The Joseph Marples chisel on the right (squared-off logo) dates from the early 1970's - the other two (oval logo) were made sometime between 1973-1977 before the logo outline border disappeared altogether to be replaced with a simple letter 'M' in a circle border in late 1977/early 1978. The same 'M' symbol also started getting stamped onto the neck of the chisel shaft a year later. The steel is proper 'Made in Sheffield' tool steel, 99.99999% likely to have originated from the Shepcote Lane smelter in Tinsley which was owned by the Firth-Vickers company at the time = the very site which invented stainless steel in 1913. Who would have believed it?
It's also (slightly, but improbably) possible that the steel originated from the same company's Stocksbridge plant a few miles away, which also made high-quality tool and stainless steel. Firth-Vickers became part of British Steel after nationalisation, but then subsequent to the rapid Government U-turn and re-privatisation of the steel industry, the company was bought by Swedish steelmaker Avesta, who rebranded firstly to Avesta Stainless, then to Avesta Sheffield during the mid-1990's. The company was then sold again to Finnish steelmaker Outo Kumpu, who still own it to this day. The plant still runs, and manufactures a range of highly specialised stainless and conventional steels, mainly for aerospace applications. It's very successful, and utilises the skills of metallugists holding secrets which the Far East copyists would likely kill to acquire. The plant's a tenth of its original size - but it's still there. "You want Outo Kumpu Sheffield aerospace steel, sir? Here's the price - take it or leave it". 99% of they time, they take it, because there's no viable alternative. The ones who cheap out? They suddenly find their airplanes falling out of the sky.
So cherish these historic British treasures [member=71889]festal[/member] - they won't be making any more of them. Fix them up and they'll be worth ten times what you just paid for them.
Although you can still buy 'Marples' chisels, they're now all disassociated, generic Chinese cr*p, bearing zero resemblance to the quality of the originals, and all of which now use cheese for the blades instead of steel. The Joseph Marples company, however, is still manufacturing in Sheffield, making state-of-the-art squares, gauges and other hand tools. I own many of these beautiful, hand-made gems, and I can highly recommend them. There's something quite magical about buying a tool hand-made by the same family that were proudly making them in 1840;
https://marples.co.uk/
Fun fact = The first thing Avesta Sheffield did after acquiring the company, was to commission-cast a huge and beautiful 8-ton stainless steel bison (the company logo) which was erected on a vast concrete plinth at the side of the M1 freeway right next to the Shepcote Lane plant at Junction 34 on the outskirts of Sheffield. After being passed by and suitably admired by many, many hundreds of thousands of passing drivers for many years, it was stolen one night (how? just how?) ............ and it has never been seen since.
My theory? I reckon the Germans stole it to make Kirschen chisels - the only ones I've ever found which come anywhere close to the original Sheffield-bladed Marples ones of old. Who knows? We're Festool guys, so we know what those cunning Germans are capable of.
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So now you know.
Yep - I'm a Brit chisel nerd. Deal with it [big grin]
