Originally Posted by
Mike Baker 2
Very nice.
I'm in the midst of actually acquiring chisels of good quality right now. I'm looking for vintage I can restore, just like most of my other tools and other items I use daily(straight razors, brushes, etc.).
What I am finding re handle is that it's size and shape depend on the job.
So far, I like big handles for things like cutting mortises, chopping, etc. But for things more delicate, I want a smaller handle that fits into the palm of my hand.
What will most likely happen is that I will end up with a few finely made chisels for the delicate stuff, and a lower cost set(Aldi, Stanley FatMax) for the heavy lifting.
Beautiful chisels you have there, btw.
As to fit to hand, most of the finely made chisels I see in my research have handles that, with some subtle variations, are basically the same size, and all of the mid priced stuff(Narex, Hirsch/Two Cherries, etc) are all bigger sizes, but pretty much the same as well.
So if I were to ask advice, I would specify what I wanted to do with them. Asking advice would be more to see what users of them thought of things like edge retention, ease of sharpening, etc, anyway. Those are quantifiable things.
Will a chisel fit my hand? You are correct that you can never really know till you try, but I think I could narrow it down depending on what the task was at hand.
But in the end you pays yer money and takes yer chances if you are buying online.
For me, too, there would be an element of "good enough/learn to adapt", as I do not have the disposable income to keep chasing fine detail in how a chisel( or any other tool) fits my hand. I will most likely settle on a level of quality that fits the job I'll be asking the tool to do, and just use it.