Hand-Sharpened Wood Carving Tools Set of 7 Chisels and Gouges with Canvas Case, Razor Sharp CR-V 60 Steel Woodworking Tools, High-Quality Wood Carving Chisel Set for Beginners from Schaaf Tools

The bottom line is that these are very good quality chisels for the price.I've prepared and used the 1" chisel on cherry and pine. No sweat. Then today I pared about 3 feet of 3/8" box joints in padouk. No sweat. The edge held up very well - one slight hone required after doing more than half of them.Out of the box:* The handles are not very aesthetically pleasing, but they are functional. I found them comfortable to work with. I don't like the hard finish - I much prefer an oiled finish. I might be tempted to slightly flatten one of them enough to eliminate rolling, but I'm always a little worried that changes like that will change the comfort.* The grind is pretty rough, and definitely needs to be prep'd before using. I expected that, so I'm not dining the chisels for that. The only chisels that I know of that can be used for woodworking out of the box are from Lee Valley, and cost 5-7 times what the Schaaf chisels cost at full price. Even those need final prepping to work optimally.* The angle on the 1" chisel was 27.5 degrees. That is about perfect for me, as I like a 30 degree angle, and a secondary bevel gets me just about there.* The roll is not the best designed roll that I've ever used, but it is OK. I wouldn't use it without the chisel guards.Prepping the 1" chisel:* The back was very slightly concave. The only chisels I've ever bought that were perfectly flat were from Lee Valley and were considerably more expensive. Given that, if you can't get perfectly flat out of the box, slightly concave is the next best thing.* The machining was pretty rough - rough enough that without prepping, the edge would quickly chip and degrade. I would not use these chisels without prepping them.* I flattened the back by working through the following grits - 220, 1000, 4000, 8000 (all Norton stones) and 15000 (Shapton). It took me about 35 minutes, which is good for me.* Next I put on a preliminary secondary bevel (4000 grit) to see what kind of edge I would get. The bevel was 27.5 degrees, so the secondary was close to 30. This minor honing still left the edge with some minor but noticeable nicks. At that point I reground the bevel a bit (less than a minute) at 1000 grit, and that eliminated the nicks. I then honed a secondary bevel to 15000 grit.* I was able to grind the bevel and hone the secondary bevel by hand, and still end up with a perfectly square edge (as far as I could tell).* Finally, I relieved the edges along the back to make the chisel more comfortable for paring.Update on Prepping:* Today I prepped the other three chisels. All of them were either flat of slightly concave out of the box, so good flatness.* For the first time I used a Work Sharp WS3000 with a coarse grit to flatten the backs. Excellent results in a minute or two per chisel, as opposed to the 10-20 minutes I'm used to with a 220 waterstone.* I then worked through the other grits as described above for the 1" chisel.* As an experiment, I used the WS3000 again, this time with the leather strop wheel, to see if I could get a good polish without rounding the back. Worked great! The backs were as close to dead flat as my eyes can see, and no noticeable rounding at the edge.Comparison - bear in mind that these are subjective comparisons, but I've used all of the chisels mentioned to build stuff.* In general, I ding the Schaaf set for providing just a limited set of 4 chisels. In particular, I'd like to see 1/8", 3/8", and 5/8" chisels. I'd also like to see skew chisels, but lacking that, you could always grind your own from 1/2" chisels if you could buy them individually.* Box store chisels - Craftsman, DeWalt, Buck Bros, etc. I will only use these chisels for rough carpentry where the plastic handles allow for heavy-duty pounding even when the edge gets dull.* At first use, Schaaf chisels seem to be on a par with the old Record blue handle chisels, which were very serviceable for most woodworking tasks. If anything, they were a tad flatter out of the box. The advantage of the Record chisels is that the plastic handles on mine have taken a lot of abuse over the years. As far as I know, you can't buy these new anymore.* Since I'm not a fan of the new generation of blue handle chisels since another company bought the Record brand, I'd rate Schaaf above them.* Woodcraft green handled chisels - I haven't used my set for anything but rough woodworking, but in general they seem similar to the current generation of blue handle chisels.* They seem to be on a par with the new Stanley Sweetheart chisels. I like the feel of the Schaaf handles better.* They hold an edge better that the old octagonal handled Robert Sorby chisels, although nothing feels as good in your hand as that octagonal handle.* Lie Nielsen - Way more expensive, but they are better chisels. I particularly like them for fine, detailed work. They also come in smaller sizes, which I find very handy on occasion.* Lee Valley PMV-11 - Way more expensive, but in my mind the best you can buy. However, you can buy two sets of Schaaf chisels for the price of one PMV-11 chisel. PMV-11 is worth it if you are chopping dovetails all day and need to minimize your sharpening, but if you are an occasional woodworker like me, and are willing to put the work into properly preparing your chisels and keeping them sharp, the Schaaf chisels will do what you need.Bear in mind that you are not buying fully sharpened chisels when you buy this set. You are buying quality steel that will hold up well to demanding woodworking tasks once you have flattened and polished the backs and honed the edge, and you are getting very good value for the price.

I've had a set of hardware store chisels for 30+ years that have served me well. I was fortunate enough to have friend who took the timber framing class up in the NE sharpen them for me for practice when I first got them. I've pretty much preserved his work but it's difficult because of their configuration. So, I wanted to finally get something more for woodworking rather than carpentry.After reading the reviews, I thought these were cheap enough I wasn't risking much if they weren't any better than my ACE chisels. Upon opening the box, they were in a very nice cloth wrap with robust edge guards. The handles are comfortable, the ferules are tight and unblemished and the chisels don't have egregious machine marks. I expect that 60-90 minutes on my water stones will give me a great set of chisels.UPDATE 3.28.24: I did get all 4 chisels ready for use as most YouTube gurus claim is necessary. But it took about 4 hours all in. As I said above, the machine marks were not too bad. But the backs of the chisels are slightly concave, better than convex. But even though I could have left a dimple in the center, I was determined to get the entire back flat. The steel is definitely hard, it took a good session on my Norton stones to get them sharp. I judge sharpness by the usual paper cutting but I also check how much effort it takes to shave across end grain on a piece of walnut or hickory.

This is the first set of chisels that I have purchased. I considered starting with a more expensive option, but thought I would give these a try first. I’m very impressed. As most chisels sets are, this set does not arrive ready to use. Flattening and sharpening is needed, but after some easy initial preparation on 300/600/1200 diamond stones and a final finish on a stropping strap, they were razor sharp. I’ve since cut numerous mortising joints from Walnut, and the edges have held up impressively well. An occasional swipe on the strop, and they have cut through the Walnut with ease. I can easily shave end grains as well without the use of a mallet. I’m more than satisfied with the performance, and glad I didn’t spend $100 per chisel.