Carving chisels, cheap vs expensive

[mike40]

I recently bought my new sløyd knife for figure carving which I showed in my last post. I bought it from a Swedish chain that also sells Tormek. While there I saw a cheap 10 piece set of carving chisels from China, but touted by the store as good quality steel. I have a few Pfeil carving chisels which I like a lot, but the whole cheap set cost only about the same as for two Pfeil chisels, so I bought it thinking that I didn't have much to lose. I figured that I might have to hone them a little more frequently, but that is so easy on the Tormek that I couldn't see any big disadvantage.

In the past I have always advised others to buy only quality carving chisels and only one at a time as the need for new profiles arise. That said, it's always fun to go against the grain and try a new approach. The handles are of white oak and faceted for a good grip and to prevent them from rolling off the bench. Unfortunately they have some gunky varnish on them, but I plan to remove that. My guess is that this set is also available in the U.S. and Canada.

The new chisels pictured below have 4" long shafts and different profiles. None of the profiles are duplicates to my Pfeil collection, so they should be very useful, especially the wide gouge profiles, but also the skew chisel, small gouges and two different 'v' irons. The 2nd photo is one small gouge which I honed, but didn't sharpen on the Tormek. The last photo shows a cross grain cut with it which left a very polished surface. Please let me know your own experience with cheap vs. expensive chisels.

   

[Ken S]

Mike, I will be interested in following your progress reports with the new carving tools.

Related, I decided to follow my own advice and purchased two 3/4" irwin Blue Chip chisels (I actually purchased five in different sizes). I plan to do some testing and wanted some "sharpening chisels". I will post progress reports.

Ken