Good chisels, gouges and sharpening kit for stock making

flying pig

flying pig

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Hey guys, I'm looking into upgrading from bottom of the bucket hardware store chisels and gouges and wondering what those in the know here like to use or would suggest. I have a budget of a couple hundred dollars to spend in total including gouges, chisels and the sharpening kit. I'm also wondering if i should worry about getting every size or if it is more practical to only get a few?

Thanks!
 
Lee Valley is where you would shop for better wood working tools. The best chisels and gouges are useless if you can't sharpen them, so if I was starting out as you are, I would invest your couple hundred dollars and get set up to prpoerly sharpen first. The difference between cheap China made chisels and the best chisels is hard to figure out after they get dull, and they will. The higher end chisels are all made to a fairly common standard, a lot of the difference is in the ergonomics of them. I use mostly the Hirsch brand chisels and gouges.
 
I suggest you start by getting a good book on sharpening. I recommend "The Complete Guide to Sharpening" by Leonard Lee (of Lee Valley Tools). I don't think a person can buy a really good quality new chisel or gouge today without spending a bunch of money on just one tool. I have a broad assortment, and none of them were purchased new. Yard sales, flea markets and Fleabay (for the carving chisels) were the sources. I look for good old North American, British, Swedish or German steel - probably overlooking a few. I don't worry about the condition of the cutting edge or LIGHT rust so long as it hasn't been worn down to a stub, bent or twisted and I am not particularly concerned about the handle. My carving chisels and gouges all came from Fleabay and I am particularly fond of the Henry Taylor brand. My two favorite chisels were made from files and were made without annealing and re-hardening - just careful grinding. They have low angle cutting edges, are a little in the brittle side - so no prying - and will slice off tracing paper sized shavings with no effort.

I say don't go out and buy a set. You will end up with tools you are likely to never use. Buy your tools as you find a need for them unless they show up at a real bargain. You can also modify tools to fit your needs. I have a couple of handy chisels in 1/32" and 1/16" widths that I made from old and inexpensive Millers Falls carving tools.

You are doing a lot of barrel inletting and I strongly recommend some barrel bedding tools by Gunline Tools. Get a range of diameters to suit what you are doing. You will wonder how you ever did without them.
 
Took another look at your post. With a budget of a couple hundred bucks, you definitely have to be very selective and go the used tool route. The book on sharpening is still the first thing to buy in my opinion. It will help you get your current tools in shape. I would not buy a sharpening kit. Read the book and then buy your stones and/or diamond plates. Get a good fine stone for your grinder. Carborundum just doesn't cut it. If you have a 1" belt sander, you are in luck. Lee Valley sells belts right down to a few microns.
 
I'd love to get a belt sander anyway. Ill do some more research tonight and find that book and order it. I may just get a few chisels to start now. I like the look of the Narex and Veritas brand chisels they sell at Lee Valley.
 
Should be able to get the book at Lee Valley since, I believe, he owns the company. Not familiar with Narex. I think Veritas is generally good quality but, with what little experience I have with them, I find some of their tools to feel klunky when compared to the old stuff.

A 1" belt sander is real handy for a lot of things. I changed pulleys on mine to slow it down a bit. Less chance of burning a tip.
 
Thanks a bunch for the tips. I took the dive on the Narex chisels, a 1/2" gouge, the 15 micron belt and ordered a 1" combo belt and disk sander from Lee Valley and busy bee. I still have enough money left out of two one hundred dollar bills to pick up the book on amazon too.

Ug any of this stuff is junk I'm not out much. It'll be good to have another book to read too.
 
Sounds like you are off to the races. I suggest you purchase a range of belt grits from L. V. No sense in wearing out a super fine belt or burning your edge when you have to do significant regrinding. While you are at it, get their green honing compound and a piece of thick leather. The side of an old work boot should do in a pinch. Is the book cheaper on Amazon than at Lee Valley?
 
Busy Bee sells a crappy set of chisels that I got, on sale for about $25, bearing a Smith and Wesson logo.

