Getting started with the workhorse of the chisel family
Sharp chisels are critical to quality work. But what do you really need? For general shop use, I suggest you start with a good set of four basic, Western-style, bevel-edge chisels. These versatile shop workhorses can perform a multitude of chores from chopping dovetails and fitting joints to trimming plugs flush.
Unlike the stubby butt chisel, bevel-edge chisels have longer blades that provide more control for tasks such as delicate paring. And their angled edges, opposed to the square edges of firmer and mortise chisels, allow access into angled corners. Beyond the tool’s specific uses, if you want to do better work, you need to keep your chisels sharp and practice good technique, both of which are discussed here.
If you’ve been getting by with a few inexpensive chisels, here’s your guide to stepping up to a quality set. If you already own good chisels, consider this article a refresher on anatomy and basic usage technique. Finally, check out p. 47 for a handy chisel holder along with other tool storage ideas.
onlineEXTRA
- Put your bench chisels to use with an article on Chisel Techniques, or find the right tool for the job with Specialty Chisels. See onlineEXTRAS, below.
Anatomy of a bench chisel
A chisel is a simple tool, essentially a blade with a sharpened end and a handle. The handles are typically made from wood or plastic and connect to the blade in one of two ways: via a socket or a tang. Wood handles are available in numerous shapes and are usually lighter and better balanced. Plastic/composite handles are heftier for heavy chopping and can really take a beating. Wooden handles attached with tang construction are more likely to split than those that fit into sockets. To counter this, tang-style handles often feature ferrules and occasionally steel hoops to prevent splitting. Some chisels are also capped with strike plates that take the brunt of your mallet blow. An added benefit of a socket chisel is that you can easily replace a damaged handle or make a customized one to suit a specific task.
What chisels to buy first
I suggest starting with a new set of four (1/4", 1/2", 3/4", and 1") western-style bevel-edge bench chisels such as the ones shown here. You can purchase a decent set starting around $50. If you tune them up and maintain them well, they’ll likely outlast you. Pricier chisels usually come with better steel, resulting in faster sharpening and/or longer-lasting keen edges. If you can, get your hands on a few different kinds of chisels to see how they feel in your hand. Check the weight and balance; the chisel should feel like an extension of your hand. You can indeed buy and tune up a used or antique chisel. But if you don’t know what a flat, sharp chisel is like, then you’ll have a rough road ahead. Try using a well-tuned chisel from an experienced woodworker first, or start with a quality set such as one of these.
What to buy next
Depending on the kind of work you do, you may want to go wider with a 11⁄2" or smaller with a 1⁄8". Later, you can fill in with sizes such as 3⁄8", 5⁄8", and so on. I found the former to be more useful early on than the latter. From there, you should know enough about your woodworking to select your first specialty chisel. See online extras for a free article on this topic.
Sharpening a chisel
For a fresh-out-of-the-box chisel to work well, it must first be sharpened. The process I use involves flattening the back using a medium grit waterstone and then honing it to a mirror polish on a fine-grit stone. (For more information, see Buyer’s Guide, p. 60.) Apply firm finger pressure to the end of the chisel to keep it flat and work the entire surface of the stone. Your waterstones will need to be dressed regularly with a flattening stone.
Move to your slow-speed grinder outfitted with a 150-grit aluminum oxide wheel to shape the bevel. Color the bevel with a marker to track your progress. Most new chisels come with a 25° bevel angle, a good compromise for general woodworking. Set the tool rest so the wheel makes contact in the center of the chisel’s factory bevel. Pinch the chisel below the tool rest and, using your finger as a guide/stop, slide the chisel side to side. Keep moving and use a light touch to prevent bluing the tool. Check your progress often, and give the steel time to cool between passes without losing your pinched position.
Return to the waterstones to hone your freshly-ground edge. Mount the chisel in a honing guide and rest the two points of the hollow-ground bevel on a 1000-grit stone before locking it in place. Pull toward you at first, and then glide the chisel back and forth over the waterstone until you’ve honed uniform flats across the heel and the entire width of the cutting edge. Move to your fine-grit stone and repeat the process until the flats are evenly polished. Remove any burr from the tip by alternately stroking the chisel’s back and bevel.
Flatten the back. After achieving a consistent scratch pattern on the first inch or more of the back with a 1000-grit stone, hone it on an 8000-grit stone as shown. You’ll know you’re done when the polish reveals a clean reflection (inset).
Hone the bevel. First, pull the chisel toward you. Then, go back-and-forth a few strokes, maintaining pressure at the tip. Once you have narrow flats across the cutting edge and heel (inset), repeat the process on the 8000-grit stone.
Check for sharpness. A sharp chisel will produce a clean curl of end-grain pine without a fight.
Putting your chisels to use
Your sharp chisel is designed to both quickly chop the waste away from joints and then finely pare for fit. When chopping, you typically drive the chisel into the wood with a mallet. Paring, usually powered by your hands, consists of slicing away thin layers of wood with the bevel up or down—a much less aggressive cut. For example, you can use your chisel to chop out the waste from between the pins and tails for dovetails and then finesse the joint’s fit through paring. You can also pare plugs flush, square routed corners, and clean up tenons, as shown here. Learn a few basics maneuvers and practice. In general, always secure your work, keep your chisels sharp, and make light cuts to ensure clean, square work.
When chopping, don’t ask too much of your chisel. Removing a lot of material at once and really banging on the handle can dull your tool by rolling back the edge. And you risk cutting past your baseline as the force from a heavy mallet blow can kick the chisel edge backward. When paring a plug flush with a surface, one hand holds the blade flat on the work surface as your upper body transfers force to your other hand on the handle. Lock your elbows and rely on your upper body to make paring cuts. For paring in the center of surfaces where you can’t hold the chisel flat, use the bevel edge down. For the smoothest and the most precise cuts, pare across the grain in multiple shallow passes. In addition to what you see here, you can also accomplish many other tasks such as paring tenons and splines, and cutting mortises for hinges, see onlineEXTRAS for more.
Dovetail detail. Start chopping a scant 1⁄16" in front of your scribe line. Remove the bulk of the waste before cutting on the line. Cut halfway through, then flip the board over and repeat the process to meet in the middle.
Paring plugs. Rest the back of the chisel on the work’s surface (bevel up) when paring. Take small slices with the grain of the plugs to prevent tearout.
Squaring a routed corner. After scribing your layout lines, chop away the waste. Clean up the corner of any leftover wood fibers with the bevel down as shown.
Pare tenon shoulders. Start with light cuts, registering the chisel’s back on the section you just cut and pivoting into the area. Then push the chisel toward the tenon, taking thin slices.
