Thank you so much for posting this. I'm 38 and just getting started in woodworking. I thought I would start with chisel skills and found your video. Once my Japanese chisels come in, I'll be going back to this video for practice. Cheers, brother!
Dennis I understand! I had an excellent teacher in mill-cabinet making in a 2 year school. This teacher loved wood working and his love of the craft infected all of his students. A teacher like that is a real treasure. Priceless!
Good info I didn't already know though the tip about keeping your hand behind the blade is one I recently learned the hard way and am currently recovering from having severed both tendons on my pinky finger from the blade slipping.
I have used chisel for many years. But like GI Joe said, .Knowing is half of the battle,' I knew how to make a, 'cut' but not the know how to make a distinguished chisel work the way it was designed to done. So thank you for correcting my usage of the chisel. There's a story that I'd like to share that illustrates this. Had a dear friend, that's in heaven now. Well Bro. Red , was working as swamper on pipeline crew. His dad, C.L., was a highly skilled dozer operator. Well one day the crew boss was throwing a fit because they were short a dozer operator. Well Bro. Red saw this as his chance to up his paygrade. So he told the foreman, that He was as good as his dad, well knowing how good his C.L. was, he told to grab a dozer and get busy. Off he goes blade going, up, down, up, down....Like a Washboard... Well TRUTH is Bro. Red could drive one...but operate one, you get the idea. Well half mile down the track, the foreman catches up with Bro. Red , flags him to a stop and tells him, "RED, FINE JOB, BUT LEAVE THE FANCY WORK FOR SOMEWHERE ELSE, HERE WE JUST WANT IT SMOOTH....." THX AGAIN db
Great presentation as always, Shawn. You also make the most compelling argument for the PM-V11 chisels. Going to save my sheckels and order them. Should Rob Lee ever need a new spokesman/demonstrator, he need look no further.
Thanks so much for talking about how the edges of these PM-V11 chisels are so sharp and what to do with it. I have actually cut myself with these. I thought it was just me... 400 grit on the edges...
Great video as usual. A term you may want to use in describing how a chisel works when going at an angle through wood, especially end grain, is slicing, like a knife going through meat. If a knife is used by just pressing down on meat to cut it, the result is not so good. However if the knife is moved laterally across the meat as in slicing, the result is much better. Same with a chisel. To slice is nice. Sorry. I couldn't help myself.
Thanks, my new kobalt chisels are giving me a lot of pleasure now that I understand sharpening. I find the big heavy handles good for power and comfort but not so convenient to balance when chopping. I am now looking for a few smaller sized light weight chisels for that. I live near Amish country so I'll watch flea markets for them. The larger ones balance ok.
Narex Classics are my go to inexpensive set. Good steel, decent handle. +/- $12. and they're actually imperial sized not estimated metrics. www.leevalley.com/us/Wood/page.aspx?p=67707&cat=1,41504
Excellent video.Back in the day I was taught to scribe a line and how to mortise. You might try how to mortis the proper way. Many on the tube don't handle the direction of the bevel properly for a good cut. Thanks for your time, Lee
Cool video. I know what you mean with the edge of the chisel. I started with a cheap set and didn't know why my dovetails looked beat up. I replaced them with narex set and found it a lot better Hopefully I'll slowly replace those with the veritas set.
You could be happy with the Narex Classics your whole career. It's kinda the difference between a Chrysler Imperial and Bentley. One just sweats the details a little more.
Thanks for the tips. When you think about it, the chisel is the basic cutting tool, and all other cutting tools are modifications of chisels or combinations of multiple chisels (like saws, for example). Here’s a question I’ve been trying to get answered: Why are the striking surfaces of most carving mallets round (the curved side of a cylinder or conic section) instead of flat, like the business end of a carpenter’s hammer? I saw something that implied the curved mallet face makes carving more accurate, but I don’t understand why. If blows from a round hammerhead are more accurate, shouldn’t we use them to drive nails, too?
Excellent video as usual! I am drooling over that Veritas chisel haha. I just ordered some sweetheart chisels and was wondering, what coating do you use to prevent rust on your tools?
I still remember my dismay when Mr. Pitman showed us the next task, the Gottschall block I think it was. And later there was another block even more fiendish. But once we had sharp chisels we were halfway to skill. It was eye-opening, to put it mildly, to learn that we could round over edges and ends, make long gentle curves, do through and blind mortises, through and stopped dadoes and grooves, or just about anything we wanted to do with just a sharp half-inch chisel. Did you use the Gottschall block exercise on your students?
Watched it, was really good! Even enjoyed your dispassionate discussion of metric and imperial systems...well, dispassionate until the very end ;-) Looks like I should not have skipped your basic woodworking series, always something to learn or refresh.
