A look at Harbor Frieght Wood Chisels

[Mike Baker 2]

Hello, gentlemen.
I purchased a set of the Harbor Freight Windsor Design wood chisels in April, and have been using them and testing them since. Below is the initial review I did of them.
A few things to note: these are not fine wood working chisels. They are not made anywhere near that quality. Having said that, I have tested them alongside the chisels I know well and have been using 4-5 years, Stanley Fat Max. I can find no difference in edge retention between the two, however, the attention to detail/finish is Stanley's by a large margin.
I like the wood handles, and their balance and weight is much better than the heavy Stanleys.
For me, they are decent "beater" chisels; ones that i use when I don't want to have to worry about bending them or damaging them. But I much prefer the 4 vintage chisels I have.
Just thought some might like to take a look.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eCqLojUeEA&feature=youtu.be

[Patrick Chase]

Hello, gentlemen.
I purchased a set of the Harbor Freight Windsor Design wood chisels in April, and have been using them and testing them since. Below is the initial review I did of them.
A few things to note: these are not fine wood working chisels. They are not made anywhere near that quality. Having said that, I have tested them alongside the chisels I know well and have been using 4-5 years, Stanley Fat Max.

Wow, the Stanley "Fat Max" is a pretty low bar IMO :-)

[Mike Baker 2]

Wow, the Stanley "Fat Max" is a pretty low bar IMO :-)

Yep. I agree. I doubt there's a dime's worth of difference in anything but finish. That's why I compared them. Would not really be fair to compare them to higher quality ones. You can look at just the differences between these two chisels and see the deficiencies in the HF set. But the Fat Max have served me well for the little things I've used a chisel for. Moving into general wood working with hand tools, we will see how they fare. And the HF.
But I have a few good vintage chisels that work for finer tasks. The Stanley and these are for rough work, mostly.

[Pat Barry]

You really should do the scratch test like Steve did to see which one of those (Stanley or HF) is harder.

[Mike Baker 2]

Nice!
All I care about is does it get sharp, does it stay sharp(within reason of what it is), and can I sharpen it really quickly so I can get back to work? If it'll do that, it might not be high quality, but I can work with it.

[Patrick Chase]

You really should do the scratch test like Steve did to see which one of those (Stanley or HF) is harder.

Begone, Troll!

[Jim Koepke]

Begone, Troll!

LOL!

jtk


Must get to 10 characters to post.

[Mike Brady]

Mike, you seem like a good guy and I'm glad to see you contributing to the discussion here. I do have to question the value of this review as well some some other recent discussions of tools from Harbor Freight and other big box retailers. This seems to me to be a race to the bottom, based on lowest price. Harbor Freight is obviously successful at what they do and a person who uses a tool infrequently might best advised to shop there. The readers of this forum tend to be the frequent user, perhaps even very skilled. Tools from the lowest tier of quality are not likely to interest to them. I see little point in anyone wasting money on a tool just to do a review. Perhaps it makes the purchase seem justifiable.

[James Pallas]

Mike, you seem like a good guy and I'm glad to see you contributing to the discussion here. I do have to question the value of this review as well some some other recent discussions of tools from Harbor Freight and other big box retailers. This seems to me to be a race to the bottom, based on lowest price. Harbor Freight is obviously successful at what they do and a person who uses a tool infrequently might best advised to shop there. The readers of this forum tend to be the frequent user, perhaps even very skilled. Tools from the lowest tier of quality are not likely to interest to them. I see little point in anyone wasting money on a tool just to do a review. Perhaps it makes the purchase seem justifiable.

Hmm, Never realized this was such a select community.
Jim

[Mike Brady]

I see several tools in the video that could have been replaced by some cheap vintage chisels that would have compared favorably to very expensive ones. Isn't learning about that more valuable than comparing Harbor Freight to big box Stanley and finding that neither is any good?

[Nicholas Lawrence]

I see several tools in the video that could have been replaced by some cheap vintage chisels that would have compared favorably to very expensive ones. Isn't learning about that of more valuable than comparing Harbor Freight to big box Stanley and finding that neither is any good?