They ARE crap, but if you look at them as a carbon steel work-in-progress that has had most of the shaping done already... Just sayin'. Not the tools I drag out to impress my friends, but when I need to do something brutal, well, no point in doing that with the Swiss/English/German/Japanese/etc. good stuff.

Go slow, buy what you have an immediate use for. Fight back the urge to 'have the whole set' as it really would require a shop about the size of a football stadium.

Get a decent tool roll for the carving chisels, to keep them from being knocked around.

Nothing wrong with buying new, but your money will go a lot further buying used and old tools. You can make a lot of the stuff you need too.

Consider getting a hard leather or hard felt buff for the bench grinder to hone with. Keeping the tool sharp takes less work than making it sharp once it's been worn dull.

Cheers
Trev
 
If you didn't get one already go and buy an aluminium oxide wheel for your grinder that is meant for grinding HSS and tool steel. It's a soft and friable bond that will grind your chisels without producing a huge amount of heat. You still need to be bloody careful not to burn the edge but these wheels at least make it possible to do it right where the regular general purpose wheels will turn the edge blue in the blink of an eye.

Do NOT use these wheels for grinding mild steel. Reserve them just for hardened tool steels. They are very soft and will wear rapidly right before your eyes if you use them on the wrong stuff.

For stock working I found that spoke shaves and coarse rasps and coarse files work like a hot knife on warm butter for shaping the outsides. Again buy new ones and store them so they don't rub against each other and reserve them for wood working. If you use them on much steel at all, in the case of the coarse double cut file, they will lose the keen new edge and cut do as well on wood.

For honing I tried the hard felt and compound. Again with the high speed of a bench grinder it requires a light touch. The compound produces a LOT of heat.

All my troubles in regards to sharpening went away when I started using a Tormek setup. I knew that I wanted a wet grinder for my wood working tools and I went a bit over the taller cliff and went with the Tormek because it had the gizmos for sharpening wood turning tools as well as general sharpening. This is the way to go for wood tool sharpening. It cost a lot but it is worth every penny.

I prided myself on learning to shape with a light touch on the dry grinder with the white stone, care to maintain angles on the water stones and honing to a mirror like back on the chisels and plane blades on the 8000x water stone or hard Arkansas stone. But I'm more than happy to give all that over to history and just use the Tormek to put a fast and stupendous finish on the most abused tools going and make them sharp as razors in almost no time at all. And to do all this safely with no risk of burning the temper out of the steel.

The cheap import version does almost as well but the stone is much softer so don't expect as long a life span as it wears and has to be re-dressed and leveled more often. But replacement stones are about half the price so it all works out. The motor on the import one isn't as good but if you do a little then let it cool down you'll get the job done.
 
Excellent advice from BCRider. ++ on the Tormek. I used the Tormek a lot when I worked in a custom cabinetmaking shop. As said, it is an expensive unit. I, personally could not justify the expense today with the amount of sharpening I do. One can do an equally good job with a little more time, a good grinder (belt or rotary) a good set of stones a hunk of thick leather and some honing compound. It hasn't been mentioned, but you will end up with a hollow grind on a rotary grinder. A belt grinder will yield a flat grind.
 
Years ago I was making a stock from Maple and used chisels I bought from CT, bottom of the barrel so to speak. I spent more time sharpening than cutting, so I bought a couple of gouges from Lee Valley, HENRY TAYLOR. Sharpened to shaving sharp, I proceeded to using a mallet to HOG out a lot of wood. After several minutes of hard hitting, hogging out, I tried for sharpness. It still shaved hair on my arm. After that I've purchased perhaps 8-9 other chisels and gouges, all HENRY TAYLOR. Yes they're pricey but really worth it. Best of luck with your choice. BB
 
Thanks for the advice guys. I bought the small set of Narex chisels (1/4", 1/2", 3/4" and 1" for $45), the micron belt, and one Firmer gouge (1/2") all for $75, and a Craftex 1" belt/ 5" disc combo for $99.

The book is almost $5 cheaper on Amazon plus free shipping.
 
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