Another super helpful video thanks alot man. Relatively off-topic question... I live in Belgium where everyone lives right next to each other so noises seem louder. I'm starting a woodworking course in a few weeks over here and want to get my chisel skills back to what they used to be. I'm concerned for my neighbours but i still want to practise... So cut to the chase my question is... Could you put leather over a mallet's head , chisel handles and on work surfaces maybe it would reduce noise. I could just try this out but I don't really wanna piss anyone off as I'm new to the block and I don't have any spare leather. It might also make working a bit slower which maybe good as less is best with chisel cuts right?? hope this isn't a dumb question haha
It's not the noise from the actual strike that'll disturb your neighbors but the impact vibrations that travel through the ground and structure. Not much can help that from my knowledge.
Really great video! But that's not a bench hook, that's a holdfast. A bench hook is a board with a cleat and a fence. Used usually for sawing or planing or I suppose could be used for chisel work. Otherwise, very instructional, Great Job!
You often say that moving a blade at an angle (skewing) effectively reduces the vertical angle of the cut. I don't think that's the biggest benefit. I think what's happening is that the blade acts in more of a slicing manner rather than merely a sheering manner.
Thank you for a very informative tutorial. May I make a suggestion for a future tutorial? Several individuals have provided tutorial about hand cutting dovetails, but they fail to show clearly how to saw on the waste side of a line. Any space left on the waste side means the dovetail will be too tight. Any cut that removes any portion of the line likely means a gap in the dovetail. Would you consider making a tutorial showing precisely how to cut to the line? Thank you.
Hi there, I love your videos and always manage to learn something new or at least think a bit more about what I do so a hearty and sincere Thank You for what you put out there for us! I would like to have one of your Osage Mallets but see that they are currently out of stock, can you ship one to the UK for me when you get a new batch done? Kindly reply on this site when they are ready and I will send you my cash!
"Kamikaze" ja nakute... **harakiri** deshou! (Or "seppuku", largely depending on context.) All that shizz aside, DUDE, YOU FREAKIN' ROOOOOOOOOOCK!!!! I absolutely **love** your channel, man! :) Keep up the Great Work, bruh! :)
Nah, thank YOU, man! Seriously... I love your work - I don't even think there's anyone else on UA-cam who does what you do in a sort of "classroom" format - using the whiteboard and everything... I gotta tellya, it really aids in the mental absorbtion of the concepts you teach... and yeah, *teach* is the operative word here. And your comedic "101 tips" etc. really entertain and inform! I totally appreciate what you do! ^_^
OMG, after listening to you describe the chisel I went and ordered one. My wife is going to kill me. LOL. Nice video. Thank you. I'm now $86.00 lighter :))
such a great teacher you are a natural at teaching
one of the best instructional videos on yt. thank you
Amazing as alwasy. Thank you for been our teacher. Grateful from Mexico.
Thank you so much for posting this. I'm 38 and just getting started in woodworking. I thought I would start with chisel skills and found your video. Once my Japanese chisels come in, I'll be going back to this video for practice. Cheers, brother!
This is one of the best chisel skill videos I've seen. Thanks
Thanks
Excellent instruction. Subscribed.
This is one of the best videos I saw on UA-cam since years. Very informative, perfect teaching! Thanks a lot!
Thanks
Excellent tutorial on the proper use of chisels
Thanks
Very sound instructions....Thanks for sharing.
just got my 1/2 pm-v11 today, it's a really nice chisel
Lovely close ups of hand positions Shawn - great teaching
Thanks
Boy, if you were my teacher in high school I would have graduated! Great job
Dennis I understand! I had an excellent teacher in mill-cabinet making in a 2 year school. This teacher loved wood working and his love of the craft infected all of his students. A teacher like that is a real treasure. Priceless!
Since you correctly used 'would have', I'd say you did real well.
Thanks
Well at least I would improved my graduation level, because I graduated 7th in my class of 7
Yea me too.. All of my teachers here look like a group of Wolf 🐺🐺🐺🐺🐺
excellence of education ... as always
Excellent vid, you always seem to include the details that make the difference
Thanks
Good info I didn't already know though the tip about keeping your hand behind the blade is one I recently learned the hard way and am currently recovering from having severed both tendons on my pinky finger from the blade slipping.
ouch
I have used chisel for many years. But like GI Joe said, .Knowing is half of the battle,'
I knew how to make a, 'cut' but not the know how to make a distinguished chisel work the way it was designed to done. So thank you for correcting my usage of the chisel.
There's a story that I'd like to share that illustrates this.
Had a dear friend, that's in heaven now. Well Bro. Red , was working as swamper on pipeline crew. His dad, C.L., was a highly skilled dozer operator. Well one day the crew boss was throwing a fit because they were short a dozer operator.
