My new set of chisels

[Tom Bussey]

I bought a new set of chisels from Harbor Freight yesterday . Paid $11.98 for the set. I like these chisels. The seem to hold a cutting edge fairly well. Will they hold an edge as well as a premium chisel? NO, but I got a 1 1/2 inch chisel in the set and a Lie Nielsen 1 1/2 inch chisel sells for $150. For $138 dollars difference when I need a 1 1/2 chisel I will get by. Did I mention the other 5 included chisels.

They are great for other uses like, rough work, opening paint cans, and take the place of a card scraper for certain applications. I use them for any time a chisel would be a great tool to use but when I don't want to use my Two Cherries chisels.

At $11.98 and that is without a coupon they are an outstanding buy.

I also bought 4 6 inch F style clamps they had on sale for 3 dollars and some small change, each. (that is all they had on the display wall). When ever I go into a big box store I like to buy at least one clamp. It is amassing when you realize you have a lot of clamps with out breaking the bank. The cost is the same but it is spread out over time. Menards has some nice 12inch F style clamps for about $12 but I have enough of them for now. Anyway I have 4 clamps that can stay in the bottom of a draw and I may need them for one time a year from now but I have them. If you are doing a bent lamination sometime you will need a lot of clamps and they will do just fine.

Good buys and I just thought I would pass it along to some who would never thought about buying lesser quality than the best.

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[Rafael Herrera]

Before assuming they won't "hold an edge", I would actually test them. The ones I have don't underperform.

[chuck van dyck]

I recently bought their carving set. Need a lot of work to set up but definitely useable. I actually liked them so much I went back and bought the more “deluxe” set. I like them even more.

[Jim Koepke]

The only way I've beat that price is buying them in junk shops when they are anywhere from 50¢ to a couple of bucks each.

Picked up a good drawer full of beater chisels that way.

jtk

[Tom Bussey]

This isn't my first set. And I do think they hold an edge better than I expected. Every one and his brother have different ideas of how an edge should be that is why I wrote seem to hold an edge. I do not think they under preform either, that is why I posted them. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

[Warren Mickley]

The Harbor Freight chisels might be the same steel as the Two Cherries chisels.

[Joel Gelman]

I was just at Harbor Freight today.

https://www.harborfreight.com/05-gallon-multi-purpose-sprayer-56167.html?ccdenc=eyJjb2RlIjoiNzU3OTYyOTEiLCJza3Ui OiI1NjE2NyIsImlzIjoiNC43OTIifQ%3D%3D&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=19693736392&campaignid=19693736392&utm_content=151822106811&adsetid=151822106811&product=56167&store=27&gclid=Cj0KCQiArsefBhCbARIsAP98hXTECHJ4rmRx_ddy0BeX MQVSZiCOg3gMW8ihEumXSzh_Np1ymdnJn4AaAlP9EALw_wcB

My spray bottle for use with waterstones to sharpen chisels stopped working, and so I upgraded to a pump sprayer for under $5.

[Bill Carey]

I have probably 40 or 50 of those 6" clamps from HF. Bought them for the Morris chairs I made with the bent laminated arms. Great buy and they work great - use them a lot as a matter of fact.

[Mike Soaper]

fwiw i saw these for $19.xx in the clearance area of a Lowes today

Jorgensen 3-Pack 12-in 1000lb Bar Clamp in the Clamps department at Lowes.com (https://www.lowes.com/pd/Jorgensen/5013470531)

[Nathan Johnson]

I have probably 40 or 50 of those 6" clamps from HF. Bought them for the Morris chairs I made with the bent laminated arms. Great buy and they work great - use them a lot as a matter of fact.

The six inch are great. The 12 inch flex and bend when you look at them.

[Bob Borzelleri]

I remember the first time I saw a Harbor Freight store in the flesh. My first reaction was that it might be a brick and mortar version of the guy with the white van parked in the alley in the seedy part of town. Had images in my mind of shipping containers with broken locks strewn about.

Last week I bought a 12’x20’ fabric enclosure for the tractor from them. Glad I didn’t have to flag down the white van.

[Stew Denton]

Tom, excellent report on the HF chisels. This is great information, especially for the young guys just starting out that have very little money but having a relatively full set of chisel sizes would be extremely useful to them.

When I was a college student working for a carpenter as a summer job, a pair of Stanley #60 chisels was more that a half a days pay for me, consequently I had a pair of Stanley Handy Man chisels that were LOTs cheaper. In fact, those were the only pair of chisels that I used for about 35 years, and they did everything I needed chisels to do.

