Thread: Just ordered a set of new chisels and I'm ready for a hot date.

They are beautiful chisels. A little tip, I took some fine paper and softened the long edges of the chisels. I found myself cutting my fingers on the sharp sides.

Cheers, Wanna.
I've been looking at them/reviewing since 2012(!) and hadn't heard that tip. I'll keep an eye out for it.

Nothing better than a good, 'full' set of chisels, I reckon. What I like most about the 750 style chisels is their dainty size, which I find much nicer to use on fine work than some of the large, clunky BE chisels that are around (no names named! ). For the 'not-so-fine' jobs, I have a set of Titan heavy sockets, acquired piece by piece over several years of searching (& with some very generous help from a couple of Forumites). Having a couple of sets of chisels is a luxury that I didn't have for much of my woodworking career, but I'd hate to have to go back to just one set now!

Another tip: I like socket chisels, mostly for aesthetic reasons rather than any real or perceived advantages over he tanged variety, but they do have a rather nasty little habit. The handles can shrink in dry weather (of which we've had more than enough round here, lately!). There's nothing more likely to get your attention than taking a razor-sharp chisel out of the drawer and seeing the blade leave the handle in your hand & make a bee-line for your foot! Luke Maddux alerted me to the Lie-Nielsen fix , hair-spray! It seems to work very well, although I've still had the occasional obstinate handle loosen, and I think that's mostly because I've replaced the handles on my socket chisels with very hard Aussie woods that don't grip as well as slightly softer woods. The Hornbeam that LN & Stanley use for their chisel handles is an excellent handle wood, but so bland, I just had to dress mine up with something more interesting: 4 D-T & cranked.jpg

The sharp corners on the backs of the blades are actually desirable - it means you get a straight, sharp cutting edge from corner to corner. Poor sharpening technique, or over-relieving the corners causes a curved edge, which is not good for cutting into the corners of your D/Ts etc. But sharp edges are certainly a bit of a menace (you do learn to be more careful by the second or third box of band-aids), but easing them a bit is pretty standard practice. I prefer a fine diamond lap for the job, it's quicker & more controllable than abrasive paper. I stop 20mm or so from the cutting edges, to keep the backs dead flat where it counts. It only needs a couple of light strokes with the lap to prevent them cutting your skin, so take it easy, and put most effort into the top half of the blade where you most often grab it. As the blade wears down from re-grinding & you get up the blade a bit, the accumulated light lapping of the backs during sharpening will have restored the sharp corners at the end & your chisels will continue to do their job properly...

Cheers,

Cheers Ian. Great tips.

This will be my first ever set of good chisels. I'll probably take them to bed with me for the first little while
I'll keep my current mix of knackered old chisels for stirring coffee, using as screwdrivers and the usual "bash around" jobs so my new babies don't get trashed.
No use in chucking out half decent metal

Originally Posted by RedShirtGuy

..... I'll keep my current mix of knackered old chisels for stirring coffee, using as screwdrivers and the usual "bash around" jobs so my new babies don't get trashed....

Good plan, RSG - everyone should keep a basher or two in their kit, I reckon. I keep an old Blue Chip Marples for cutting around embedded nails, or for any job where sharp edges might meet metal. It's easy enough to re-sharpen & I don't get too stressed if a chunk gets taken out of it. Grinding away a mm or so of cheap metal isn't anywhere near as painful as wasting the expensive stuff!

Cheers,

Out of curiosity, could I trouble you to share where you've bought them from please?

I'm in about your position - playing the eeny-meeny game on various different chisel sets I've found online - though I haven't seen the Stanley Sweethearts in my travels, though I keep hearing great things about them!

My "Flavour of the month" which I was about to pull the trigger on was a set of these: https://www.fine-tools.com/stemmeisen.html and then for dovetail work a set of these: https://www.fine-tools.com/mhg.html (thinking of 6, 10, 12, 16, 20 & 26mm in each).

Originally Posted by IanW

Another tip: I like socket chisels, mostly for aesthetic reasons rather than any real or perceived advantages over he tanged variety, but they do have a rather nasty little habit. The handles can shrink in dry weather (of which we've had more than enough round here, lately!). There's nothing more likely to get your attention than taking a razor-sharp chisel out of the drawer and seeing the blade leave the handle in your hand & make a bee-line for your foot! Luke Maddux alerted me to the Lie-Nielsen fix , hair-spray!

Ian , I thought you were going to say , "Taking a razor sharp chisel out of the drawer and

placing the blade to the wood , not noticing the chisel had started to leave the handle , you've grabbed it with a bit of skin going into the gap between chisel and handle and then given it a belt with a mallet."

Yow! Ive done that with them and still have not forgotten the damage .

Hairspray yeah .

Id probably try poly glue . I'm not known to keep my own hairspray around but I know someone who does.

The thought of getting caught with that in my shed and not where she needs it when its wanted.


Rob

Originally Posted by RedShirtGuy

8pc Stanley Sweethearts.

Delivery is estimated between Feb 11-15.

How romantic would it be if my Sweethearts turned up on Feb 14...Valentine's day

Great looking set of chisels . Id like a set myself.
Not sure about trying to get an old set flat and working well. Cant stand the flattening bit .
Ive got a box full of old bergs . Sell them and buy these maybe ?

