Everyday Chisels

[Larry Frank]

I am looking for some recommendations on everyday chisels. These are ones that I would use for rough work and be subjected to some abuse. I am thinking of something with probably plastic handles and I can hit with a hammer. I am looking for something reasonably priced.

I do have some Lie-Nielsen chisels but those are used only when I want to do some dovetails or similar.

[James Taglienti]

Lee valley has some plastic handled chisels. I havent heardmuch about them at all though... Also just about everybody but me has had good luck with the older plastic handled stanleys...

[lowell holmes]

Lee valley has some plastic handled chisels. I havent heardmuch about them at all though... Also just about everybody but me has had good luck with the older plastic handled stanleys...

The Stanley 60s made back in the 70's and 80s are good steel. I've had good luck with them.

My everyday chisels are the LN and Stanley 650s.

[Bill Houghton]

The Stanley 60s made back in the 70's and 80s are good steel. I've had good luck with them.

My everyday chisels are the LN and Stanley 650s.

Yes, indeed; and if your area has good yard sales, you could probably find an assortment of Stanley 60s for $1 each.

[Peter Scoma]

Yes, indeed; and if your area has good yard sales, you could probably find an assortment of Stanley 60s for $1 each.

1$ a piece? If you could let me know where these yard sales are I'd greatly appreciate it :)

PJS

[Jim Koepke]

Larry,

It really depends on how big of a set you want for what I consider the junker set. Over years of accumulating chisels I have a few that get used for the rough stuff or would be candidates for loaners.

If you do not want the hassle of waiting for the various sizes to come around at a yard sale, then hit the big orange or blue. They usually have sets of 3 to 5 chisels for a low price. Then as time goes buy you may be able to accumulate a better set of secondary chisels.

My accumulation of chisels would likely make a few sets for most folks. There is a set of short chisels for close work. There is a set of long chisels for pairing and such. There is also a set of firmer chisels and mortise chisels. Then there are a lot of various extra chisels.

Like another member says, you can never have too many chisels.

jtk

[Paul Incognito]

1$ a piece? If you could let me know where these yard sales are I'd greatly appreciate it :)

PJS
Peter,
I've gotten some good deals at the New Castle flea market. Not $1 each, but all under $5. There is usually a decent selection of tools there.
Paul

[Tony Zaffuto]

You can invest time in flea markets and find chisels cheap, but they become not so cheap when you apply value to your time. I would take a look at Narex chisels. Highland Hardware has them, as does Lee Valley and I believe Lee Valley also has a version of Narex that have side bevels set up for dovetails. Steel in them is great and they are dirt cheap.

[glenn bradley]

'Reasonably priced' is a subjective thing . . . I consider $10 - $15 for a new chisel pretty darn reasonable. Others may feel differently. May daily users are a set of Marples 'blue chip' chisels picked up back when they were still Marples but, not so long ago that they are anything special. I have no experience with the newer ones but, here's some on sale (http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=30663&filter=chisel) right now. I have some chisels that are many times the price but only about twice as good (speaking loosely). The few new Lee Valley Bevel Edge Chisels (http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=30028&cat=1,41504,43500&ap=1) I have are very satisfactory. Be careful with the idea that chisels can take some level of abuse and still perform without compensating for that abuse. Whacking away is fine but stop frequently and retouch your cutting edges to keep them functioning at a satisfactory level. Just getting a bigger hammer is no substitute for keeping a keen edge ;-)

[Jake Rothermel]

I humbly +1 what Jim and others have already said. My "dailies" chisels that live in my stage kit are nothing special. Some have wooden handles, some are plastic [a couple are a bright orange rubber that hurts my eyes everytime i look at them...]. I picked up over a time at yard sales, the Electronic Bay auctions and other places as I needed them or needed to replace them; but I looked for the same things everyone else talked about, good steel & enough life left in them for some decent sharpenings.

Spending money [even $50 or $60] on a new set of daily chisels I'm going to likely have to flatten and rework myself anyways is not in my blood [but I'm "frugal" that way]. Picking them up ad hoc like this doesn't make for the prettiest set in your tool bag, if that's a priority, but it's gotten to the point where I know what size I'm reaching for by what the handle looks like.

[Joe A Faulkner]

... I would use for rough work and be subjected to some abuse. I am thinking of something with probably plastic handles and I can hit with a hammer. I ...

