What's the Deal with Japanese Chisels?
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- Опубликовано: 15 сен 2024
- What are Japanese chisels all about? How are they different from Western style, and is there really a difference? I got my first set and let's take a look at what I've got.
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There are different grade of steels in Japan. If you invest in some higher grade chisels in Japan, not cheap, you will definitely see a huge difference from the western ones. The good Japanese chisels are what give them the reputation. Because the steel is harder. And they way they are forged with softer metal outers, they are more durable. Less likely to chip an edge. You can then use a sharper angle when you sharper them. The smaller the angle on the sharpener, the sharper the tool will be. But at the expense of durability. You have to sharpen a lot more frequently. With lower grade steels you can only get them so sharp no matter what angle you sharpen them too. Because the grain in the steel is not as fine. Sp with a highend Japanese chisel, or knife...you can get them much sharper and they will hold an edge much longer. Pretty important when you are trying to get jobs done in a manner that allows you to a lot of time needed to complete the project. Not to mention the ease of doing fine work with a razor sharp tool versus one that is just kid of sharp.
The hollow on the flat side is to speed up the sharpening process. They are designed to be laid flat on a stone after the angle is sharpened. The hollow makes for less material to be removed. You are not supposed to do the flat side at an angle. That will increase the angle. And when laid flat on the wood, the edge will be slightly elevated. I have messed around with chisels, knifes and wood planes made with High end Japanese steel forged to perfection the old school way. They are far superior. I invested in high end Japanese wet stones too. For an example I will talk about kitchen knives. I have, though I no longer use, a good set of German steel knives. And I have a medium grade Japanese knife. To slice tomatoes, I have to sharpen the German knife at an angle beyond what it can hold to get that edge that will slice super thin. It needs to be sharpened, touched up daily. With the multi layer forged Japanese knife, it keeps an edge for a month or much longer. And though it can be seen as dangerous because it is razor sharp, it is much safer because you can control it much easier. Duller blades are far more dangerous. And they look amazing. Once you experience it you will never be happy with anything other than the Japanese steel.
Now you must also know the Japanese have lower quality knives and chisels and planes that are no better than western products. So to just generalize all Japanese blades in one category is like saying all cars are the same. When it comes to blades, the higher end Japanese ones far surpass the best western ones in many ways. Even cosmetically. But that can be subjective. There is no question on quality. You do have to take the time to learn the proper methods of sharpening and maintaining them, as the good ones are not stainless and will rust out on you. You can't just throw the knif in the sink and wash it the next day. It is actually recommended to clean it immediately after each use. Once you get it down, it is really not a big deal at all and the benefits are more than worth it. They are amazing. Lazy people will not care and will just continue with the junk they have and never know what they are missing. Almost all of your superb chefs have and favor really nice Japanese blades. And wood worker that get a chance to feel the difference will adopt them into their arsenal as well and rave about how much better they are.
Do some research. There are tons of youtube videos on them. How to's in finding good one, how to sharpen, maintain etc.
It's a rabbit hole but one well worth diving head first into.
Japanese Chisels will become a huge part of your workflow - they are amazing at doing hand-cut dovetail work
This was really fun to watch and I could see you had a similar reaction to when I first got a set of decent Japanese chisels. I agree that the balance and how they feel in the hand is very different to western chisels and makes them extremely pleasing and fun to use. They also seem to get very sharp and stay sharp for a long time. My set is laminated white steel and isn't one of the expensive fancy sets or anything. I am now very protective of and have an emotional attachment to my Japanese chisels, which isn't something I can say about many other tools maybe a few Lie Nielsen hand planes (101 and 102, I love them so much).
Crucible Steel was invented in England in the 18th Century, and it consistently produced a homogenous high carbon steel without impurities. Being high carbon it's harder and brittle, which is good for creating edge tools but needs to be forge welded onto softer iron to absorb impact and stress. (It's also cost efficient.) All chisels and plane irons in Britain of that era would have "Cast" or "Cast Steel" stamped. The parameters for heat treating high carbon steel to make it suitably hard is narrow and so batch quality varied. This is still true today in Japan.
I tell you all of this because Japanese chisels have similar construction insofar as having a steel cutting edge laminated to soft iron. However, the grade of steel is important. Japan produces a variety of steel; the most common being White & Blue. White Steel 2 is high carbon, and refined to a higher carbon% to become White Steel 1. The heat treatment process for WS1 is difficult and only a handful of skilled makers offer this. In comparison, Blue Steel is an alloy and refined into Blue Steel 2 & 1 by adding different levels of tungsten etc. Blue steel is more common in plane blades because it generally wears slower when planing hardwoods. Blue Steel's heat treating parameters are more forgiving and certainly play a role in makers opting for a more consistent production method. For chisels, WS2 is common however WS1 makers are out there like Sukemaru. The list is obviously bigger inside Japan.
All Western Chisels are alloys. The benefits of Japanese chisels for me include it's harder edge and handle design. It's laminated structure is easier to sharpen in comparison to most Western Chisel Steels and the handle allows for metal hammers to be used without fear of splitting-you feel the force of your hammer blows transferred to the chisels edge in a more satisfying way than a joiners mallet.
