Japanese chisels vs. cocobolo, with lots of pics

[Mike Henderson]

Wibur,

I appreciate the effort and i'm not trying to be a naysayer. I just dont think its entirely fair that you only cut ONE "dovetail" in cocobolo and then went to oak.

Dont worry about chopping more notches, it doesnt matter really. youve got a fine chisel there and that is apparant.

Thanks,

dan

Dan - Let me support Wilbur here. A good Japanese chisel, one that strikes a good balance between hardness and toughness, can do essentially anything that a good western chisel can do - especially in the hands of an experienced user.

The choice between the two is like the choice between LN chisels and Barr chisels - really up to the user.

My own preference is for a western chisel because I find Japanese chisels (at least the ones I've used) to be too hard and I don't like the handles on Japanese chisels.

But Japanese craftspeople have been doing woodwork with those chisels for centuries. If there was a problem, they would have fixed it by now.

I think every woodworker should try Japanese chisels at some time in their career just to be a well rounded woodworker. You may like them or you may not like them. I don't think they're the best for a beginning woodworker because I think they're not as tolerant of mistakes as western chisels (it's easier to damage the edge).

Mike