Chisel holding technique while chopping to the baseline

[Reinis Kanders]

I am kind of wandering what works for people who are really efficient at say dovetail chopping or chiseled dados or rabbets.

Does one hold the chisel by the blade or by the handle. After some experimentation I get a better shoulder lines if I hold the handle and actually see that chisel is flush with the baseline. It also is less tiring for the fingers and usually pretty fast and I do not have to switch chisel position to chop out the waste.

If I chisel by holding the blade I end up being in the front of the chisel thus not seeing if I am really flush so it ends up being undercut. On the other hand I just realized that I could also try holding by the blade while the board is rotated so that shoulder line is in front of me. I think Klausz does it that way (must be fast then).

Any thoughts?

[Kent A Bathurst]

#1 - do what you are most comfortable with, and what works best for you

#2 - I choke up on the bat - with my fingers low on the blade - to get the chisel edge "on the line" and give it a small tap with the hammer. This give me a set line to register the edge. THen, I move my hand up to the handle for the "whack away" part of the job - easier to hold the chisel in line from up there, and I can see the action-end better.

[Mike Brady]

Depends on the chisel length. I have chisels in the same width that are inches different in length. The longer the chisel the more likely I am to hold the blade. As a rule, I hold a chisel by the blade when I am striking it with a mallet, and by the handle when I am paring with it. I also tend to view a chisel from the side when I am trying to keep it in a knife wall or an incised layout line.

[Daniel Rode]

I tend to hold the chisel by the handle. Holding the chisel lower, near the tip and almost pencil like, feels better and it makes placing the tip more efficient. However, I hold it by the handle because it's the best way for me to see if it's perpendicular.

I'm still searching for the best way.

[Reinis Kanders]

Thanks for the comments. For me too it seems that I need to see the chisel and the baseline from the side. I am inclined to do what is more comfortable, but on the other hand would not want to learn bad habbits.

[Steve Voigt]

I am inclined to do what is more comfortable, but on the other hand would not want to learn bad habbits.

Yeah, that is the rub, isn't it? If you went to take violin lessons, or tennis lessons, with a good teacher, there's probably lots of things that you would do intuitively that the teacher would very quickly beat out of you, because the way that feels natural is not always the right way.

Something Warren Mickley has pointed out a number of times is that in old texts, like Roubo, you don't see pictures of anyone holding the blade. They always hold the handle.

I think that holding the handle gives better control, and as Dan said it's easier to achieve true perpendicularity. Holding the blade makes it easier to initially position the chisel, which I think is why we instinctively gravitate towards that approach. But positioning the chisel is trivial; the important thing is controlling the angle after you start banging the chisel with a mallet.

[Brian Holcombe]

I use the handle when clearing waste. For dovetail lines on a long string of dovetails, like on a cases, I will setup a beam that's definitely 90 lined up along the dovetail line and cut the last 1/16"~ usually holding the blade against the guide with my thumb after ensuring that it is registered in the knife line. I cut all the way through from the outside.

For shorter strings of dovetails such as small boxes or drawers I will use the handle only and some sort of sight to gauge 90....if it ends up slightly undercut that's fine, slightly over and I can pare it.

[david charlesworth]

You will see in some of my DVDs, that I hold the chisel low, by the blade for positioning or feeling into a gauge line, but then change to holding the handle for chopping. This gives me the best control over squareness.

I do not grip the handle as this might twist the chisel it out of a gauge line, it is more of a fingertip guide.

My gauge lines are cut deep. The edge registers positively in a deep cut.

Best wishes,
David Charlesworth

[Warren Mickley]

Holding the chisel by the blade instead of the handle takes away a lot of control. You can sense this. If you hit the chisel with a mallet without holding the handle, it is prone to flopping around at the time of impact. This causes damage to the edge, like folding or chipping, because the edge is captured in the cut and sheer forces are the most damaging to the edge. It is probably worse with a hollow ground chisel because the very tip is held more securely in the cut without support from the rest of the bevel, giving tremendous leverage from the flopping handle. Even if the handle is hit perfectly straight with the mallet, the bevel of the chisel causes a moment about the axis of the edge which needs to be balanced with control of the handle.

The whole idea of good technique is that the edge is preserved. Hitting the chisel with excess force or without control (called by some whacking or bashing) is also hard on the edge. Speed results from finesse, not abuse.

[Reinis Kanders]

Thanks for the tips, really appreciate them. I think I will focus on holding by the handle, basically keep on doing what I was doing.
I was starting to question myself because I saw Klausz bang out dovetails very fast in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrAAglKLPh8

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks for the tips, really appreciate them. I think I will focus on holding by the handle, basically keep on doing what I was doing.
I was starting to question myself because I saw Klausz bang out dovetails very fast in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrAAglKLPh8

We each need to learn what works best for ourselves. Frank Klausz is retired from a life of woodworking. Compared to him my few years of woodworking has me in the first grade or kindergarten.

My taps on the chisel are lighter than his. Still if my chisel is held in the gauge mark it tends to travel back due to the force of the bevel.

Recently my technique has been to use a fret saw on the waste, then pare to the line.

Find a way that is comfortable and works for you and it doesn't matter what others do.

jtk

[Robert LaPlaca]

I am kind of wandering what works for people who are really efficient at say dovetail chopping or chiseled dados or rabbets.

Does one hold the chisel by the blade or by the handle. After some experimentation I get a better shoulder lines if I hold the handle and actually see that chisel is flush with the baseline. It also is less tiring for the fingers and usually pretty fast and I do not have to switch chisel position to chop out the waste.

If I chisel by holding the blade I end up being in the front of the chisel thus not seeing if I am really flush so it ends up being undercut. On the other hand I just realized that I could also try holding by the blade while the board is rotated so that shoulder line is in front of me. I think Klausz does it that way (must be fast then).

Any thoughts?

i find holding the chisel as close to the tip of chisel as possible gives the best results for me, I also like short dovetailing chisels (I used butt chisels). This kind of makes sense, kind of the the same way one holds a pencil when writing..

I use a carving mallet to assist with chopping the waste, staying away from the baseline, then making a paring vee cut to the baseline, it is then safer to chop closer to the baseline as most of the waste material has been removed that would push the chisel past the baseline..

[Brian Holcombe]

Warren makes a good point about using the mallet as well, I would describe my approach as non-violent. I started off using a dovetail mallet for dovetails but eventually moved to something much more like a jointers mallet because I could take a lighter swing and maintain a much better control over the process while making good progress through the cut.

[keith wootton]

i have well squared block that i hold to the back of the chisel after carefully registering the chisel in incised line. i can whack away with mallet and the chisel will cut very square, especially if most of the waste has been sawn away. working from both sides, the two cuts line up very well and i never feel the need to undercut. and to make it even easier, i recently mortised a hole in my block very near the surface, and added a strong magnet that pretty well holds the block to the chisel if you are fiddling with alignment.

keith

[Peter Evans]

Just a note, the advice is for using a mallet; if paring I use one hand on the blade, and one on the handle and push with my body. Gives good control.