Abuse? Hit with a hammer??? Sounds like a job for Stanley FatMax chisels to me. I think there are only two kinds of platic handled chisels you can strike with a hammer - them thats got cracked handles and them that're going to have cracked handles. ;)

[Simon Frez-Albrecht]

I have a handful of ragtag chisels I keep in my box for work (standard carpentry, etc). Most of them came out of relative's basements and attics, I got a set of three for $7 at Ocean State Job Lot, plastic handled with metal strike buttons. For work, I frequently hit nails, and sometimes they're borrowed to open paint cans and the like, so I like crummy old chisels that I don't care about grinding away pretty quickly. I typically sharpen to about 80 grit on my 1x30 belt sander, take off the burr with a couple swipes on my 600 grit DMT, and a couple of swipes on the strop does the trick. In and out in about 1-2 minutes, faster if I'm doing a batch. For flattening the backs, I either put them on the side of a grinding wheel or a couple of drags on the platen of my belt sander, again finished with a few swipes on the DMT.

These chisels I really don't care that much about, as long as they do the trick for the occasional cutting task. I just as often (if not more) use my belt knife because it's always on my belt.

[Bill Houghton]

1$ a piece? If you could let me know where these yard sales are I'd greatly appreciate it :)

PJS

Well...the prices here are reasonably low, but you'd lose out on the commute - I'm about 3,000 miles from you, north of San Francisco.

[James Taglienti]

Has anyone seen the fastcap folding pocket chisels? I bought one a few weeks ago and have been abusing it at work, it Actually works pretty well and the steel is decent, not fine furniture quality but i have pared quite a bit of red oak end grain with one and also hammered it.

[James Pickering]

Abuse? Hit with a hammer??? Sounds like a job for Stanley FatMax chisels to me. I think there are only two kinds of platic handled chisels you can strike with a hammer - them thats got cracked handles and them that're going to have cracked handles. ;)Actually all Stanley plastic handled chisels were designed and produced with hammer use in mind. The chisel section cover page in Stanley catalogs depicts a workman using a plastic handled chisel with a hammer and the text reads:

Stanley Heavy Duty Wood Chisels
Alloy Steel Blades -- Tough Plastic Handles

"Sturdy, two-piece construction -- blade and shank, forged in one piece, extends
almost through entire handle and meets shank of steel cap. Steel cap takes hammer
blows ..........."

Here is a 60-80 year old Stanley No. 50 chisel that has survived undoubtedly hundred of hammer blows with no ill effects:

http://jp29.org/stanchisels94.jpg

http://jp29.org/stanchisels85.jpg

James

[Peter Scoma]

Peter,
I've gotten some good deals at the New Castle flea market. Not $1 each, but all under $5. There is usually a decent selection of tools there.
Paul

Paul, you are the second person to mention the New Castle Flea Market to me for tools. Sounds like its time to check this place out. Thanks!
If you are interested in a great antique shop in the area for vintage tools, PM me.
Peter

[glenn bradley]

but it's gotten to the point where I know what size I'm reaching for by what the handle looks like.

Excellent gathering method. I got a smile out of the last line ;-)

[James Taglienti]

I have never seen an everlasting type chisel without those peen marks all over the butt cap i think it was part of the manufacture... Eapecially since they are all the way at the perimeter of the cap i cant imagine someone having that bad of aim and still being able to grip a chisel ha

[James Pickering]

I have never seen an everlasting type chisel without those peen marks all over the butt cap i think it was part of the manufacture... Eapecially since they are all the way at the perimeter of the cap i cant imagine someone having that bad of aim and still being able to grip a chisel haHere is the butt cap of a new, never used, Stanley No. 60 chisel ..........

http://jp29.org/stanchisels52.jpg


James

[James Taglienti]

James,I am referring to the wooden or composite handle Stanley everlasting chisels with the steel going all the way through them, like the older one you pictured.Per the patent filed by GE Wood the butt cap is formed by "heading over" the steel rod that passes through the handle, hence all the impact marks. Unused everlasting chisels even bear these peen marks. Usually there is a fibrous disc between the wood and the butt cap, i dont know if it was intended to protect the wood or what.The plastic handled ones have a milled insert press fitted into the end. Thats why, when new, they dont have any marks.