20 Best Chisels For Dovetails (2022 Updated)

I received these chisels as a gift. So far they exactly what I needed. The chisels came with a reasonable edge so haven’t sharpened then yet. The quality appears to be very good!

Took two of them out for a test run last night. Was only planning a rough approximation of some 45 degree long and deep (4″ by 3″) finger joints I needed to chop out so didn’t bother flattening or honing.

Have to say I was very very surprised at the results. Effortlessly chopped through the test pieces and very clean edges, also really nice control for paring producing shavings the length of the test piece.

Used the 12mm and 20mm so far, same results with each so really looking forward to trying out the others. The test pieces are deal, will add to the review once I’ve tried them on the mahogany stock.

Made of O1 steel, these will get a very sharp edge easily. Downside is that the soft metal will not hold the edge for too long. They have a nice weight and balance to them. Good chisels overall.

Seem to be of good quality. Nice shaped wood handles. Fit the hand well. Haven’t had time to stone them to see how flat they are. But nice tools for the price.

Got them fir my husband for Christmas. He loved them, they are beautiful and sharp

Used it several times and it has met all my expectations. Great little tool that I would highly recommend to every wood turner. As a beginner, I would have the wood jump off the chuck but, after using this tool on a regular basis, I have not experienced that problem or any other problem.

The chisel works well and creates an excellent recess for my chuck to hold my turning projects. The only issue, so far, is it is difficult to sharpen. I am working on a different sharpening platform and should have this issue corrected shortly.

Like these chisels. not great for finer work, but good utilitarian chisels. Just used them extensively mortising large hard maple joinery for my workbench. Pounded them a littl emore than I would fell comfortable doing with my Lie Neilsen chisels.

I just ordered these from Amazon and received from the Home & Garden Supplies Storefront. The package was opened and one chisel wasn’t in the package fully, the 1″ chisel. Also, the 1″ chisel had not fully seated against the ferrule and a gap is shown.

Will be sending that chisel back but not sure where. Overall, the others look great but I will have to sharpen and remove the lacquer finish. So 4 out 5 chisels ain’t bad :).

I ordered a 6mm and a 12 mm to use in my woodworking hobby. When they arrived the metal ring on the 12mm was detached and inside the box with the plastic hanger on it. I removed the plastic and the metal ring wouldn’t stay is so I glued it in place.

I don’t think this will ever effect how the chisel works but if it comes loose again I will use epoxy next time. I would buy them again and recommend them to a friend.

Seems to be very good steel- holds an edge very well. However, being only 2mm wide, it’s difficult to sharpen with Eclipse or Veritas guides. A Lie-Nielsen guide would likely work best.

this is a very good tool. at the price, no complaints. I bought it fill out an old set of chisels that had a cracked 12mm chisel. It took an edge well and quickly.

Brilliant! High quality chisels, sharpening stone, chisel guide for the stone to make sure the edge is kept straight, all in a good plastic carry case. The chisels cut through the wood perfectly, handles didn’t slip, and stone with it’s rail resharpened the edges perfectly.

I wasn’t expecting much at this price but they worked perfectly for what I needed them for, cutting cemented in skirting boards and door frames, ie DIY. Solid, good weight handles, sharp, solid strong metal, brilliant edges, Strong enough case to carry chisels and stone, and a guide that helps keep resharpening a bit easier.

You could do a lot worse at this price believe me!.

It is a great product seemingly made from good steel and tough composite handles. The case good, tough and includes a sharpening stone together with a honing guide. In all, the case will keep the entire kit together and facilitate easy storage.

Provides basic diagnostic information. Good for code resetting. Not good for advanced diagnostics. You get what you pay for. Dont expect to reset all service lights, abs lights etc with this tool.

Excellent value for great quality chisels

Great tools good price. ?

…………………. ..okay

These are quality made. I own several brands of chisels both new and old and these chisels hold up. The steel will take a razor sharp edge without too much effort and they will hold an acceptable edge.

It’s a balance between hardness and time spent sharpening and these have struck a good balance. I own a set of Japanese chisels which take some time to sharpen, get scary sharp but need to be used carefully because they will chip.

So those have specific uses. These have not chipped and I’ve put them to some rigorous use. They do have a bit of a rough surface to the overall tang from the machining process but the business end of the chisel is all that needs attention unless you are concerned about the aesthetics.

If you purchase a set of the LN chisels you won’t see this but you will pay for it. Also the tang thickness on each looks to vary but it’s difficult to know if this is intentional or not. Possibly to strike a balance between rigidity and balance as tang widths change? They are lightweight in the hand and have a nice balance.

The handles are nice. Do sand the handle where it meets the chisel, hold the tang carefully and firmly and give it a good whack on your workbench and you are ready to go. The leather roll is surprisingly nice.

