, let's set a trap for him. Will you help me?
MRS. CHICHESTER
I will that! A rebel—and like as not a spy—in my tavern!
DREW
Go in to him, engage him in conversation, then look out the window and remark that you see a small boat landing. ”

“ Now, it is not at all likely that the unknown inventor of the modern chisel was aware of the analogy between art and nature, and would probably have been very much surprised if anyone had stated that he had borrowed his idea from the incisor teeth of the water-rat. ”

“ He'd never seen so many fine trees on their sides. Wonderful it was.
Didn't Chiswick look grand in the Spring? he asked me. Such lovely blossom in the gardens. Chiswick had once been famous for its fruit orchards, and many trees still remained. Didn't I think it pretty?
As a matter of fact it was looking to me exactly like other suburbs; but I hadn't the heart to dash so enthusiastic and friendly a creature; so I said I thought Chiswick charming.
And healthy, he went on: there wasn't a healthier place anywhere—all sand. Wherever you dug you'd find sand. ”

“ French agreed grimly.
"None of us get younger," said Mr. Braden. "I myself begin to feel the—er—burden of the years."
"You're not old. It's the burden of your fat."
"Ha-ha!" Mr. Braden laughed without much mirth. "But what seems to be the matter with you?"
"The life that is behind me," French replied. "You can't eat your cake and have it. But what the devil is the use of cake if you don't eat it? I've eaten my cake and enjoyed it, and I'm quite willing to pay when the times comes. All flesh is as grass, Braden—even such a quantity as yours."
Mr. Braden shifted uneasily. ”

“ A paring chisel may be ground as thin as 20°, as it does not have to stand heavy blows, and a better edge for the purpose may thus be obtained. In whetting a chisel, the bevel must be carefully maintained, and the back kept perfectly straight, like the face of a plane iron, or it will be impossible to work to a line. ”