A Brief History of the Wood Chisel

	Chisels were one of the first tools. They have been used (in their simplest form) since Stone Age man learned to break rocks into a roughly flat shape with a sharp edge.
	Stones such as flint were used by Neolithic man and there are many archaeological finds. Flint was preferred because it is dense, hard, and flakes easily, and when flaked off gives razor-sharp edges.
	As people learned to smelt ore (extract metal from rock by heating it), flint tools were replaced by tools made of copper, and then bronze (an alloy of copper and tin). Bronze tools were much easier to work with and could be modified and sharpened with greater precision.
	It is known that ancient Egyptian carpenters and masons used bronze chisels in the construction of pyramids.
	With the invention of hotter furnaces and the ability to smelt iron ore, the softer bronze chisels were in turn replaced by iron ones.
	As technology has advanced in the modern era and people have learned to mix carbon and iron to create steel, the iron chisel has been replaced by harder steel versions.

Posted

February 20 2023

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