Honest question - poll, based on something I read a few years ago.

Lots of discussion about balance of different chisels lately, and some folks preferring butt chisels for dovetail work, heavier vs. lighter chisels, etc.

How do you hold your chisels when you do fine mallet work, like HB dovetails or I guess malleting to the line for anything.

Just curious. I've slowly become a convert to holding only the handle of a chisel, and never or almost never the blade. I thought this was clumsy for the finest cuts a few years ago, but it's turned out to be much more comfortable and faster as time goes on.

If you do both, think about what you do when you're working the last cut at the marking line, are you holding the handle, or are you holding very close to the edge to place the chisel in the marking line?