Good Lord, the guy is trying to contribute to the forum. You may not find it useful, or worth your time or whatever, but someone else may. It isn't like he charged you something or held a gun to your head and made you watch it.

Mike Baker, thanks for taking the time to contribute.

[steven c newman]

362875
IF one were to look....there are two of those H-F chisels in this group of USERS. Been using them for a LONG time.....like when H-F first arrived. Was a set of 4......2 are left. Darn good paring chisels. I have others to do the chopping with.

The only thing spending $$$ on a simple chisel will guarantee is that you spent that cash....not a thing about "quality". About like the difference between a "Suburban' and an Escalade.....just the trim and the price, is all.

[Patrick Chase]

I see several tools in the video that could have been replaced by some cheap vintage chisels that would have compared favorably to very expensive ones. Isn't learning about that of more valuable than comparing Harbor Freight to big box Stanley and finding that neither is any good?

There are more constructive ways to word this input. For one you could write up your own experiences with vintage chisels. You could also ask the OP if he's ever tried vintage chisels, and if not why.

[Patrick Chase]

362875
IF one were to look....there are two of those H-F chisels in this group of USERS. Been using them for a LONG time.....like when H-F first arrived. Was a set of 4......2 are left. Darn good paring chisels. I have others to do the chopping with.

The only thing spending $$$ on a simple chisel will guarantee is that you spent that cash....not a thing about "quality". About like the difference between a "Suburban' and an Escalade.....just the trim and the price, is all.

IMO every sensible woodworker has a few not-so-precious chisels in their collection. HF, Aldis, Buck, FatMax, etc etc.

The difference between these sorts of chisels and high-end ones is a bit more than "trim and price" IMO, though. With that said one operative question is whether you *need* chisels made of unobtanium alloy to do good work, and the answer is of course "no".

[Mike Baker 2]

I have 4 vintage chisels that I dearly love. I bought the HF chisels to see for myself, since I have seen a few posts(granted, I was digging for posts about chisels when I first came to this forum) here and there about these chisels, but nothing beats actually seeing something.
I searched Youtubeland, and saw exactly two videos on them, neither of which did anything to tell anyone about them.
I shot the video with the intent to show people the difference, if any, in them and most local Borg offerings.
They are pretty much bottom of the barrel, I think. But I have used them for two months, and they hold an edge in pine rather well. Hardwood? Who knows? But I can literally refresh an edge on them in about one minute, and be back to work. Whatever anyone thinks of them, that's my experience with them.
Do I recommend them as a be all, end all chisel? Nope, and that is not how I presented them.
As far as the differing opinions in this thread, my skin is thick, so no problem there.
Thanks for those who see at least a bit of value to this thread. If there is not very much in it, it will die away soon. And that's OK, too.

[Don Dorn]

Like many others, I have too many sets (3) of good quality chisels to be concerned with HF. That said, I got a set of four as a gift and decided to see if they could be at all useful. Soft steel and was easy to flatten the back on an inspection plate w/sandpaper. After that, sharpened like usual (Sellers method) and found them to be very sharp. Frankly, I didn't use them enough to see how long the edge lasted and gave them a friend who had none. He was able to start with a sharp set. In the end, was surprised at how they could be turned into something that worked pretty well.

[Mike Brady]

I appreciate the feedback and criticism. Like the OP, Mike; I see it as healthy discourse.

[Leo Graywacz]

Mike, you seem like a good guy and I'm glad to see you contributing to the discussion here. I do have to question the value of this review as well some some other recent discussions of tools from Harbor Freight and other big box retailers. This seems to me to be a race to the bottom, based on lowest price. Harbor Freight is obviously successful at what they do and a person who uses a tool infrequently might best advised to shop there. The readers of this forum tend to be the frequent user, perhaps even very skilled. Tools from the lowest tier of quality are not likely to interest to them. I see little point in anyone wasting money on a tool just to do a review. Perhaps it makes the purchase seem justifiable.

Because sometimes you find a gem amongst the trash. You have to try some things out to find out if they have any real value.

