The Chairmaker Part II
8. The "Kehl" chisels have already been named in previous chapters, p. 153. A "kehl" is used for the decoration of the woodwork and belongs, to a degree, to sculpted work. It consists of a recess around which on one or both sides runs a small round ridge. With the "V tool" (Geisfuss, literally "goat foot"), p. 154, he marks the breadth of the imagined ridge in the wood as deep in the wood as he wants it to be. If this recess is even he takes it out with a Balleisen,10 p. 154; if it's round he cuts it out with a gouge (Hohleisen), p. 154. The various Balleisen, as well as the gouges in this workshop, are graduated in size. The largest are two inches wide in their blade, the smallest only a few millimeters. The smallest gouge is called the veiner chisel (Ziereisen), and this serves the chairmaker significantly by sculpture work. With a small gouge he also rounds the round ridge next to the vein. The "V tool" (Geisfuss), the Belleisen, and gouge (Hohleisen) of this workshop are sometimes straight, bent, or back bent, p. 154. The latter the chairmaker cannot be without when working shallow curves. All these chisels have a wooden handle and the chairmaker sometimes cuts freehand with these last chisels and sometimes drives them with a wooden mallet, especially when working shallow curves. The above mentioned mortise chisel (Stemmeisen) is used only with the mallet, as is also the Vermobrungseisen and the Schweifeisen.
10 The name Balleneisen Sprengel relates in the cabinetmaker text as due to the bahn or sole on one side of the blade which the cabinetmaker calls a ballen. Another explanation given by Adelung and the Grimm brothers in their dictionaries is that this chisel is driven with the ball (ballen) of the hand. In the cabinetmaker's chapter Sprengel distinguishes the Balleneisen from the Stechbeutel and describes it as a wide skew ground blade used to trim off wood, and clean up flat recessed areas. Other references equate the Balleneisen with a paring chisel.
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