As a young married man I remodeled our first house with those, other tools that were low priced garage sale tools, and a few tools bought at auctions for a fraction of new tools cost. In almost every case a lot of sweat was involved to restore those tools into good users. I bought good tools, but often they didn't look great, and back then at garage sales you could buy an old Disston D-8 for a dollar or less sometimes. We didn't have much money at all, and bought a house that had been owned by folks who tore it up, so the price was low enough that we could afford the payments. A lot of work, and materials as we could afford them, made that beat up house into a nice small house for our young family.

The point is that folks can do excellent work with the chisels you just reported on. They will never equal Lie Nelson chisels, and you will have to sharpen them more often, but for the folks without very deep pockets they sound like a serviceable low priced option.

Beyond that, even if you have good chisels it is good to have some beater chisels, as you and others pointed out above.

For what its worth, I now have a set of Stanley #60s from off that auction site, probably all bought 15+ years ago when you could buy them for pretty low prices (that is not the case now). I restored them to good users, although some of them don't have very nice looking handles, and often bought a mix of 3 or so #60s for just a little more than a single chisel auctioned for. Thus I have a few extras of some sizes that are now my beater chisels.

The nice thing about the old Stanley #60 chisels is that they were made for carpenters and to be used with carpenters hammers, so they will take a lot of abuse. I suspect the HF chisels are best used with wooden mallets for good woodworking, not for rough carpentry with metal carpenters hammers, but if that is not the case please advise.

At any rate, good report on the HF chisels!

Thanks and regards,

Stew

[Richard Coers]

I started out woodworking 50 years ago with lesser quality. I don't plan on going that far backwards.

[Jim Koepke]

I started out woodworking 50 years ago with lesser quality. I don't plan on going that far backwards.

It's more like going sideways. My first thought when looking at them was that they would need different handles for my comfort. Not a problem with a lathe. It has been a few years between me and the last time visiting HF. Their handles may be bigger than they were.

If another set of beaters was needed or someone's first set of beaters was on the "to buy" list these would likely fit the bill.

jtk

[Edward Weber]

I agree with Jim,
I have a set of Shop Fox chisels but they are sold under many names. They look just like those Aidi chisels some talk about.
IMO They're okay for what they are and for what I paid, they're not getting glowing reviews.
I hope the HFs hold up for you, you really can't beat the price.

As far as the F clamps go, I really like HF clamps, I wouldn't have been able to build half the things I have buying the name brand clamps although, through the years, the quality has slipped.
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Left, great little clamp, no complaints
Center, Great clamp, although handles on some have started to degrade
Right, least favorite, bar profile has changed, pad and screw alignment is not the best.
I actually stopped buying them and started getting the light duty Bessey, which go on sale from time to time. The Besseys are built quite well, the one thing I don't care for is that the handles are made for small hands
JMO, YMMV

[Rafael Herrera]

After a post by David Weaver on another forum, I got the same set as the OP. They're easy to change the handles and reprofile the sides. I used one of the chisels on a small project, an oilstone box in bubinga. There were no issues with edge failure and it held its own against vintage and Ashley Iles chisels.

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[steven c newman]

Aldi's style chisel. and the hammer I used...
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Chopping Ash....

BTW...I still have a Harbor Freight 3/4" chisel I bought a LONG time ago...seems to have held up quite well..

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Actually a 3/4" and a 1"....back when they were sold in Imperial sizes...was part of a six chisel set...

[Jack Dover]

How likely is that? HF sources chisels from China, Two Cherries sources steel in EU (at least they claim to). They might share some generic "name" for a steel, like CrVa or something, but then half of the world's chisels would be "the same steel". I'd expect MHG using the same steel, their tools is essentially Two Cherries w/o the logo, maybe some other tools from that region: it's not a secret that several brands often outsource manufacturing to the same factory. So if TwoCherries are really sourcing steel from CN, what's the point of bringing it to EU where cost of labor several times the rates in CN? Chinese manufacturers are totally capable producing tools with same level of quality as Two Cherries.

(Where's David W. when he's needed?)

[Jack Dover]

Sometimes it's good to know about good bargain. I.e. you could recommend this set to someone who's on a fringe and you'll be sure you won't set this person up like the Aldi fad a few year ago.
Or you could re-grind those into skews, half-rounds, fishtails not worrying that if you screw up a good chunk of money are going down the drain.