What is your favorite vintage chisel?

[Derek Cohen]

I have been building my tool collection and falling in love with antique tools. I still need a good set of chisels. I know Stanley 750 are nice and popular, but collectors are driving the price up really high. It seems I can almost buy a set of brand new Lie-Nielsen chisels for the same amount people want for vintage 750s (only a slight exaggeration). Also I can't find them anywhere but ebay. I visit the antique malls in my area maybe about 7-8 times a month (as well as flea markets from time to time) and I have only ever found 1 vintage chisel, and it was a banged up stanley defiance.

Is there anything good that I can find for cheaper because it's less well known than Stanley? If it boils down to it I will just buy a set of Narex chisels, but I would prefer something older to fit in with the rest of my tools.

Hi Jared

Don't give up on the Stanley 750s. I have a set and I love their balance and all round performance. If you are patient, you can pick up near full length blades with poor handles or even without handles on eBay. It took around 2 years to accumulate the set I have.

I modified the blades a good bit - reground all the shoulders until the lands were minimal, made a 1/8" out of a 1/4", and a 3/8" out of a 1/2", and added longer handles that suited my hands. They are some of my favourite chisels now. 1/8" through 1" ....



I've had many Witherbys, and never found them to hold a decent edge. Not a patch on the 750. I have had a few sets of Bergs (also patiently put together). They are good steel, but I preferred the balance of the Stanleys.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Russell Sansom]

I love the Bergs and my grandfather's Ohio (cast) Steel. With home-made I have choice of picking the temper that fits specific needs. The Bergs are a tad soft as George says, but they make for a work cycle that I like: easier to sharpen but require more frequent sharpening. Sometimes ( not always ), I prefer less time at the grinder and more time at the work. I set up a specific species of chisel ( A-2, Bergs, Cast steel ) for a specific task and my tolerance for interruption. We are SO lucky here in 2013, to have these kinds of options.

[Brian Thornock]

I don't have a favorite, because I don't have any, but have a real hankering for some good old socket chisels. You just can't beat the look...

[Charlie Stanford]

I have a set of Marples straight sided firmers I really like. They aren't really all that old, maybe 1970s, not sure. Ash handles, all business. No frou-frou.

[george wilson]

I like my 1960's Marples chisels I bought new. They have the ash handles,like London pattern handles,but without the octagonal flats,and have the leather rings at the top.

[Rob Harris]

Though I have sets of Witherby and Swan chisels, my users are Veritas chisels. My everyday bench chisels are old Stanley 60s and I have a set of Marple Blue Chip from the 60's as well. One of the best vintage chisels is Keen Kutter as they are very hard and hold an edge very well. I almost put a bid in on a set of 8 last week on e-Bay that sold for only $150. Someone got a great deal there.

Like most of us, I have sets of chisels (in various states of completion) and oddball chisels picked up here and there. I can only comment on the sets I've bought as they give a pretty good representation of the quality of the tool line.

James Swan - accumulated a decent set of firmers but found them to be very expensive and overrated. Sold them for what I paid for them.
Pfeil butt chisels - impulse purchase. Hold a good edge but I rarely use them.
Millers Falls 30 Series - surprisingly good for "bling" chisels. My preferred set. If anyone has a 30-07 (1 1/4") for sale, let me know.
C. E. Jennings - uncommon, usually beat up. I find they make good users.

Rescue a few from flea markets and garage sales, rehab them, and put them to use. Keep what you like and build a set over time.

Rob

[Trevor Walsh]

My tro top favorites are a long 1" Witherby socket chisel and a very thin 3/8" Charles Buck (not Buck Bros.) tanged chisel.

[Gary Herrmann]

Search for Bob Smalser's threads on chisels in this forum. All you ever wanted to know and more.

[Mel Fulks]

Gary,that article is worth reading but contains some inaccuracies which have been mentioned here before. Best read as sincere advice and not laboratory tests.

[Jim Koepke]

Search for Bob Smalser's threads on chisels in this forum. All you ever wanted to know and more.

Bob's chisel threads are in the Sticky: Neanderthal wisdom/FAQs thread listed near the top of Neanderthal Haven.

