Hello,
I bought a set of chisels a while ago, and I’ve used them for the first time. I don’t know much about the various types of chisels but I’m learning. My guess is that the ones I bought are bench chisels and see to be at a 25 degree angle.
I cannot find an example of these chisels online but they are made by Record, have some dark reddish-purpleish, plastic-ish handles, round and a bit flattened with some flatness at the top, and they are marked “Made in Holland”.
How are those types of chisels to be used generally? Struck by a mallet, or only by hand? The previous owner has sharpened and honed them very well and I have to say they shave hardwood very easily by hand.
Thanks.
Replies
Evening LeChuck...
You most likely have a set of bench chisels if they came with the 25 degree bevel at tip and have beveled edges. That is the standard fare for benchies. Used as all purpose and can be used for paring, chopping, slice, dice, etc. If you do any mortising, especially with the narrower chisels, might be good idea to put a steeper angle on them as they will have a bad tendency to roll the tip at 25 degrees. The wider one are fine at around 25 as the force of the mallet is more evenly distributed. Just don't get as brutal with them as you could a true morticer and expect to reapply and edge often.
Most firmers and mortice chisels will get a 30 degree angle for soft-wood and around 35 degrees for hard-wood. You will notice the morticers have thicker blades and very sturdy tangs to take the shook of malleting. The steeper angles keep the edges from rolling and chipping so easily.
A general purpose benchie can be used to do it all, but is not designed to specialize in specific task. Kind of like a TS combo blade to keep cost down. What you really need is a 24 or 30 tooth for ripping, a 60 tooth for crossing-cutting and an 80 for fine cross-cutting. But that is expensive so...... you compromise till you can afford to specialize. :>)
Hope that helps a bit...
grinder47.. aka SARGE
Thanks Sarge, these look fine (and I did buy a nice combination blade for my TS!). I was starting to use one with a mallet and was suddenly wondering if I should really be doing that.
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