[bridger berdel]

Those HF chisels are useable for purpose. The fit and finish of them is atrocious. The cost is appropriate.

[Jim Koepke]

Mike, you seem like a good guy and I'm glad to see you contributing to the discussion here. I do have to question the value of this review as well some some other recent discussions of tools from Harbor Freight and other big box retailers. This seems to me to be a race to the bottom, based on lowest price. Harbor Freight is obviously successful at what they do and a person who uses a tool infrequently might best advised to shop there. The readers of this forum tend to be the frequent user, perhaps even very skilled. Tools from the lowest tier of quality are not likely to interest to them. I see little point in anyone wasting money on a tool just to do a review. Perhaps it makes the purchase seem justifiable.

I have looked at the Harbor Freight chisels and figured they would be redundant in my situation. However I also purchased a three piece set of Stanley chisels for $3:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?238778-Stanley-Chisel-Set

My good chisels do not get used on dirty jobs. If there wasn't already a good selection of beaters in my shop the HF set might come home with me.

There may be folks reading the posts on SMC who cannot afford to even pay $10 each for a few chisels, BTDT.

Should these aspiring woodworkers wait until they can afford Narex or Lie-Nielsen?

jtk

[george wilson]

The ancient Egyptians would possibly have seen the HF chisels as a gift from the Sun God. They would have tossed their copper chisels out!

But,we have moved on.:):):)

[Frederick Skelly]

The readers of this forum tend to be the frequent user, perhaps even very skilled. Tools from the lowest tier of quality are not likely to interest to them. I see little point in anyone wasting money on a tool just to do a review. Perhaps it makes the purchase seem justifiable.

Mike, I think I see what you're getting at, but I had kind of the opposite reaction. I get a kick out of it when someone posts a low priced gem. For example, there was a thread a couple years ago about the $7 Aldi chisels and I bought a set just to experiment with. You're all gonna laugh at me, but I put a very shallow bevel on them (20* with a 2* secondary) and I use them a lot. Those, plus a set of Marples (blue with white rings) do everything I need. Well enough that, even though l saved enough to buy a starter set of LNs, I just couldn't convince myself I needed to - and I KNOW I'll love the LNs. But I grin every time I get good work outta these cheapo $7 chisels. Just a different view and of course YMMV.

Best regards,
Fred

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Mike, you seem like a good guy and I'm glad to see you contributing to the discussion here. I do have to question the value of this review as well some some other recent discussions of tools from Harbor Freight and other big box retailers. This seems to me to be a race to the bottom, based on lowest price. Harbor Freight is obviously successful at what they do and a person who uses a tool infrequently might best advised to shop there. The readers of this forum tend to be the frequent user, perhaps even very skilled. Tools from the lowest tier of quality are not likely to interest to them. I see little point in anyone wasting money on a tool just to do a review. Perhaps it makes the purchase seem justifiable.

I sometimes purchase tools such as these because:



Sometimes people ask if they can borrow a tool. No, you cannot borrow my PM-V11 nice set, you will destroy it. Borrow this, even if you do destroy the edge, and you will, I can put it back in almost no time with no concern that I just ground off 1/8" of the tip.
Sometimes I want a beater set for something.
Sometimes I have a friend who rarely ever uses them, but they have this one task, so I gift them a very sharp set of beaters that cost me almost nothing.
Sometimes I want to train someone or learn to do something. I have a set of beaters that have a nice grove in the back because I messed up trying to figure out how to flatten the back on a powered device, probably my Tormek years ago. That big gash is still there on the back. Luckily it is far enough back it does not affect use, and, luckily, I was testing using a junk set I paid $3 for.


In other words, I appreciate it when someone says "hey, for that little money, I am willing to give it a go". I think it is why the Aldi sets became so popular.

[bridger berdel]

At one point I bought a set to quickly and cheaply fill in a gap in my working set. Then I bought another set for material for making specialty chisels. Rust hunting has long since displaced the ones in the bench chisel lineup, and I think there are still one or two in the customs category.

They served their purpose. I don't regret a thing.