Chisel Questions

[Peter Gavin]

I know this subject has been beat to death, but I'm going to spring for a few more chisels to augment my Marples and want to make good choices as I can't afford to make mistakes. A Search on the forum didn't give me the best information, or at least a summary with all the information I'm looking for. What type of steel is best? I've seen O1, High Carbon and Chrome Vandium advertised in the quick search of vendors. I'm intending on buying two paring chisels and assume they will have or I'll regrind a relatively low 20* or so angle. I would rather sharpen more often and have a good edge than worry about retention. Would I be better off getting a left and right skew chisel in say 1/2 ", or getting a 1/4 and a 1/2 " straight paring chisel. I decided I needed these when doing the following operations: cleaning up dovetails and mortices, cleaning up rabbets on boards cut with a dado blade and triming edge grain for a smother finish (I know, I'll make a shooting board soon). Once you give me your opinions on these issues, do you have any brands that you recomend. I am assuming I'll use these for the next 30 years so I would rather buy quality than worry about price, but value is important.

Thanks

Peter

[tod evans]

peter, i have always been fond of german steel....02 tod

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Peter, I don't think there is such a thing as the "best" steel. Each type of steel has its own application and uses. Chisels are usually ground to meet the requirements of the steel they are made of. I grind most of my bench chisels (carbon steel) at 25 degrees, but my LNs came ground at 30 degrees.

All the chisels I've seen sold as paring chisels are ground to 20 degrees and recommend you don't use a mallet on them. The only reason I have a paring chisel is length. They are much longer than a bench chisel and allow you to reach places you a bench chisel is too short to reach.

I have a set of Crown right and left angled paring chisels and find them very useful for getting in corners. They aren't the best steel, but I don't use them enough for that to be an issue. They were only $36 for the pair when I bought them at Highland Hardware. If I had it to do all over again, I'd buy a lot of chisels off of e-bay and make them myself.

[Frank Chaffee]

Hello Peter,
I suggest you check out Barr Quarton’s chisels. http://www.barrtools.com/

Though I have some well worn Stanley chisels that I have used in carpentry, I am not (*yet*, (I hope)), a fine woodworker. Most of my experience with chisels has been on stone and steel, but Barr's are the ones I will get for wood.

Barr Quarton grew up in the Shorewood area and he took the Wood Technics course at MATC in Madison. I met him when he was on a carpentry crew building houses designed by various F. L. Wright taught architects. He and another Madisonian, Tom Wheeler, started their first cabinet shop in Spring Green (WI).

One day I loaned Barr a book, “Knives & Knifemakers”, by Sid Latham, ISBN 0-87691-102-2, copyright 1973. When he returned the book, he showed me a knife he had made for his father from a file. The knife was awesome!!!., beautifully ground and with a deer antler handle. This was in the mid-seventies, and I placed an order for a knife right then. When he delivered it he already had the technique for the photo-etching of his famous bear logo perfected. Hollow ground blade, brass riveted bone handle. He made it with, and I am embarrassed that I can’t remember exactly, A2 or D2 steel.

I took the photos for his first knife catalog. His knives were laid out on one of the stripper canoes he had built, and I struggled to deal with the reflections on the boat’s shiny finish. He did the North American knife making show circuit for a number of years, and also apprenticed to a Japanese sword maker who resided in this area for awhile, where he learned treasured techniques for laminating, hardening, tempering, and finishing steels from a master.

Barr has been in McCall Idaho since maybe the mid eighties, and has been featured in Fine Woodworking Magazine.

Frank

[Alan Turner]

Frank,
I must say that I am a bit jealous of your experience.

[Mike Henderson]

Peter - regarding skew chisels for cleaning up dovetails: I bought a couple of 1/4 inch Marples and ground them to a skew (left and right). Unless you do an awful lot of dovetails, the chisels won't get a lot of use. The Marples (or Irwin) are low cost - I paid less than $10 each - and have very acceptable steel for this usage. If you decide some day that you want some better known brand of skews, you won't have invested a lot of money in the Marples.

The 1/4 inch fit into small dovetails. I started with a set of larger skews but found that I often made dovetails that were too small to fit those skews into. That's why I made the 1/4 inch ones.

Sorry, I don't have any recommendations for paring chisels.

Mike

[Bob Smalser]

If you can grind a skew, you can make a handle.

If you can make a handle, then there's no reason not to have a better chisel than you can buy today short of hand-forged, 90-dollar specials.

Flea markets or Ebay....you want a drop-forged, prewar chisel...and that's most of the socket chisels....and you can grind it to the shape and thickness you desire. I like some curve in my paring chisels, and GI Mix were made that way, but given what you can do for little money, you can buy a dozen handleless oldies for the price of a new one of equal quality, and you can afford to play around.

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/5090019/79872497.jpg

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/5090019/72454940.jpg

[Peter Mc Mahon]

Hi Bob. Isn't it important to leave a gap between the shoulder and the socket on chisels? I have always thought that it was pretty much a requirement. Have you found otherwise in your experience? Peter

[Mark Stutz]

Bob,
It may be an optical illusion, but the angles of the grind seem to be different between the two pictures. Is there a standard angle to grind skew chisel? Personal preference? Different applications? (I don't mean the bevel angle...I suspect those are 20 deg. or so). Thanks.

Mark

[Bob Smalser]

Hi Bob. Isn't it important to leave a gap between the shoulder and the socket on chisels? Peter

Not if you aren't ever gonna hit it.

[Bob Smalser]

Bob,
It may be an optical illusion, but the angles of the grind seem to be different between the two pictures. Is there a standard angle to grind skew chisel? Personal preference? Different applications? (I don't mean the bevel angle...I suspect those are 20 deg. or so). Thanks.

Mark


They probably are a bit different. Whatever the bevel gage felt like that day, I guess. Isn't important.

[tod evans]

They probably are a bit different. Whatever the bevel gage felt like that day, I guess. Isn't important.
bob, you get two points! what works is all that`s important. .02 tod

[Joel Moskowitz]

Bob,
I use a narrow (1/4") fishtail skew for cleaning up blind dovetails - Real cheapies, and I find narrowness and fishtailness a lot more useful for than wide and parrelle - I used to use ground bench chisels but fishtails give more "wiggle" room. Other than that application I have never used a wide skew in woodworking for anything. So what do you use those wide skews for?

http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/prodimg/ms/big/MS-SBSKEWXX_big.gif

[Bob Smalser]

Bob,
So what do you use those wide skews for?


Simply to sell. I cut blind dovetails for 30 years without any kind of skew chisel....and still do, with occasional help from a common utility knife.

They're trendy....and when you buy a lot of 30 derelict chisels to get the one or two you need, you have to do something with the leftover, well-worn shorties. Spending a few minutes to grind in a skew after cleaning them up makes them sell like hotcakes and for a premium. Often over a hundred bucks for 2 hours of evening work with otherwise worthless junkers, as few out there need more butt chisels.

[Mike Henderson]

This is a bit off topic, but if you're interested in the history of iron and steel and how it developed in the United States, see the book "American Iron 1607-1900" by Robert B. Gordon, ISBN 0 8018 6816 5 published by the John Hopkins University Press. It's a bit academic but gives you a real appreciation for what our ancestors had to go through to make the materials for those plane blades, chisels, and saws.

I have no affiliation with the author, the publisher, or anyone else associated the the book or its sale.

Mike

[Peter Gavin]

Thanks for all your responses. It looks like I won 10Chisels on e-pay and so I uess I'll play with them and see what I can come up with. They were cheap enough that I can still buy some more if they don't work out.

Thanks Again.

Peter