Originally Posted by
James Pallas
I read all the things about "Don't scrape the bottom of mortises with your chisels", "You need 35* bevels on chisels" and so on. Yet we take a plane iron with a 25* bevel and shove it with both legs into wood, knots, edge grain, and some very hard wood at a 45* angle and expect it to keep performing. I do get the thing about more brittle steels chipping if you pry with them, that goes for screwdrivers with hard tips too. I also understand there may be issues if you use a 2 lb. hammer like Thor in a fight. But just using your chisel with normal hits with a mallet in a straight manner or scrapping a little is going to ruin the edge.
Tell me what I'm missing here.
Jim