Beginners tools: Choosing chisels

Chisels are essential in your shop.  With some experience you will be amazed at what you can do with them.

This blog is to help you with your choice.  We will discuss prices, sharpening, edge retention and technique.

I own many sets with large price differences and I will be talking about those trying to describe them with their plus and minus.  Let's start by the least expensive set.

Marples set of three:

Plus:

• Very low cost
• Easy to flatten their backs and to sharpen; pretty soft metal
• Excellent to practice your sharpening (instead of using an expensive set)
• Hit them with a mallet.  With their low cost I don't feel bed.

Minus:

• The edge retention is not great
• They don't look nice (I personnaly don't like plastic handles)

Pfeil, small set of two:

Plus:

• Very good steel with long edge retention.
• The backs were flat when I got them, all they require is some honing.
• Very comfortable in my hands. The 25 mm chisel is my preferred one.
• Expensive but not so much.

Minus:

• I have nothing to say against those chisels that I own for 13 years now.

 

E.A. Berg, Eskilstuna, Sweden
Those chisels are available on the resale market.


Plus:

• Very light, they are a pleasure to handle.
• Very hard steel that keep an edge for a very long time.
• They are surprisingly good at mortising.

Minus:

• Fairly expensive considering they are used
• The handle is removable.  Personally I don't like that.  Wait until you drop one on the floor.
• The backs are extremely difficult to flatten.

 Veritas PM-V11 set:

On the next picture you can see that their edges are pretty sharp and that is after sanding them.  The first time that I use them I had a whole lot of cuts on my fingers.



Plus:

• Very nice looking tools.
• Backs were perfectly flats and only honing was required.
• Very good resale value.
• Hard steel that is fairly easy to sharpen.
• I like them especially for dovetail adjustment.

Minus:

• Very expensive.
• When I got them from LeeValley, I had to use a grinder because their edges were wide flats almost impossible to remove with stones.
• I think that they are too expensive to be used for mortising.  With their sharp edges they are not great at that either because the chisel can easily bite the wall of your mortise.
• Pfeil chisels keep their edges as long as these.

You can also buy specialized chisel for mortising.

Narex mortising chisels set:

I do not own those chisels for a long time.  I may have done 50 mortises with them so far.

Plus:

• Very low price.
• They look strong and able to take the blow from a hammer.
• The edge retention is not on par with the expensive chisels but considering the price...

Minus:

• They are long and heavy which makes them unconfortable to handle.
• The back were convex and some work is required to flatten them (nothing comparable to the Berg set).

As you can see there are many types and prices of chisels.  My recommandation for beginners would be to buy a cheap set like the Marples, practise sharpening with them and see if you really want to buy a premium chisel later on.

I want to emphasize that the backs of your chisels need to be perfectly flat.  If they are rounded, even if it's at the very end, you'll never be able to pare or cut in straight line.



Normand