- In today's video,
you'll learn about four different types of wood chisels
so that you'll be clear on what each one does
and why it does it so well.
First up is the most common and most widely used chisel
and that's the bench chisel.
It gets its name because it's often found sitting
on the work bench because it gets used so much.
Bench chisels have a 25 degree, primary angle on the blade,
and they do come in a few different options.
The first option,
and maybe the most common is the beveled edge chisel,
like this one here.
If you look close at the edge of this chisel,
you can see that the edge is beveled
and not 90 degrees to the top.
This particular bench chisel has a fine edge bevel,
meaning that the bevel goes almost all the way down,
creating a very small 90 degree edge.
However, if we look at this other beveled edge chisel,
you can see that the bevel or relief angle doesn't go as far
and it leaves a wider 90 degree edge.
One of the reasons why people generally prefer a bevel edge
is because it makes it possible to fit into tight corners
like that produced when cutting a dovetail.
The second option is what's called a firmer chisel.
I don't have a firmer bench chisel in the shop,
but the edge would be square or 90 degrees
similar to this one here.
Bench chisels can do almost any task
and they're great for both chopping and pairing.
And if you're not familiar with those terms,
chopping is when you remove large amounts of material
at a time and you would generally be using a mallet
for this task.
Pairing is when you remove thin layers of material
while using just the strength of your hand.
There's no need for a mallet here.
Pairing is used often when you are at your final stages
of fitting a joint and you just need to remove
a little bit of material to get the joint to fit perfectly.
Again, bench chisels are great
for both chopping and pairing.
That's why some people think that there's no need
for any other type of chisel.
Next is the mortise chisel.
At first glance, you can see that it has a 90 degree edge
and the steel is much thicker and more robust.
On closer inspection,
this mortise chisel has a 30 degree primary bevel.
What this does is gives the leading edge of the chisel,
a little more strength.
Look at it this way,
the steeper the angle, the stronger the edge,
the shallower the angle, the weaker the edge.
And you'll see an example of this
when we get to the pairing chisel,
The mortise chisel is designed to chop mortises,
which require a lot of force
so that edge needs to be strong.
The combination of a thicker more robust steel,
a steeper bevel,
and a slightly longer overall length
makes the mortise chiseled the perfect design
for handling this work.
The next chisel is a pairing chisel.
And the one I have here is a custom chisel
that has a primary bevel of 17 degrees,
which means that the edge is very fragile,
but it does a fantastic job at pairing
and grain and softwoods.
Again, pairing chisels are designed
to be used mostly by hand to push them through the work.
Unlike using a mallet for the other chisels.
Pairing chisels generally come longer
and they have longer handles.
So as you can have more control
when you're using the tool by hand.
Now, the one I have here
is not the classic looking pairing chisel,
but they do come in many different shapes.
Because of the very long bevel angle,
these chisels are best for removing
really precise amounts of wood.
It's important to know that these types of chisels
do require a better higher end steel to keep the edge sharp,
again, because of the very low bevel angle.
And if I put the three chisel side-by-side,
you can see how much difference there is between the bevel
of a mortise, bevel edge, and pairing chisel.
The last chisel to look at is a construction chisel.
Now not everyone separates this type of chisel
out from the rest,
but because I spent so many years in construction,
I feel the need to talk about them separately.
Construction chisels generally look a lot different
than a good woodworking chisel
and you can see that here with this DEWALT.
They do, however, share the same bevel angle
as the bevel edge bench chisel, which is 25 degrees.
As you can see, this chisel is shorter than the others.
It has a biomaterial handle not made from woods.
It has a big striking cap for the use with a hammer.
And the steel is generally a lower grade.
Oftentimes these chisels are used for rough construction,
demolition, and many other things
that they were never designed to do,
but that's what makes them so great.
They can be used for fine woodworking
however, I don't think they're going to produce
a good enough results.
Again, they have their place
and that's what makes them so perfect for what they do.
Now that we cover the four different types of wood chisels,
let's look at three different ways that the handles
can actually be attached to the blade.
There are at least three ways that the handle gets attached
to the blade of the chisel.
And the first way is to use a tang.
A tang is an extension of the blade if you will,
that extends into the handle that helps bond the blade
with the handle material making
for a very secure connection.
The connection is so secure that the handle
cannot be removed, especially on a chisel like this.
