Thread: Chisels how many do you really need??

Originally Posted by Doggie

In my experience my needs would be well covered by a single set of any fair to middling brand.

But what about opening all those stuck paint cans?

Originally Posted by Doggie

Maybe six different sized bevels and a couple of long parers for hand work.

In my [extremely limited] experience my needs have been handsomely met by just such a collection.
Oh, and I do have a fishtail chisel, although (a) it's probably a bit of a luxury, and (b) as many others on here have pointed out, inside any normal chisel is a fishtail waiting to be liberated by a grinder.
Oh, and a corner chisel, to which point a definitely applies, b perhaps less so

Oh, and a 1/4" mortise chisel I got to avoid buying a plow plane when making a raised panel on a recent project. Doublethink, that one, because I'm almost certainly going to get a plow for my next birthday, and hopefully a new plane too .

But apart from that, and the el cheapo Bunnies Trojans I use as almost anything but chisels, I'm good.

Although a set of skews would be nice....

Originally Posted by Needles

Although a set of skews would be nice....

Do you need skews if you have a fishtail???

Originally Posted by DSEL74

Do you need skews if you have a fishtail???

Then we're getting into that whole definition of 'need' again!

No, seriously, sometimes the flat back (and side) of a skew makes a difference, registering nicely to help keep the pare under control. A fishtail is a flailing sharp edge if not wielded with the precision of a surgeon, and a couple of times it's gone diving like a deranged porpoise, or the beautifully acute angle scores a deep line along the base of the (already dangerously thin) half pin on a halfblind DT; where the skew would be easier to keep straight in the cut, so to speak.

Do you like the way I describe the chisel as making these mistakes? A number of cliches spring to mind ("Bad workman blames..." etc etc. Also: "don't anthropomorphise tools. They hate it"). One thing I really remember from school was that the French verb 'to break' was (and presumably still is) reflexive, meaning it contains both subject and object, or is a verb "whose semantic agent and patient are the same". What that boils down to is you say "the x broke itself", which I remember thinking would save French kids so much trouble with their parents...

Been keeping out of this because I too have way more chisels than I 'need'.... The "other Ian" has given sound, practical advice: "buy only the sizes you use & don't buy sets because some of them will get little or no use." Unfortunately, few of you are likely to heed it, because of our human nature.

For many years of my woodworking life, I could only afford to buy tools if they were essential to the job in hand, and as much as possible, I made my tools do many jobs, none of this specialisation nonsense! So the few chisels I had were all bevel edged, and they had to do everything from paring to dovetailing to chopping mortises in hard woods. Over time (a LOT of time!), I managed to acquire a set of BEs that ranged from 1/8" to 1 3/4" in all the available incremental sizes. A few were bought new, most were second-hand, & any duds were weeded out & replaced along the way. Three things drove me to add more: 1) My financial situation slowly improved as time went by, 2) it's almost impossible to resist filling in a perceived 'gap' in a row of chisels (the cursed 'collector' mentality kicks in), and 3) the way I cut dovetails is to lay them out according to what looks right on the board being joined, then take out the chisels that most closely match the cut-outs. Having chisels in every width I could get my hands on up to 1 1/2 inches makes that easy to do. While searching about to fill in the BE 'set', I came across some firmers & sash mortise chisels, so started building small sets of these. This allowed me to drop the grind angle on my BEs & improve their dovetailing role - specialisation was creeping into my toolbox. Some beautiful long, socket New Haven BEs fell into my hands, and they got extra fine grind angles and became my parers. Specialisation was getting worse. I also picked up some very worn chisels, so a set of butt chisels began to develop, and finally, I made a few ultra-small chisels in sizes (1/16 and 3/32) that are not available commercially. It's actually a bit worse than I have admitted to, because my original firmers have all been replaced by a set of socket Titans, just because I like the idea of good home-grown talent, and because I have a weakness for socket-chisels. I'm a lost cause......

About 7 or 8 years ago, the new LN BEs started singing siren songs to me, and as I was coming to the end of my salaried career, I decided to lash out while I still could, on a set to replace the motley lot of BEs collected over the previous 30 plus years. They are nice chisels, & make a beautiful set, but I have to say, the only real advance on the motley lot is that the LNs all have exquisitely fine & even bevels, where my old lot contained a few rather fat-shouldered examples.

The questions you might ask are, 'do I use all of these chisels? does owning several sets of chisels make me a better or more versatile woodworker than when I had about 5 or 6 chisels in total? and would I do anything differently if I had to start over, knowing what I know now?" The answers are 'YES' (though a few get far more air-time than others), 'Nope' - I successfully tackled some pretty sophisticated projects with some pretty crude tools, and 'probably not' - the practical side of me is always likely to give way when an acute case of tool-lust strikes & I happen to have money in my hand. I do sometimes feel a pang of guilt when I open a drawer full of gleaming, sharp chisels knowing some of you out there are pining for just one decent set, but this goes away when I take out the one I want & it's just right for the job in hand.....

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

The questions you might ask are, 'do I use all of these chisels?

Cheers,

Comes down to a saying my Newcastle mate keeps laying on me. "Looks great in the rack" or LGITR for short. This applies to all tools but chisels especially however, if you get serious, after about a hundred chisels or so you need to start using plan drawers. By this time you "need" them cos you NEED them.