Good read, but some is based on Bob's personal preferences. ymmv.

jtk

[Roger Bell]

I think the quality of vintage chisels varies, and varies a LOT, from brand to brand, and among various chisels among the vintage brands. I own probably a couple hundred vintage chisels, all users and all picked up on the cheap. And, I have used them all. But I have gravitated towards a few brands, because I think I have stumbled upon some brand consistency among the better ones. And I have a few of the much-touted newer ones, as well.

I have found very good chisels among the entire gamut of brands, and I have found the occasional crappy one among what I would otherwise consider as the better brands. My sole criteria in this regard is decent edge retention consistent with a reasonable ease of sharpening.

My favs include, James Swan, EA Berg, Butcher, LJ White, Witherby, DR Barton, earlier Bucks. These seem to stand out from my subjective but wide-sample perspective. But remember what I said about the occasional crappy one. And the more than occasional great one from among those I didnt list. I dont include the hardware store brands made by one of the major makers.

Seems to me that quality control was something sought but often not accomplished in the old days. It also seems to me that any so-called present day "laboratory tests" pitting single examples of one old brand with another are also prone to invalid conclusions due to sample size. Are you listening, internet pundits? Not to suggest that anyone should listen to me, either.

I have never understood the fascination for the Stanley 720/750 (have complete sets of both) or any of the Stanleys for that matter. They're ok, but hardly great. The Everlastings are another matter, but only because you can beat on them and thus they're terrific for utility work.

How the chisels fits in your hand and feels in your hand is what matters most and by far, I think. And, naturally, that's purely subjective from the point of view of the user and the kind of work one needs to do. And what one might demand in the trade off between edge retention and ease of sharpening is also subjective, I suppose.

[Howard Klepper]

But be aware that the best of the older chisels are not as good as the best of the modern chisels. The new LV chisels are probably the best from a steel point of view, and the LN and Blue Spruce are next in line. The older chisels are plain carbon steel.

My experience has been that the older carbon steel sharpens better and takes a finer edge than the modern alloys. I think that most of the engineering of steel in the past 60-70 years has gone into making it more resistant to heat and corrosion, and increasing toughness, but not into producing a grain structure that sharpens any better.

[David Weaver]

If not heat and corrosion, into stuff that's not related to cutting tools and also into stuff that makes the steel more stable in hardening and tempering. I guess that's probably important in diemaking if you want the die to retain its shape exactly when hardened, but I have no familiarity with that stuff.

But, you're right, in the cutting steels, the high tech stainless steels have gotten a lot of attention even from early on. How long have henckles friodur knives been available? As far as I know, they are 440C stainless that is cryogenically treated. That is what their razors are reported to be, and despite having 3 different friodur razors or at least razors from blanks that originated at henckles, and having had a fourth friodor stamped razor, I think they're lacking a little bit compared to carbon steel razors. Anyway, just an indication that for quite some time the dollars have been spent making various cutlery steels

I'd imagine a large part of the reason LN went to A2 (as it wasn't so common when they did) was because it is far better behaved when hardening than is water hardening steel. I'd be almost sure they had loss from cracking or warping when they were using water hardening steel.

The only current steels that hold a candle to the vintage US and german razor steels are the hitachi cutting steels of the white variety and the swedish very high carbon steels (which I'd assume would make absolutely fabulous chisels).

[Mike Henderson]

My experience has been that the older carbon steel sharpens better and takes a finer edge than the modern alloys. I think that most of the engineering of steel in the past 60-70 years has gone into making it more resistant to heat and corrosion, and increasing toughness, but not into producing a grain structure that sharpens any better.

I guess it depends upon what criteria you use to judge which is best. While carbon steel may take a better edge, the modern steels hold an edge longer. And, as I understand it, the claim to fame for powdered steel is that it produces a very fine grain structure, better than can be produced in regular (melted) steel.

I've used vintage chisels of various makers and modern chisels. The modern chisels definitely hold an edge longer and are more consistent. With vintage chisels, sometimes you get a decent chisel and sometimes you get a dog, even in the same maker and the same time frame of manufacturer.

When I'm chopping out dovetails, for example, a long lasting edge is one of the most important aspects of the chisel to me.

Mike

[Jim Matthews]

I doubt they're the best of the vintage steel, but I like the way they balance.

I have the sensation that they like to point down, as if they were "head heavy".
The ovoid handle just feels right to me, and they'll tolerate a whanger session.

Easy to get sharp, too.