Well Bro. Red saw this as his chance to up his paygrade. So he told the foreman, that He was as good as his dad, well knowing how good his C.L. was, he told to grab a dozer and get busy. Off he goes blade going, up, down, up, down....Like a Washboard...
Well TRUTH is Bro. Red could drive one...but operate one, you get the idea.
Well half mile down the track, the foreman catches up with Bro. Red , flags him to a stop and tells him,
"RED, FINE JOB, BUT LEAVE THE FANCY WORK FOR SOMEWHERE ELSE, HERE WE JUST WANT IT SMOOTH....."
THX AGAIN
db
Good story.
Great presentation as always, Shawn. You also make the most compelling argument for the PM-V11 chisels. Going to save my sheckels and order them. Should Rob Lee ever need a new spokesman/demonstrator, he need look no further.
You don't have to get em all at the same time. Start with your most used like I do.
Thanks so much for talking about how the edges of these PM-V11 chisels are so sharp and what to do with it. I have actually cut myself with these. I thought it was just me... 400 grit on the edges...
lessons learned....
I've been cut by Marples sides. And, lol, thought it was just me.
Been cut with the bailey set from Stanley. I wasnt sure what grit to use so I went with 320....
Great video as usual. A term you may want to use in describing how a chisel works when going at an angle through wood, especially end grain, is slicing, like a knife going through meat. If a knife is used by just pressing down on meat to cut it, the result is not so good. However if the knife is moved laterally across the meat as in slicing, the result is much better. Same with a chisel. To slice is nice. Sorry. I couldn't help myself.
good analogy
You are amazing man.. Always giving us a free lesson with great passion, love and emphaty.. Thankyou verymuch 😊🙏 warm greet from Indonesia 🌤
Excellent ! Thank you for posting this. I appreciate your taking the time to show us all these useful tips.
Thanks
Thanks, my new kobalt chisels are giving me a lot of pleasure now that I understand sharpening. I find the big heavy handles good for power and comfort but not so convenient to balance when chopping. I am now looking for a few smaller sized light weight chisels for that. I live near Amish country so I'll watch flea markets for them. The larger ones balance ok.
Narex Classics are my go to inexpensive set. Good steel, decent handle. +/- $12. and they're actually imperial sized not estimated metrics. www.leevalley.com/us/Wood/page.aspx?p=67707&cat=1,41504
Don't know if I already thanked you; think I've watched this video twice today...cheers...rr
Thanks
Excellent video.Back in the day I was taught to scribe a line and how to mortise. You might try how to mortis the proper way. Many on the tube don't handle the direction of the bevel properly for a good cut.
Thanks for your time, Lee
Thanks
Awesome video one of my favorite subjects and tools and I happen to be using mine today. Thank you for all your information it’s really appreciated.
Gotta love that chisel design.
Cool video. I know what you mean with the edge of the chisel. I started with a cheap set and didn't know why my dovetails looked beat up. I replaced them with narex set and found it a lot better
Hopefully I'll slowly replace those with the veritas set.
You could be happy with the Narex Classics your whole career. It's kinda the difference between a Chrysler Imperial and Bentley. One just sweats the details a little more.
Thanks for sharing this. I look forward to your posts. I've learned a lot, and want to keep honing the craft.
Thanks
Excellent video, thank you very much
thanks
Man, great instruction. Thank you!
Thanks
Nice, Thanks...Veritas very good...❤️💛💚
Thanks
Great educational tutorial. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks
Really excellent! Thanks.
Thanks for the tips. When you think about it, the chisel is the basic cutting tool, and all other cutting tools are modifications of chisels or combinations of multiple chisels (like saws, for example).
Here’s a question I’ve been trying to get answered: Why are the striking surfaces of most carving mallets round (the curved side of a cylinder or conic section) instead of flat, like the business end of a carpenter’s hammer? I saw something that implied the curved mallet face makes carving more accurate, but I don’t understand why. If blows from a round hammerhead are more accurate, shouldn’t we use them to drive nails, too?
easier to hold in hand
Great lesson Shjawn, thanks for sharing it.
Thanks
Great tutorial ! 😀
Thanks
Great video,very useful
Thanks
I love your videos. I just feel like I'm being yelled at half the time. But keep em coming.
1:49 actually, what are referring to is not kamikaze, its actually *seppuku*
Great vid. Thank you.
Thanks
Great tips thank you for sharing
Thanks
Thank you so much for this lesson! Love your vids!
Thanks
Thank you!
'welcome
Very informative, thank you!
Thanks
Good tools cost a lot, and Veritas is no exception. $100 for a single chisel is out of the range of most people, but you'll never buy another.
Excellent video as usual! I am drooling over that Veritas chisel haha. I just ordered some sweetheart chisels and was wondering, what coating do you use to prevent rust on your tools?
I don't coat them with anything. Just use them a lot.
