DRAWER LOCK CHISEL
Fitting locks to cabin drawers is one of the more delicate operations in yacht joinery, constantly at risk of botching the near-finished work. The problem is lack of space. Picture a shallow bunk-side drawer with perhaps 1ft (30cm) or less between the inside faces of its front and back and we can appreciate that, for making the side and bottom cuts required prior to excavating space for the body of the drawer lock, there is barely room to stand a regular bench chisel never mind swing the hammer required to drive it. Even more fiddly, with 6in (15cm) or less working height, how do we cut the little mortise in a cabinet’s top rail which receives the bolt of the lock when the key is turned?
The earliest tool for the job was the bolting iron or bolt chisel consisting of a pair of sharp edges forged at right angles to each other but at the same end of the shank, the other end having a regular chisel handle. With the appropriate edge placed as required the tool stood perhaps only 1in (25mm) above the surface leaving ample room to swing a hammer. By the early 1800s this tool had been simplified, its edges still at right angles to each other but now at opposite ends of the shank which doubles as the handle, and renamed the drawer lock chisel. Note the small anvil forged above each cutting edge indicating where to strike, applying the hammer’s force exactly where needed.
Our example measuring 5½ in (14cm) with 3/8in (1cm) edges was supplied by Buck & Ryan of London around 1900 when it cost 9d (roughly £4 today). Trusting in the bevel angles left by previous owners, who surely knew their stuff, this chisel required only light de-rusting and honing before cutting a mortise sized cavity to receive a Victorian drawer lock’s bolt. Using the hammer head sideways freed extra space to swing it.
Mortising feels an untidy business, raking waste from the bottom of a hole which grows ever more inaccessible and invisible with depth, but the important thing is to preserve the integrity of its crisp perimeter. That said, if edges do become damaged or the hole finishes up too big for the bolt, the fit may be adjusted by inlaying a brass plate.
NEXT MONTH: Table saw