Just saw this .That's a pretty good deal !

https://www.ebay.com.au/i/264121156234?chn=ps

Rob

Originally Posted by IanW

I just had to dress mine up with something more interesting: 4 D-T & cranked.jpg

,

Beautiful box of chisels Ian !
Are the lower ones the Stanley ? How come there is more than 8 matched if so ?

Rob

Originally Posted by auscab

Beautiful box of chisels Ian !
Are the lower ones the Stanley ? How come there is more than 8 matched if so ?

Umm, actually, the 9 on the left are LNs, Rob. I had a rush of blood to the head while I was still on a decent salary, & decided "What the heck, I'll set myself up for retirement", so I lavished an unconscionable amount of money on a set of LNs. I have a 5/16 & a 3/16 (which Stanley don't offer), and they only go up to 1", the two at the top are an old 1 1/4' Marples (which was my father's) and a 1 1/2" (can't remember the breed atm). The two littlies on the right are ring-ins, a 3/32 and a 1/16 that I made to match the LNs (I was going to say 'a couple of years ago', but noticed that post was 6 years ago already!). Among the the handiest tools I've ever made, I reckon, they get used for all sorts of picky little jobs I hadn't envisaged when I made them.

Why so many BE chisels? Because I'm lazy & I like to set out my D/Ts by eye to what looks right, then find the chisels that best match the gaps...

And if you are wondering whether the LNs are really worth more than 3 times what the SWs currently cost - I'm not too sure about that. I wish I'd gotten the O1 types from LN while they were still available, but at that time I was still thinking, "the harder the better", for any cutting edge. A2 has its merits, but unless you stick to the recommended sharpening bevels or higher, they will chip far too easily in some of our more brutal woods. That angle is ok for crisp-cutting woods like Qld Maple, but too steep for soft, crushy woods like Aust. Cedar. I think if I were looking at chisels now, I would very seriously consider the Stanleys.....

Cheers,

Originally Posted by Midnight Man

Out of curiosity, could I trouble you to share where you've bought them from please?

T'would be a pleasure
I did only a little hunting around, but rather quickly it was within Amazon I found was the cheapest place by far that I could get them even with p&p
....I can't link, but search Amazon.com.au for Stanley Sweetheart in DIY and you should be fine...
8pc set for $231 and a smidge over $25 for international delivery...a 2 week wait, but I couldn't find better/more reliable locally. Epic shame, but thems the breaks.

The whole over-flattening, rushed grinding/burning and over sharpening of my already shortened chisels was the impetus for this purchase (at last...yay).
I have quite a few OCD traits, and if I can flatten and sharpen the begeezuz out of something, even down to a nub, then I'm very happy...sadly my old set of hand me downs are looking more like a manicure kit than woodworking tools these days.
I'm vowing to defy internal desires, and simply keep these "awesomely clean and sharp", rather than "ridiculously"....I hope

Originally Posted by RedShirtGuy

I did only a little hunting around, but rather quickly it was within Amazon I found was the cheapest place by far that I could get them even with p&p
....I can't link, but search Amazon.com.au for Stanley Sweetheart in DIY and you should be fine...
8pc set for $231 and a smidge over $25 for international delivery...a 2 week wait, but I couldn't find better/more reliable locally. Epic shame, but thems the breaks.

are those prices USD or AUD?

Originally Posted by RedShirtGuy

The whole over-flattening, rushed grinding/burning and over sharpening of my already shortened chisels was the impetus for this purchase (at last...yay).
I have quite a few OCD traits, and if I can flatten and sharpen the begeezuz out of something, even down to a nub, then I'm very happy...sadly my old set of hand me downs are looking more like a manicure kit than woodworking tools these days.
I'm vowing to defy internal desires, and simply keep these "awesomely clean and sharp", rather than "ridiculously"....I hope

Yeah man, sounds like you need to curb your enthusiasm just a bit!

Re-grinding is the big killer of blades, so anything that helps you to restore the bevels with minimal wastage of metal is good. I'm a life-long hand-holder for honing, but for grinding I use help in the form of very simple jigs that allow quick set-up & ensure I get where I want with minimal grinding. You can drop lots of dollars on fancy gear, but this is my very low-cost solution:

A stainless bar I scrounged off some discarded lab gear is fitted to a wooden holder which can slide back & forth a bit to accommodate wheel wear, etc. A couple of hanger bolts & wing-nuts clamps it in place: grinder setup.jpg

For straight blades, a pair of matched sticks clamped together with 5mm bolts holds the tool at the desired angle. The sticks ride against the bar & keep the tool in the right place. You can lift it away from the grinder to check on progress & replace it with absolute confidence. For things like skews as shown here, you just flip it for each side; the grind angle remains the same: Straight blades r.jpg

For curved blades on scrub planes & the like, a bit of head-scratching & some trial & error work with compasses will provide the right curvature of the guide to give the required arc on your blade:curved edges r.jpg

Use 'soft' wheels, & keep them clean. With a clean, freshly-dressed wheel & a light touch, the danger of burning is minimised. I used Alox wheels for years, but since these pics were taken, I paid out for a CBN wheel (ouch!), but am very pleased I did, these things really do make for cool grinding. However, although perfectly adequate for chisel & plane-blade re-grinds, they are slower than an equivalent Alox wheel. I keep an old grey wheel on the other end for heavy-duty & rough use..

Cheers,