WOODRIVERChisel Set 4-Piece

The reason to get these chisels is the high quality of the tool steel. They take and keep an edge, and there's nothing you can do about the quality of steel in your tool. Every other issue can be fixed by the user.That said, everything else is an issue. Backs were way, way off from flat, including one that had machining marks so deep I could feel the ridges with my thumbnail, like the markings on a rule. Took a LONG time to get them all flat. I've had the $2 Harbor Freight chisels come flatter than that. Handles are cheap plastic, so I can't say how they will stand up to mallet banging over time. Blades coated in heavy lacquer, so much that I could see little air bubbles trapped in them.They often go half-off on Woodcraft's website (and in store), which bring the price down to around $5-$6 a pop. At that price it's worth the effort if you're on a super-tight budget or just want a secondary set of chisels for rougher work that you don't want to expose your more premium daily drivers to. But even though they are inexpensive at full price I feel like there might be better options out there.

I purchased these on sale so a really great price. However they are a ton of work to get sharpened correctly. One of the most important steps in sharpening chisels is to have a dead flat back of your chisel for about an inch or so from the chisel's cutting edge. I first started flattening with my water stones. Started with a 1000 grit and right a away realized I had a convex (or belly) on the back, the worse case scenario for flattening because of all the metal to remove. So I switched to my 240 stone and after several passes the cutting edge and especially the corners were not being touched. I kept having to flatten my stone and I have been wanting to upgrade my sharpening tools so I thought this was the time to upgrade to the Trend Diamond Stone 300/1000 grit. It took me 3 days of working about an hour each time to flatten the back of the 1 inch chisel, that was as much time as I could do before my hands were too sore to go on. Lesson learned, don't by inexpensive tools you will only suffer. They can be made to be decent chisels if you are willing to put in the work. Dull chisels are dangerous and will not yield good results on fine woodworking, my advice is spend more money on good chisels that you can get to work with much quicker, but if budget is a serious issue and you are willing to do the work then by all means go for it.

Excellent product... I frequently use in oak and other hardwoods and have never had a problem with these chisels holding an edge. I have several hand forged vintage chisels that I prefer because of heft and the wood handles and some Irwin Blue Marples  Irwin M444SB6N Blue Chip Bevel Edge Woodworking Chisel Set, 6-Piece (Box set)  (I have 4 piece), but for a value priced chisel set these actually hold an edge better than the Marples Blue Chip. I do keep my tools very sharp and often hone them.

Have these with the purple heart handles. I briefly hoend them and every time I used them it would ding the edge. I figured they weren't sharp enough so I used 400/800/1200/4000/8000 sharpening stones, stropped them, flattened the backs and got them razor sharp. No change - each use will ding 1/32 to 1/16 in! I dinged my 1" on PINE.... thats when I've concluded, they are just too soft of metal. I have spent more time resharpwning these than some of the projects where I regretted pulling this tool out.Ok the plus, they look good, are sturdy and feel good. Too bad that they just can't be a useful tool

I like the handles, and the length of the steel because they will withstand millions of sharpening and still fit in a jig. I didn't like how each of them took me 4 hours on flattening the back. That added up to 12+ hours to get them ready.

I bought these at a woodcraft store on thanksgiving two years ago. they work fine for soft woods up to DF, but hardwood dents the edge almost instantly. I use DMT stones from 320-8000 grit to hone them at a 25 deg. angle. They sharpen easily, due to the fact they are very soft, but obviously also dulls easy. Do yourself a favor, by cheap framers chisels until you can at least afford a modest set of chisels like Robert Sorby (Im trying next), or what have you.