Thread: Beginner chisel set

I have a number of Narex chisels but none are as pretty as those. Thanks for the post and pic.

I think the narex chisels are budget chisels that are functional bit bulky, not as hard as they should be and with a chewy wire edge (and such a thing predicts edge life in my experience - the dryer the steel, low wire edge formation for a given fineness - the better the chisel will be in terms of avoiding strange failures).

That's about the cost of Freud's 10-piece boxwood handle set (which they no longer make, but is fairly common here on ebay in the states), and though those chisels do have some prep time on the backs, etc, they're a far nicer chisel profile.

I had a set like the lubans in this thread when woodcraft sold them years ago with a round handle. They were decent, but I wouldn't give 90 bucks for them. WC cleared them out at $40 for a set of 8, which I couldn't resist. I eventually sold them - their blade profile wasn't very nice. I thought that they held their edge well for the price, but eventually you get tired of that unless you're going to grind the lands down yourself.

(I've had two sets of the freuds that I mentioned - both were about $90 US, so slightly more expensive - though less per chisel, and they are modern steel like these, but their proportions and grind are far better. You can suffer through flattening them, you'll only need to it once. )

Agree with the earlier sentiment - buy a set. The buying individual chisels stuff is false economy. It's almost impossible to sell an oddball set of a few chisels if you decide you don't like them, selling one chisel at a time is a nonstarter, and selling a set is easy. Even if you don't *need* every chisel in a set, you'll probably have good use for them at some point, especially if you're cutting a lot of dovetails of various sizes.

I went with 1/2 and 1 with pmv11. Was also going to get a 3/4 but decided against it for now cause they're quite expensive (compared to the luban and narex sets I was looking at).

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Fantastic. I am sure you will be very happy with them.

Originally Posted by saladonion

McJing 6 PC Bevel Edge Chisels look the same as Luban set I have from

https://www.finetools.com.au/product...-bench-chisels

I am quite happy with these too.

This one looks good to me.

Originally Posted by Rye_34

This one looks good to me.

Yep, not quite sure how you start out looking for a beginner chisel set and end up buying a couple of Veritas chisels. Would have been better off going to one of the HTPAA sales and picking up a few various users there.

Just my take on it of course. Horses for courses.

Originally Posted by aldav

Yep, not quite sure how you start out looking for a beginner chisel set and end up buying a couple of Veritas chisels. .......

Well, these 'beginner' chisels are more likely to be around at the finish.....

Cheers,

I haven’t seen them myself but the price seems very reasonable for a set of chisels, particularly if they are any good

I'm looking for a beginner set, or at least one to replace my maples ones from Bunnings.

From readying the above posts ice think I've narrowed it down to narex, pfeil, luban or stubai, partly based upon price.

Does anyone have any experience with one or two of these brands to help compare?

Originally Posted by taz01

I'm looking for a beginner set, or at least one to replace my maples ones from Bunnings.

From readying the above posts ice think I've narrowed it down to narex, pfeil, luban or stubai, partly based upon price.

Does anyone have any experience with one or two of these brands to help compare?

I have used Narex, Luban and Stubai. I like Luban personally as I like how they feel in my hand. Stubai is nice too, good edge but have only used ones with black plastic handles.

Originally Posted by aldav

Yep, not quite sure how you start out looking for a beginner chisel set and end up buying a couple of Veritas chisels. Would have been better off going to one of the HTPAA sales and picking up a few various users there.

Just my take on it of course. Horses for courses.

HTPAA has a good selection to choose from. Last sale I picked up Marples blue set of 5 chisels with white ring for 50 bucks. Yet to sharpen them as they are old new so need to grind the primary bevel, takes too long on stones.

Originally Posted by taz01

I'm looking for a beginner set, or at least one to replace my maples ones from Bunnings.

From readying the above posts ice think I've narrowed it down to narex, pfeil, luban or stubai, partly based upon price.

Does anyone have any experience with one or two of these brands to help compare?

I have used
* stubai euro types (owned a set of those)
* Pfeil's set that are of the same proportion (friend owns those)
* Pfeils current cabinetmaker set (that are a little more pricey - I own those - nice chisels)
* Narex - anything that was narex that I had is now long gone, just don't like the resulting steel given the compromises they make to reduce cost and pretty much prefer anything else, and they're also bulky in some types (to reduce cost).
* Had a set of woodcraft chisels that are the same thing as the luban (sold them)

I like the current pfeil set with the small bevels. They're well finished, and they sharpen fine (not as nice as vintage chisels, because of their alloying, i guess, but they're good).

The stubai type were similar steel, just as the older pfeil set are - both of those are fine, but light and long. Kind of expensive for what they are if you don't find a sale deal (pfeil is never cheap, stubai's set can be had here in the states for $120 or so for a set of 6).

The luban type I liked about as well (the steel in mine were fine), but they were marketed at half the cost of the stubais and I'd say finish wise, they were worth about half as much. Fairly crude, roughly finished and with coarse work and not great bevels - perhaps it's fair to say that the stubai chisels had a nicer finish, but their bevels aren't that great because none are on that euro pattern bench chisel type.

Narex i liked the least.

All of them can be used fine. the narex have a persistent wire edge and a relative lack of hardness to go with it that I really don't like. I think it's a result of their alternative hardening method (austempering?).