Have you ever, at the end of a long day at work, when you are tired, worn out (in need of honing?) just gone out into the shed. Gone out, not with the intention of making anything or cutting anything, either because it is too late or you are too tired to work safely, but simply to be in the shed. Maybe to check out the project you are working on and spend a few minutes thinking about what to do next. Well made tools, chisels, saws and planes are beautiful to look at. And if they have been with you for a while they share part of your history. You need a part of the world that does not belong to anybody else. If tools are your thing then you need as many as you need.

Originally Posted by chook

Have you ever, at the end of a long day at work, when you are tired, worn out (in need of honing?) just gone out into the shed. Gone out, not with the intention of making anything or cutting anything, either because it is too late or you are too tired to work safely, but simply to be in the shed. Maybe to check out the project you are working on and spend a few minutes thinking about what to do next. Well made tools, chisels, saws and planes are beautiful to look at. And if they have been with you for a while they share part of your history. You need a part of the world that does not belong to anybody else. If tools are your thing then you need as many as you need.

Well said!

When Its too late to work or I am too tired to work safely, I often grab a nice cold one and go and sit in the timber vault and pick up some interesting pieces of timber and just think about the grain, colours, shapes, defects (I mean features) and just let the timber talk to me. I find this relaxing and at the same time invigorating.

I find that if I spend an hour doing this before bed on a Thursday night (I don't work on Fridays) I can totally unwind from the week at work, get a great night's sleep and wake up Friday morning ready to achieve stuff on my three-day weekend. For me it s mainly the timber but I am surrounded by my favorite tools as well when I do this.

As Chook said, it is my little part of the world i don't have to share with anyone, but for me, its not so much about the tools and things I have already made, although that is definitely a part of it, it is more about what I am going to do in the future.

Does anyone else like to do this or is it just me?

Cheers

Doug

Originally Posted by doug3030

Well said!

As Chook said, it is my little part of the world i don't have to share with anyone, but for me, its not so much about the tools and things I have already made, although that is definitely a part of it, it is more about what I am going to do in the future.

Does anyone else like to do this or is it just me?

Cheers

Doug

Now that you mention it, the thinking about the future is one of the best bits. The last major project I did, finished about 6 weeks ago, was a new workbench. I spent months researching everything I could on workbenches. I made countless little sketches and 2 full 3D CAD drawings. I visited timber suppliers and made phone calls. I made spreadsheets for the costs. I am going to make a large and I hope beautiful tool storage cabinet this month and I have been doing the same thing with it. Great fun. The planning and the scheming is good stuff. Same with the chisels. There are currently 13 Narex chisels flying across the Pacific Ocean to my house. Seven bevel edged and 6 Mortise. I took ages to make up my mind, researching about this. Enjoyed every moment of it.

Why do I do this? It is not because I need furniture. We have a house full of it. The reason is, unless we are earning our living from woodwork, simply for fun. Fun is not a trivial word. It should be spelt FUUUNNN and there is not enough of it. Apart from the fun of planing and buying and making the other thing I enjoy is learning new skills. Thirty years ago I could nail 5 pieces of chip board together to make an out of square box. Now I can take a pile of rough sawn slabs and make a full new kitchen and bathroom, complete with raised panel doors. I can cut nearly faultless dovetails and a whole lot more besides. In fact if it was not for this forum I might even think I was clever.

But then I log on and see the beautiful carvings, back saws and things that others make and I realise I have only just begun. I am getting older and I know that I have nothing like enough time left to even begin mastering all the skills I would like. FUUUNNN.

I have given my family instructions as to how I want to dieropped up in bed, at home with Fox Sport on the TV and a copy of the latest Carbatec Catalogue on the table next to me. That way I can die, still planning to buy more chisels.

How many chisels do you need?

When younger and $ were really tight, my big purchases were a new spanner set from Kingchrome, a pair of Doc Martin black boots and a new, plastic handled, set of Marples chisels.
Note, they were all new!
All other tools were bought second hand as needed.

20 years later I still wear the Docs and use the spanners and chisels, and none of the second hand tools were a 'bad' buy.

Needs wise, to tell you the truth, I'm just as happy using the plastic handled Marples set (I've even been known to bang them with a club hammer when there is a nail to cut through ) as anything else... especially when combined with a fishtail chisel and a woodworking knife. Some kind of sharpening set up is necessary as well.

However... Do I really 'need' the other chisels I have?
Even if it is only to be able to put a chisel away in the blunt drawer and take up another that is sharp, its needed.

You've asked the question about chisels.... now the next question is how many plane blades do you 'need'? I have several for each plane I have... again, when one is blunt, I can swap it out for a sharp one.
This means I end up with a lot of blades to sharpen at once... but also that I don't need to stop work to sharpen a tool.

Is their anyone who have the Stanley 720 & 750 older version chisels in their collection.

Stewie;

Originally Posted by planemaker

Is their anyone who have the Stanley 720 & 750 older version chisels in their collection.

Stewie;

I think I have one ¼"

Originally Posted by planemaker

Is their anyone who have the Stanley 720 & 750 older version chisels in their collection.

Stewie;

Not that easy to find here in Aus. And if some did come up for sale you would need to be quick

STANLEY are still making them but I don't know if the modern ones equal the old ones.

I forgot Stanley started producing them again. I've seen a few favourable reviews but I don't think I will risk it.