It is real leather and well made and adds to the overall package. In short I really recommend these if you are looking for a good buy and want a great working set that also look nice. Stanley got these right.

I wish they would do other tool revivals that were as well made as these because the market for a used set of 750s is getting pricey for a clean set.

I have wanted to purchase the 8 pc. SweetHeart™ 750 Series Socket Chisel Set for a number of years and I finally purchased a set online. I was not disappointed. I have a few of the original 750 SweetHeart Chisels and these modern day chisels are both beautiful to hold but perform as expected and are sharp out of the box.

I know need to learn how to sharpen them properly. The hardwood handles and steel cutting surfaces are very well made and live up to expectations. I would highly recommend their purchase.

I purchased these chisels for general woodworking use. I liked the style, the leather case and the profile of the metal form. However, if you are looking for total perfection these fall short. One handle had a serious knot in the wood (I guess one of the assemblers had a bad day that day?).

The machining of the metal was not what I expected. There appeared to be some chattering at the metal nearest the handle on more than just one of these chisels. Not very flattering but not a deal killer.

I will keep this set because of it’s nostalgic look and a passing grade of overall fitness. Companies and workers don’t take pride in the products that they provide. It’s sad. Worldwide we’ve all lost something in providing the consumer a quality product for a competitive price.

Then we just look at it as a product of the times. Didn’t the same thing happen to Detroit’s major product lines?.

Well made out of good material. If looked after will have long life. Edges sharp and easy to keep that way. Excellent product.

as a joiner tryed many chisels these are as good as i have had, would recomend to anyone,

Great set of chisels, well honed and sharp. Only slight let down was the quality of the box.

Super marque

Nickel

Idem

First off, let’s begin by saying what needs to be said even though it doesn’t need to be said: Chisels, regardless of the brand, will ALWAYS need some work right out of the box before you start using them.

Let me repeat: CHISELS, REGARDLESS OF THE BRAND, WILL ALWAYS NEED SOME WORK RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX BEFORE YOU START USING THEM. I’m a beginner in using chisels. I purchased these to train myself on how to sharpen chisels and make dovetails by hand without the hideous expense of something like Stanley Sweethearts or Narex.

Having said that, let’s begin with my thoughts on the business end of this set. The blades will likely need to be squared up, sharpened, polished and flattened to an acceptable level. No – they DEFINITELY need to be squared up, sharpened, polished and flattened.

Be prepared to spend a little bit more for a diamond sharpener (the one at HF will work just fine) and a sharpening jig for chisels and plane irons. Ensuring your chisels are sharpened at the correct angle, polished and flattened will make for a better time in using them.

No ifs, ands or buts. Secondly, the handle. The handle appears to be a very light wood, so you don’t want to abuse these with a metal hammer. Use a wooden mallet or a rubber mallet. I doubt these things will take abuse like the aforementioned brands, so take it easy.

If possible, and as a side project, maybe make a new set of handles for them out of some harder wood. Lastly, and this goes for any chisel, DON’T DROP THEM. These chisels seem especially susceptible to denting or possible bending if they hit metal or hard ground.

I doubt they’re heat treated properly, if at all, so the metal is extremely soft, as is evident by the sharpening process. They’re great for a little light work and some training, but I wouldn’t recommend taking these to hard woods on a regular basis.

I own some very expensive chisels but I needed to take up some ceramic tiles so I got these inexpensive ones, figuring to trash them when done. I was shocked, when I finished the chisels were still in good shape.

I was able to sharpen them and easily shave my arms with them. I will see how the hold up with a scarry sharp edge. For the money these are great. You can pay $100 for some Sweetheart Chisels and get a great chisel set but for $10 these won’t hold an edge as good but I can chisel ceramic tiles and not worry about damaging them.

Wear safety goggles when ever using a chisel.

I purchased this Dewalt chisel set as a backup to my wooden handle chisel set. After setting and sharpening the blades, they have turned into my favorite set. The handles are so very comfortable. When cutting a mortise, I can really dig back on the handle with no pain for me or the chisel.

I was pretty disappointed in this set of chisels. The backs were not flat so I had to spend a considerable amount of time working on them. In addition the chisel edges themselves needed a bunch of work.

The left edge of each blade looked as if it had not been sharpened at all and had a large burr on it. I think these will be good chisels but I was disappointed in the condition out of the box.

I had a similar chisel when I was an apprentice which was bought by the shop foreman who took me to Kelly s in Liverpool to buy it. At the time he said Sorby were the best. In the following years they were the envy of numerous workmates.

Unfortunately the chisels were stolen when my toolbox was broken into whilst I was working out of the shop and never recovered. It has taken me in excess of 60 years to getting around to replacing them.

I love my Sorby chisels. This is one out of six sets in my tool chest. Superb craftsmanship all the way around.

