Sensibly priced carving chisels

[B.Habermehl]

I know we have all suffered from sticker shock when buying carving chisels. Here is a souurce for some sensibly priced miniature carving chisels. Of good quality.
http:www.hummul.com
I bought mine from them in person at their store in Nescopeck Pa. Paid $6.50 each, I've been using them for about 5 years now and have been very happy with them. Sure I spent about $80 but I walked out with a bunch of goood chisels.When you get their paper catalog look at page 45 for the chisels I am talking about. These are the primary sizes I use for my lock inleting and other work. BJH

 

[bob1961]

i have some from lee valley that are big and small also....and they worked good......bob

lee valley tools........

 

[B.Habermehl]

Lee valley does have nice tools, I have their catalog too, but these are less expensive and American made as well. They hold an edge as well as my best home forged specialty tools. And as well as the quality european chisels I have. I just wanted the information posted to help beginners get a set of decent quality tools without taking out a second mortgage. BJH

 

[Johnny Tremain]

Check here, they are cheap, yet sharp as all get out.

http://www.muzzleloaderbuilderssupply.com/

Im only doing one gun, (may get a pistol to match, dont tell the wife) so I didnt figure on buying a lot of tools. Ive raided the local flea markets, and got a set of these.

 

[Bob Riegl]

As a woodcarver I think I have more than a passing acquaintance with carving tools. The term "cheap" should be taken literally---Hummul is a good source and if you talk with them they can give you good advice. Watch out for the tools that you purchase as they will arrive needing to be honed before using. Honing is something you would be better to learn early in your carving career as you will not be very happy with your carving unless they are "sharpened." You will be dealing with relatively hardwoods while most woodcarvers deal with basswood and/or tupelo, which are considerably lighter and "softer" woods, than Maple, walnut etc. Additionally when carving these harder woods you need larger chisels with longer & stronger handles, as well as a couple of more inches in the metal. The pushing and tapping with mallets requires a stronger handle---and the need to use two hands with the harder woods is mandatory. So if you are going to be at this for a while and plan to do a lot more "carving", then plan on spending $15-$25 for each chisel. You want to shave and remove wood easily not break and chip. :imo:

 

[Birddog6]

If you are only gonna do 1 gun, go to the flea market or Hobby Lobby & buy a $10. set & they will do what you need.

If you are planing on doing more than that, go to Woodcrafts & get a 5 piece set or buy 4-5 FlexCut carving tools & they will last you a lifetime & you WILL love them. I buy the $7-10 ones from the flea market & make scrapers of dif. shapes with them.

:results:

 

[triplefg]

Buying a cheap set of chisels or gouges is only going to make you really angry really quick. They can be made to work, but the amount of grinding/sharpening/honing that will be neccesary may not be worth your while. In my experience, the cheap tools are way too thick and the bevels are all too steep. A lot of them look more like little lathe tools! A while ago I tested out this import set:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/det...4#more-pictures
which can be found almost anywhere. These aren't bad tools - the steel is good, I think it averaged out at about 58/59 Rc, and they aren't grossly oversize, but they need a whole lot of work to put a good edge on them.
If you only need them for one project, I say talk to some carvers, decide what tools you can get by with, and get a couple Pfiel (sp?) or Heinkel tools. Most of the carvers I know collect their tools one or two at a time.

 

[B.Habermehl]

One nice thing about Hummul is they do not have any JUNK tools in their catalog. The chisels I talk about WILL hold a edge. If you goof inletting a lock and get into the barrel, They will dull the fine edge. The same as any tool known to man. The Flex cut brand may be a bit better I have not had reason to try them. I do own some of the Phiel chisels. The ones I suggest, compare favorably, especially when you factor in the cost. They are decent tools for a bigenner or a more advanced builder. I've been building guns for 15 years now so maybe, :imo: I have seen and worked with a chisel or two. BJH

 

[triplefg]

I wasn't trying to belittle your advice, B.Habermehl, merely to provide some options for those raw begginers who may not be willing to shell out big money on tools. It can be intimidading to talk to advanced woodworkers when you don't understand the terminology or recognize any of the brands they are talking about.
By "cheap tools" I mean the no-name sets most hardware stores sell now. I've never tried any Hummel tools, so I can't pass judjment, but if you say they compare well to (my favorite) Flex-cuts, that's good enough for me.
I think a lot of beginners, myself at one point included, will look at the price of one good tool, realize that they can get an entire set of import tools for less money, and then get discouraged when they "can't carve". Thankfully I met some carvers who set me straight and encouraged me to try again with decent tools. There are few things more frustrating than working with a crappy gouge.

 

[Zonie]

Nine or so years ago, I bought a little box of inexpensive Chinese chisels. They set me back about $5. The kind with the metal blade stuck into a 3/8 dia wooden dowel. They never would cut anything much harder than styrofoam even with a lot of honeing.

I next bought a lettle set of nicely polished chisels for about $20. These had shiney blades and little dark red wooden palm handles. The blades were too thick in the cutting area behind the edge and I never could get them sharp enough to really let me make a controlled cut. Working with these was scary and for the most part, I figured out other ways to carve the wood.

I recently bought a set of Flex-Cut chisels. They cut so cleanly and smoothly and with such a small amount of pressure that I couldn't believe it. Because they cut so easily, they are very easy to control (which is something I could never say about my old chisels).
Even the maker seems to know how sharp they are. He includes a little yellow package of band-aids in each set. ::
I was impressed enough that I went back to the wood store and bought another set with different blades.

If I were to make a suggestion to a first time carver it would be to find some FlexCut chisels and just buy one or two that look like they would do most of the cutting you plan to do. They cost a lot more than my first chisels but they are relatively cheap when compared with some of the European chisels.