Chisel Bevel Angle

[Gil Knowles]

Hi
I trust everyone had a great christmas with maybe a hand tool or two from santa under the tree.

I have a question I got a Hirsch 6mm mortise chisel with a 25% bevel and a Japanese 6mm dovetail chisel with a 35% bevel.

I work mainly with hardwoods mostly cherry.

What are the most appropriate bevel angles I should be using.

Many thanks

[Chris S Anderson]

From Charlesworth's book:

for hardwoods
I hone my striking chisels at 35, and my long paring chisels at around 30...Morticing in a dense wood might call for angles of 40 or even 45

Similar observations apply to western=style chisels.

I found this on page 67 of his A Guide to Hand Tools and Methods

[John Coloccia]

I leave all my Japanese chisels at 35 degrees. Seems to work pretty well in hardwood and softwoods. You'll almost certainly want to put a 35 degree (or maybe even more) secondary bevel on the mortise chisel. 25 degree primary is nice because it will penetrate deeply, but I think you're really going to want to beef up that edge a bit. I do, anyhow, and find the edge to be WAY more durable when mortising.