I still remember my dismay when Mr. Pitman showed us the next task, the Gottschall block I think it was. And later there was another block even more fiendish. But once we had sharp chisels we were halfway to skill. It was eye-opening, to put it mildly, to learn that we could round over edges and ends, make long gentle curves, do through and blind mortises, through and stopped dadoes and grooves, or just about anything we wanted to do with just a sharp half-inch chisel. Did you use the Gottschall block exercise on your students?
See my video playlist "Classroom Series". I use it in 1-01c.
Watched it, was really good! Even enjoyed your dispassionate discussion of metric and imperial systems...well, dispassionate until the very end ;-) Looks like I should not have skipped your basic woodworking series, always something to learn or refresh.
Any suggestions on preventing me from cutting myself on the sides nd bottom edge of my chisel? Thanks
break the edges up until the last inch.
@@wortheffort well you have that Veritas chisel with beveled edges. How do you not get cut?
@@adamtoth7474 I broke the edge until the last inch.
@@wortheffort oh haha ok. Thanks dude will give it a go. That doesn't null the added benefit of beveled edges?
@@adamtoth7474 all you're doing is dulling it not sanding flat.
Some of the things you demonstrated in this vid are useful when using a router plane. Please consider making a vid on the router plane.
good idea
Another super helpful video thanks alot man. Relatively off-topic question... I live in Belgium where everyone lives right next to each other so noises seem louder. I'm starting a woodworking course in a few weeks over here and want to get my chisel skills back to what they used to be. I'm concerned for my neighbours but i still want to practise... So cut to the chase my question is... Could you put leather over a mallet's head , chisel handles and on work surfaces maybe it would reduce noise. I could just try this out but I don't really wanna piss anyone off as I'm new to the block and I don't have any spare leather. It might also make working a bit slower which maybe good as less is best with chisel cuts right?? hope this isn't a dumb question haha
It's not the noise from the actual strike that'll disturb your neighbors but the impact vibrations that travel through the ground and structure. Not much can help that from my knowledge.
ahh i thought so, thanks anyway
Really great video! But that's not a bench hook, that's a holdfast. A bench hook is a board with a cleat and a fence. Used usually for sawing or planing or I suppose could be used for chisel work. Otherwise, very instructional, Great Job!
You often say that moving a blade at an angle (skewing) effectively reduces the vertical angle of the cut. I don't think that's the biggest benefit. I think what's happening is that the blade acts in more of a slicing manner rather than merely a sheering manner.
I think the difference is what's moving at an angle. Then again... no difference.
Can you provide a link to that chisel please?
See description. I always put links to what I discuss there.
wortheffort sorry I missed it.
They should send you a free chisel for the two dozen you just sold for them ! Ha
Ha
Thank you for a very informative tutorial. May I make a suggestion for a future tutorial? Several individuals have provided tutorial about hand cutting dovetails, but they fail to show clearly how to saw on the waste side of a line. Any space left on the waste side means the dovetail will be too tight. Any cut that removes any portion of the line likely means a gap in the dovetail. Would you consider making a tutorial showing precisely how to cut to the line? Thank you.
I'll have to think on that as it really is just using your finger as a fence.
What is your opinion on Japanese Chisels ?
Wood doesn't care. Expensive for my taste, don't like cant.
@@wortheffort what about Japanese Saws
I don't care for them myself because I work from a bench not the floor. Different dynamics.
Hi there, I love your videos and always manage to learn something new or at least think a bit more about what I do so a hearty and sincere Thank You for what you put out there for us!
I would like to have one of your Osage Mallets but see that they are currently out of stock, can you ship one to the UK for me when you get a new batch done?
Kindly reply on this site when they are ready and I will send you my cash!
They are drying now. See video on processing lumber.
Chisel Skizzels yo
Gah! 5:50 - you're doing the seppuku thing! Bad!
caught me
"Kamikaze" ja nakute... **harakiri** deshou! (Or "seppuku", largely depending on context.) All that shizz aside, DUDE, YOU FREAKIN' ROOOOOOOOOOCK!!!! I absolutely **love** your channel, man! :) Keep up the Great Work, bruh! :)
Thanks
Nah, thank YOU, man! Seriously... I love your work - I don't even think there's anyone else on UA-cam who does what you do in a sort of "classroom" format - using the whiteboard and everything... I gotta tellya, it really aids in the mental absorbtion of the concepts you teach... and yeah, *teach* is the operative word here. And your comedic "101 tips" etc. really entertain and inform! I totally appreciate what you do! ^_^
belly clamp. use it all the time
I call it my pizza clamp.
OMG, after listening to you describe the chisel I went and ordered one. My wife is going to kill me. LOL. Nice video. Thank you. I'm now $86.00 lighter :))
You're gonna love it. Spread the cost value over years. Put it to you this way, it'll outlast your next two cars.
Don't comit seppuku