Official Luthiers Forum!

I have three sets of chisels. One a set of Marples that I like very much and use for my critical work, a set of short handled Stanleys that I use when my Marples go dull in the middle of an operation, and a super cheap set of Home Depot Stanleys that I use for glue clean up or as a scraper or all those other things that you aren't supposed to use chisels for. I've never opened a can of paint with them but I've done everthing bad short of that.

When I'm sharpening chisels, I'll often grab one of the cheap ones and do the full treatment and bring it up to a fine edge. What I've noticed is that sharpening a cheap chisel is much easier than sharpening a good chisel. The metal is softer and doesn't resist the stone. They don't stay sharp for long but they stay sharp long enough to do any particular task once.

So, I'm wondering if it is a good idea to dispense with the good chisels altogether and only use the cheap ones. You'd have to sharpen them everytime you use them but then you'd always be using a sharp chisel. This is not always true with the good chisels. Sometimes, I put off sharpening the good one and use them when they are too dull and risk my work, injury and frustration.

Does anybody use cheap chisels as their main chisels?

Mike, I've recently bought some good chisels....Sorby and Japanese-style. They are everything they claim...a real joy to work with. I still have the cheapies but they just hang on the wall as ornamentation. They work quite well when sharp but as you observed, but they get dull quickly.

I happen to be real anal about keeping them sharp but the rewards of performance outweigh the time spent on the glass plate, sandpaper and strop. Same with plane irons. The only major time I spent on them was when I first got them...honing and polishing the surfaces to a mirrored surface. Even during a chiseling operation, I touch up the blade on 2000 grit every so often to keep it fresh...it really doesn't take that much time.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

I think it was Mario whom I saw suggest this on MIMF, but I keep a block with a leather strop on it close by and I frequently strop the chisels as I am using them. I almost never have to resharpen them -- and even then it is just a light touch up.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com