Now this chisel may not be the best example
of a tang chisel, but it represents it pretty good.
The next connection type utilizes a socket,
both the mortise chisel and the bevel chisel here
have a socket connection.
And you can see that here more when I remove the handle.
The handle gets installed into the socket
and because of the nature of the joint,
it gets tighter the harder you push
or they're harder you tap on the handle.
To firmly secure the blade,
all you have to do is simply tap the handle like this
on a bench.
To remove it,
flip the chisel around and hold the blade safely, of course,
away from the sharp edge and tap the handle
to break it free.
Now, the only downside to a handle like this
is that sometimes it can come loose without you knowing it.
So you can pick it up off the bench
and you can be carrying it along like this.
And all of a sudden the handle comes loose
and nine times out of 10,
it falls on the concrete and destroys your fine sharp edge.
The third and best type of connection in my opinion
is to use a feral.
This type of connection allows for the handle to be removed
just like a socket chisel,
but this one, the handle actually gets unscrewed.
Once you remove the handle that you can see the extension
with the aluminum cap on the end,
then we can remove the feral,
which completely breaks down the chisel.
So why would you wanna remove the handle?
Well, there's two main reasons.
The first one being that it makes it easier
to sharpen the chisel.
The first step to sharpening any chisel is to make sure
that the back is perfectly flat.
And to do that,
you need to be able to easily position a blade flat
to your stone
and a big handle could make that more difficult.
On the socket chisel,
you can see that if I lay it flat on the bench,
it lays pretty flat,
but the socket itself holds it up a bit.
However, if we look at the other chisel,
you can see that it lays perfectly flat,
making it much easier to set up
for the process of flattening.
The second reason why someone might wanna remove the handle
is to make a new one.
For example, on this chisel,
because it has a feral and aluminum cap,
you can make a new handle out of any wood,
hard or soft because you're always hitting the cap
and not the wood.
Therefore you can safely make a softwood handle
and not worry about damaging it under heavy use.
Let's quickly move on to the last topic,
which is the main difference between a cheap chisel
and an expensive one.
Cheap chisels for the most part,
make their blades out of a lower grade steel
and their tolerances are not as great.
And this shows up in two places.
So let's talk about that now.
First, if the tolerances are less than desirable,
the flattening process could take a very long time.
You can look at it this way,
the less work they do at the factory,
the more work you're gonna have to do at home in the shop.
So just know that on bad chisels or on cheaper chisels,
that flattening process could take up to two hours.
The second place where cheap metal
and manufacturing processes show up is in a chisel
that will not stay sharp.
You have to remember that you're really only relying
on the very, very, edge of the chisel to do the work.
Therefore, if that edge has a problem, staying sharp,
you'll be at the sharpening stones more
than you'll be working on your project.
Good quality metal counts more than you know.
Moving on cheaper chisels may feel more clumsy to work with.
The balance will be off and something will just feel wrong
about the tool.
And you may even think that it's you, but it's not.
It's the tool.
And lastly, cheaper chisels are harder to sharpen
simply because of their poor design
and because some of the handles cannot be removed.
Bottom line,
cheaper chisels can be more uncomfortable to use,
harder to sharpen, and they don't hold an edge as long,
which means they require more maintenance.
More expensive chisels on the other hand
are easier to flatten.
They hold an edge a lot longer
and they're more comfortable to use.
You can also then remove the handle
so that you can make a new handle out of whatever material
that you want, if that's your thing.
Now better, isn't always best,
meaning that there are plenty of woodworkers out there
that are using cheap or old chisels
and their work looks amazing.
My main point of running through cheap
versus an expensive chisel
is to show you how and what makes an expensive chisel
different than a cheaper chisel.
My recommendation for those who are getting started
is to buy a four piece bench chisel set.
At the lower end, I would recommend Narex Classic
Bevel Edge Chisels.
Moving up I would recommend WoodRiver Bevel
Edge Socket Chisels.
And then getting more expensive,
you have the Lie- Nielsen Chisels,
and maybe at the top, the IBC.
I'll leave a link down below in the notes section
to all of these chisels if you'd like to check them out.
I hope this video has been helpful for you
to distinguish between the different types of chisels
that you may need in your shop.
Please hit the like button and leave a comment below.
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So thanks for hanging out with me today.
Thank you for watching to the end.
I'll see you in the next video.
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