This month we will look at chisels and marking and measuring tools. A few years ago, for another magazine, I did a test run of all the chisel brands available in the cabinetmakers bevel edge pattern. The goal was to find the best brand chisel for cabinet maker apprentices. In doing this I found that although chisels vary greatly in the quality of their polish, the shape and quality of the handles. However, most manufacturers use a very similar grade of steel, so the edge holding capacity of the chisels made in Europe was very similar. What we did learn at that time was that if you change the Euro chisel type to the Japanese chisel, it is possible to get an edge holding capacity that would last 4-5 times longer than the Euro chisel. The downside to going with the Japanese is that they are made of a bit more brittle steel, but if one is careful how one uses them, this doesn’t seem like too much of a downside. A slightly more serious drawback, however, is the fact that re-sharpening a Japanese chisel takes much longer than sharpening a European one. This is because the edge is made of a much harder steel and requires much more care when sharpening.
So you pay your money and choose. If you get a European type pattern chisel, you might be sharpening the edge 4 or 5 times more often than you own a Japanese pattern chisel, but sharpening tools shouldn’t be much of a problem, it should be something that should be accomplished like a natural part of the work rhythm. You work trimming that hard piece of maple for 15 – 20 – 25 minutes, then your concentration is gone and the natural way to restore it is to gently walk to the sharpening bench: hold, hold one side and hold, hold the other side. , change the stones, strop strop one side and strop, strop the other and you’re back to work. Sharpening is good for you.
You will need a set of chisels that go down less than 1/8 inch to about 11/2 inches. Especially in the small sizes, you’ll need all chisels in as many width variations as you can get your hands on. This is because one chisel may not fit into that dovetail opening while another will. This can best be accomplished by purchasing a set of chisels in, say, imperial measurement (fractions of an inch) and then purchasing chisels that fill the sizes in between these in metric measurement. Look at the way the chisel grinds. One of the characteristics of the chisel is the way the back of the chisel is beveled or undercut to lighten the blade. This should really go as close to the flat back of the chisel as possible. Imagine the difficulty of skimming in a dovetail socket with a chisel that didn’t do this (and many of them don’t, with many chisels the chamfering is just a decorative effect rather than a useful property). Also look at the way the handle attaches to the blade and look at the size of the handles. Many manufacturers these days are putting one shank size on both small and large blades, making the tools unbalanced and difficult to handle. My personal preference is for wood-handled chisels that aren’t covered in a slippery plastic lacquer. Coming down to specific recommendations. I think of the European pattern chisel. I would recommend the Sorby 167 series. These are available from 1/8 inch up to 1 1/2 inch and cost between £18.82 for the smallest to £25.74 for the largest. Of the Japanese I would recommend the “Umeki-Nomi”. These are very well beveled chisels, in fact they are often called well made dovetail chisels without being too expensive and available in 3mm, 6mm, 9mm and 12mm. Axminster Power Tools have them starting at £26. These chisels, like most Japanese chisels, have recesses in the flat back to help with the grinding or preparation process.
Stripping chisels are usually ground to a slightly finer angle and are never used with a mallet. I have a very nice pair of Japanese chisels, one 25mm wide and one 35mm wide. These are very well balanced tools with long red oak handles but sadly I can’t find a supplier in the UK who can provide similar chisels for my students but I believe they are available from the Garrett Wade catalogue. I’m hesitant to recommend a European pattern stripping chisel because it takes too long to flatten the back of a long wide chisel. This is where the Japanese pattern with a hollow back wins so much. To sharpen your chisels you will need a Japanese water stone. “King” makes a very good 1200 grit stone at around £10.50 and I would also recommend buying a 6000 grit “King” finishing stone. This will set you back £17.20. You can get a finer 8000 grit stone, but I don’t think I would recommend this.
I will now move on to the marking and measuring tools. These are essential items of equipment. First let’s look at the rules. This is not an imperial measurement workshop and we are going to ask you to convert from feet to inches and start thinking in millimeters. Once you get used to it, you’ll find it a much easier way to measure jobs. Purchase rulers with clear measurements etched into the surface of the ruler. There are many rulers with metric and imperial measurements, but the best ruler we have found is metric only and is produced by Stanley and is their 47R metric range. These rulers are available in 150mm, 300mm, 600mm and 1 meter and range in price from £4.04 to £23.01. Try to avoid cheap rulers and avoid rulers that have metric and imperial graduations and half a millimeter. These rules tend to be confusing. I think to start I would buy a 1 meter, a 300mm and a 150mm and then I would buy a 600mm. Tape measures are also useful for making rough measurements on boards, and as long as they are reasonably accurate, any type of tape will do.
For marking knives we have chosen to use the Swann Morton scalpel – there are several different types of handles and the blades are easily replaceable. This is after years of using special bevel scoring knives on one side. Maybe it’s my eyesight failing, but I think the scalpel gives a cleaner, sharper line to work with. You will probably need two marking gauges and two cutting gauges. “Crown” makes quite nice small gauges and the Joseph Marples No.2 gauge is a simple gauge made well. One of the best gauges is the Veritas Wheel Marking Gauge. This is quite an expensive item at £15.08p and I probably wouldn’t spend that kind of money myself, but it looks like a very good tool. If I didn’t want to buy the Veritas, I can opt for the Axminster Superior Marking Gauge at £8.64 done in rosewood with brass fittings.
For mortise gauges you really need to spend more than £20 to buy precision gear, usually in rosewood with brass fittings. You can find a good one second hand, but if you can’t, look at the Crown 154 mortise gauge at £21 or the Axminster Power Tools top mortise gauge at £28.55.
Along with gauges, rulers, and marking, you need two engineer squares. I recommend an all metal engineer’s square because there are a lot of wood handled triple squares that just aren’t accurate enough for cabinet making. You’ll need a degree of precision in your marking that simply can’t be achieved if you have a treacherous little instrument like a square that wasn’t quite square in your toolbox. Opt for a high quality engineers square with BS939 engraved on the body of the square. This will ensure that it has been verified to the level of accuracy you require. If you can compare the square at the tool shop before you buy it to a higher engineers grade square called an “inspectors grade square” or alternatively to a surface plate with a bottle gauge fitted. If the store doesn’t have these instruments to test your squares, they shouldn’t sell the squares, go elsewhere. I would suggest you buy a small 3 inch square which will cost around £17 and a larger 6 inch square which will cost around £21. If you are feeling extra rich you can choose a 9 inch square instead of a 6 inches, but that will set you back about £45. Another tool you’ll need is a beveled straight edge. This is a piece of steel typically between 800mm and 1000mm in length that is used for cutting veneers and checking the flatness of wood and tools. It is important equipment and you should buy the best you can afford. We’ve seen some beveled straight edges from Axminster Power Tools that have been relatively cheap at £15-£18, but the straightness has been rather iffy and our local engineer had to re-machine one edge. Checking out and remachining this tool could become an annual event unless you spend a lot more money and buy a quality engineering rule in the first place. That is if you can find one. My only source at this point is the Garrett Wade catalogue.
You will need two sets of drill bits, one set to cover the full range of holes to be drilled from 1mm to 13mm. this is usually in a “Jobbers” type box and is available in 0.2mm increments. I think I’d be content with 0.5mm size increments to begin with. The other type of drill bits that you can get are a point and point pattern bit set which are good for cutting clean and accurate holes. This is the second in a series of articles published in Good Woodworking magazine by David Savage in August 2000. Parts 1 and 3 are also available here, just download and use, but please give credit to the author.