Fast shipping, good quality, right tool for the right job

Good steel and convenient size…

Used in reaching har to get at nuts on 2000 Ford exhaust manifold Works great Thanks

I was very pleasantly surprised on this purchase of chisels. I was looking at Mayhew chisels because I was missing a few smaller chisels of my Snap On punch and chisel set. That said, I didn’t want to spend 75.

00 so I gambled on these because the reviews were good. I have to say, these are excellent and on par with Mayhew. Not quite as good. But damned close IMO.

All made in US. Quality is outstanding. Would highly recommend! We dont buy Chinese made goods in our house. Tools should be an investment!

I have used many cold chisels over the years including Craftsman and THESE ARE THE BEST I HAVE EVER OWNED!!!! I would buy more but the edge is still like I never used it. I used these to split the castle nuts on my ball joints from my Super Duty F250.

great Dewalt quality, solid hardened steel holds an edge well, good strong grips, excellent set for demo work or anywhere you have to “make it fit”

This thing is absolutely junk besides woodworking I do window replacement used it one time to take aluminum Phillips screw snap the head off and there’s huge gouges in it this was supposed to replace my 15-year-old Craftsman pro chisel and I’m back to using that.

right out of the packaging I put it to work and it did not let me down. they have a solid feel and were sharp to make a hard job easy.

Only beef i have with this set is the fact that they’re not finished by hand. All the edges are burred & i had to re hone them on a diamond stone.

I have used these chisels before ,that is why I have purchased more . Other Bahco tools are good too , they keep a good sharp edge and comfortable to handle

Very good product i’m very happy with it but i’m not sure if it is original or not

I was attracted by the Marples name, but as you’d expect for the price these are Chinese made. Didn’t like the steel caps, but many tradesman probably don’t want to carry a seperate tradditional beech-wood mallet around so the steel cap makes sense for them to use with a hammer.

Time will tell how good they are. Came with a free sharpening set when I purchased, so extra value.

Decent Irwin Marple chisels, as you would expect. A great deal for the money. Just a bit weird that you would have this really good chisel set, in this really nice storage case, but it simply isn’t big enough to store all of the chisels in! Yes they fit in the case, but only as a bit of an afterthought.

Don’t understand some of the negative reviews – chisels were sharpened & ready to go and have performed well for me (just your average DIYer). They come with individual blade protectors and a very sturdy case.

All in all, no complaints whatsover – a great set of chisels.

Compared to snap-on or similar products this tool completely lacks the fit and finish one would expect from a high end tool. Thats because it isn’t one. Sure the head wobbles like a mother but it has a huge range of motion and a small enough grip to fit in a wide range of areas.

And if i find that its too big for a certain job, ill take an angle grinder to it and chop it down to size. Not gonna do that with my snappy pry bar. Great for valve cover removal, oil pans, trans pans, that kind of thing.

The blade is a little thick, you may want to grind it thinner to really wedge in and pop any glued cases such as diffs or timing covers. Good tool, not the best, but cheap enough that it doesnt have to be.

If this tool ever breaks ill probably buy a different one, but i honestly dont see it ever breaking unless i do something stupid with it. It seems plenty strong enough for anything you SHOULD use it for.

I bought this set of pry bars for changing lawn mower tires. I know I will use them for many other jobs, but at the time I bought to help remove and replace lawn mover tires. Replacing the tires was still a pain in the back side, but was much easier with the pry bars.

Was looking for a shorter pry bar and found this set at a reasonable price. Dont expect any issues with this set of pry bars as they seem to be well made. Pry bars are one of those expendable tools as far as Im concerned because if you need a pry bar you most likely are in a situation that requires some brute force to get the job done.

Dont see an issue with any of these pry bars getting the job done.

I’ve had several of the smaller Kirschen chisels for about ten years and they are excellent quality. So I expected the same when recently buying the 12mm and 22mm chisels. Couldn’t have been more wrong! It took nearly two hours to get them both into decent order.

The face and edges were rounded over – a product of the polishing I suspect – but more seriously the backs were both convex and very uneven, with the 22mm being particularly bad. If I hadn’t got a grinding wheel for the grunt work they would, and probably should, have gone back.

Having said that, once set up properly they take a good edge and hold it well. I see you can buy these from Germany in unpolished form, which may be a better bet.

I bought one last year, was impressed and recently added another one to my kit. The blade is polished to a brilliant finish and maintains a keen edge which is readily restored to razor sharpness with a leather strop.

The real hardwood handle feels comfortable and comes with a striking cap and ring, although it’s not the sort of chisel you’d want to whack with a hammer – more the occasional tap with a light wooden mallet.

A good quality chisel for the price.

One more of several Kirschen chisels that I have. All are fine quality.