File:A Bronze Age chisel (front and back) (FindID 126038).jpg

English: A complete cast bronze tanged chisel, dating from the Middle – Late Bronze Age between 1500 – 1000 BC (length: 91mm; width at splayed blade: 19.5mm; diameter of rounded tanged end: 1.5mm; thickness at lugged centre: 7mm; thickness at splayed blade: 3mm; weight: 21.43g).

The chisel has a tang (length: 51mm) with a sub-angular section, which tapers to a pointed at the end, but expands to a width of 7mm (thickness: 5mm) to the central corroded lug or ridge that protrudes around the circumference of the artefact (length: 6mm; width: 11mm). Beyond this central feature, the flat sub-triangular blade expands from a width of 9mm at the central to 19.5mm at the blade tip. The blade becomes thinner and slopes downwards towards the slightly rounded blade cutting edge (now corroded along the edge). The artefact is in a worn and fair condition with very little of the original dark green patina on the surface remaining due to pitting and corrosion.

A similar example is illustrated in Evans, J, 1881, ‘The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons and Ornaments of Great Britain & Ireland’, pages 165-9, ref/ fig no 194, found at Reach Fen in Cambridgeshire. Evans states that not only were chisels used ‘in conjunction with a mallet, but also in the hand alone with pressure as paring-tools, it would have been found convenient to attach them to wooden or horn handles. Accordingly, we find them both provided with a tang or shank for driving into a wooden handle, or with a socket for the reception of a handle. Chisels of the tanged variety vary considerably in size and strength, and in the relative width of the blade to the length’. Fig no 194 formed part of a hoard discovered at Reach Fen. Tanged chisels have also occurred in various other hoards of bronze antiquities.

Another example is illustrated in Nicholson, S, M, 1980, ‘Catalogue of the Prehistoric Metalwork in Merseyside County Museums’, pages 18 & 19, ref no 12, found near Canterbury, Kent and pages 46 & 47, ref no 78, found in Ireland (no specific location). Finally, another example is illustrated in Savory, H, N, 1980, ‘Guide Catalogue of the Bronze Age Collections in the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff’, page 123 & 192, fig 44, ref no 288/3, dating to the Late Bronze Age and found as part of a hoard at Brogyntyn, Selattyn, Salop.