# Mortise chisels: Average brand vs. Premium



## JuanGatico (May 31, 2012)

Hi LJs

I want to ask you something, but first of all let me say English is not my native language, so I beg you to forgive my probable mistypes or something.

OK, when it comes to bench and dovetail chisels, I am willing to put my money on products like Ashley Isles, STANLEY Sweetheart, TWO CHERRIES, maybe LIE-NIELSEN, on the other hand, for mortise chisels, don't you think the average woodworker will be fine with something like NAREX. I mean morticing is a rather "though" task that doesn't require the most sophisticated chisels.

What do you think?

Thanks in advance for your answers.


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## ITnerd (Apr 14, 2011)

Hey Juan, welcome to LJ's.

You listed some great brands for bench, butt and dovetails. And I've heard good things about Narex, especially the newer sets.

For the mortise chisels, I am partial to the old english pigsticker style. Beefy, fantastic old steel, and you can still pick them up for decent prices on ebay or elsewhere.

I think you can pick up one or two to start, and add as you need new sizes. Very reasonable, and fun to have some antique tools in the shop. I personally would prefer 2-3 of these, than a whole set of new ones.


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## waho6o9 (May 6, 2011)

Welcome to LJs Juan.

Excellent advice from Chris and you can't go wrong with Narex. Good luck on your choice.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

I wouldn't recommend overthinking mortise chisels. Mortising
by hand is a very physical activity and the geometry of the chisel
and size of the mortise are related. The pigstickers aren't too 
well suited to small mortises used in cabinet doors for example,
but they have the mass and ergonomic design to cut larger
mortises all day.

The chisels with a narrower profile are easier to use when 
bottom-scraping a mortise. These are the ones called sash
mortise chisels. The pigstickers have a different kind of power.

No chisel I've used (and I have some very good ones) holds
an acutely sharp edge when used for heavy chopping. So
while quality steel matters in any chisel to some extent, the
finer steels perform best and hold their edges best in 
applications other than mortising and bottom scraping.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Hi Juan Welcome to Ljs
I have always felt that Chisels just do a job and almost any of them will cut wood if their sharpened properly ,so I've never felt that there's a reason to buy high end chisels. I have had a set of Marpels for over 20 years and they hold an edge reasonably well and only cost about $60 for a set of six. There are finer chisels out there but once a chisel is sharp it will cut wood very well whether it's a $10 chisel or a $ 500. chisel.


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## BubbaIBA (Nov 23, 2011)

The boutique tool makers make some very beautiful and good tools, I'm glad they do but their fanboys do woodworking a disservice in acting as if other tools are not as good. The selling of the sizzle and overlooking the steak.

Loren and Jim pretty much covered it, find a chisel that is sized right, fits the hand, and will hold an edge long enough to do the job….from what I've read about the Narex they would fit the bill, as would 80% of the $5 to $10 USD chisels you can find on eBay.


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## TheDane (May 15, 2008)

Juan-I bought a set of Narex mortising chisels about 2 years ago … I have been very happy with them.

-Gerry


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## JuanGatico (May 31, 2012)

Hi guys. Thanks a lot for your kind answers!


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## alba (Jul 31, 2010)

Buy antiques

Old English heavy ones

Mine are hand me downs over 100yrs in the family.

Bench Chisels, I give away to trainees and buy myself a new set.

Like Jim says, Marpels are great, this time I bought Irwin and two of each

of the popular sizes. I prefer to hone at the end of the day while waiting

for the glue to skin.

Old habits die hard. 

Jamie


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## TCCcabinetmaker (Dec 14, 2011)

It's more about your sharpening technique, than anything else, hard steel chisels take forever to put an edge on, and will hold an edge a long time, soft steel chisels will not take very long to sharpen, and will dull slightly, but re-honing them is no big time sink.

It basically comes down to what you are comfortable with in the angles of the chisels, the lenghth of the handles the style handle and so on.


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