Skew chisel width

[Mike Cozad]

I am ready to purchase the Narex skew chisels to compliment the Narex bevel edge chisels I have and I found an imperial set at Lee Valley that are 1/2" wide but at Highland Woodworking they have a pair that are metric at 20mm. Thats just over 3/4". My question to those with experience is which width makes more sense? Having never used one before I am unsure.

Thanks for any advice.

[Jim Koepke]

For cleaning dovetail waste and other tasks I made a pair of skew chisels out of 1/2" chisels.

They work fine on bigger dovetails, but are a bit cumbersome to unusable in smaller dovetails.

For the choice between the 1/2" or 20mm you will find the 1/2" useful in places where the 20mm won't fit.

jtk

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I tend to use a skew chisel just for the last little bits in the corners of half-blinds, after I've removed most of things with a straight chisel, so even where a larger skew chisel would fit, I'd be just as comfortable, maybe even prefer a smaller one - I think I use 3/8" sized ones, maybe 1/4", I can't remember. Mine are skewed with a slight fishtail shape to them, I find I like that shape over a straight chisel ground at an angle.

All this is assuming that your main concern is halfblind tails, of course.

Before I had the skewed chisels, I went with a small carving knife, and got by fine with that, but I needed slightly larger sizes of joinery to be able to get the knife in how I wanted it.

[Greg Wease]

I ground a couple of 1/4" chisels at something between 15 and 20 degrees. They work well for cleaning out half-blind dovetails. I don't know what I would do with 20 mm skews.

[Hilton Ralphs]

Mike, take a look at the two options of skew chisels from TFWW. A little more expensive than the Narex set but in 1/4" and 3/8" sizes and both have that fishtail shape (but are still skews).