If you're curious about chisel designs, here's a useful overview: brianholcombewoodworker.com/guide-to-japanese-chisels/
If you're willing to pay the relatively speedy £80-£100 International DHL Shipment and added import fees, you can order Japanese tools @ shop.kurashige-tools.com/en-gb
I've been down the rabbit hole of Japanese chisels for 4 or 5 days now. The chisel you have with the ferule round the top of the handle is for striking with a hammer, which is why it has a straight t handle. You can get ones with a barrel shaped handle and no ferule, they are the ones for pushing by hand. The flat backside of the Japanese chisel has to be maintained as well as the front bevel, the Samurai Carpenter, The Carpentry Life will have videos about sharpening Japanese chisels. Japanese Tools Australia has 3 short videos on setting up your Japanese chisels. Part 1 setting the hoop on the handle. Part 2 Lapping the back of the blade. Part 3 Grinding the bevel. Apparently the chisel will be sharp out of the box but needs the finishing touches by the owner. You're going to need a fine grit sandstone.
Lightweight chisels are often more intuitive/natural for carving, whereas chunky chisels are more useful as bashers for construction or when you're impatient using hardwood timbers. I personally don't have any Japanese chisels, but I have some slender antique chisels I inherited from an old lady with an amazing collection of tiny tacks and nails you couldn't possibly source in 2023. She also repurposed some leather hand bags into file/rasp/riffle carrying containers, and even though I'm an Aussie bloke, I love em. Thanks Lynn. $0.02
I was watching Paul Sellers sharpen some chisels one day and I also happened to watch him carve a spoon and he said, if it doesn't look like a spoon, cut it off. Partly joking, but it made sense all of a sudden. So one day I'm up at my shop and I was waiting for some paint to dry (true) and I had this old beat up chisels that I had for years so I thought, let me try to sharpen this thing. I proceeded to get it so sharp that you could just push it thru a piece of white pine scrap I had, you guessed it, about the size of a spoon. So I started looking for parts that didn't look like a spoon and cut them off lol! Before long I had a spoon. I was hooked. So I ordered a set of Pheil chisels of different sizes and added a Shipley and a Drake knife to the collection. I have never had them on a stone, I just hone them every five minutes or so and they cut like butter. But i made a carrying case for them and used an ndym magnet behind each one and they stay in place beautifully. I drilled about a 1/4 inch cavity for each chisel the size of it's handle in the bottom of the case and then put the magnets in a raised piece of wood just behind all of the metal parts a little over halfway up the blade. I think the magnets were about an inch or so and they grab very securely. The chisels are always in place when I open the box. Think of a box that you make and cut in half so that each side on hinges comes together to form the box, but now you have double the space to put your chisels, both sides of the box so to speak. I then relief carved my logon on the front and I have loved it. The chisels can go anywhere with me in the size of a brief case. All of that to say this, try securing the chisels to your chisels rack with magnets. They work like a charm, especially the neodymium ones. Very strong pull.
Guauuuu....traducción al español...eso está muy bien Darbin...Gracias por la novedad
It is not a good idea to hollow grind Japanese chisels, such as using the Tormek. The reason being that the metal at the cutting edge is hard and thin. The rest of the blade is a different type of metal. When you hollow grind, you are removing more metal than is necessary on the thin cutting edge and hence, shortening the life of the cutting edge.
Hallo Linn wieder ein tolles Video von dir und danke für die Einladung und tschüß aus Düsseldorf Germany 🥳🥳 🇩🇪 🇩🇪 🇸🇪🇸🇪
I have tons of Carpentry tools-mostly Western but have also picked up Japanese saws (3), planes (5), hammers (2) and of course, chisels (6) over the years, I can honestly say that the standard of my woodworking is higher when I use them. Less force is required, they feel light to the touch and the precision I look for is somehow so much more easy to achieve.
The only downside-apart from the fact tat they are very expensive- is that I have become obsessed with keeping my chisels and plane irons razor sharp and I spend more much time attending to that than is desirable!
Muchas gracias por el doblaje en español.
Belated Happy Birthday to you, Linn!
Haha quite belated. Thanks Kathleen. 🙂
Pretty interesting tools indeed, Linn! 😃
I already tried and loved Japanese saws... I need to try the chisels as well!
Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
The Dozuki saw is the best new addition to my toolset since I started on this Odyssey!
There are antique hammers in museums that are displayed in the racks they lived on. Simple comb style. Like the common clamp rack. Much simpler. Make sure the width of the slots holds the sides of the hammer head.
Japanese chisels or Nomi, come in a range of sizes in Millimeters and lengths. As mentioned elsewhere, the steel types used can range from affordable to eye watering.
I find they work better with a slicing action, rather than a push or pry action.
I reach for my Japanese chisels more and more.
Elegant feel.
I love my Japanese chisels - from my experience, unless you do it freehand it's not easy to get less than 35 degrees (because the blade is shorter and the shape doesn't fit into jigs very easily) But that's fine with me. Thank for the video - it will be interesting to see Your project.
I use the Veritas sharpening jig and it's easy to get 25-30 degree bevels on Japanese chisels, some other jigs I've tried don't work as well with them
I have used Japanese chisels since I read about them in the Krenov volumes in the 1970's. I used them for all manner of work from fine cabinetry to timber frame joinery. Upon closer observation, you should see a lamination line on the edge of the blade where the hard steel is laminated to a softer backing steel. Enjoy your new "toys", and by all means spend the money for all the sizes.
I have no Japanese chisels either. My observation is that the Japanese tend to add form to function. They furniture and buildings are as pleasing to look at as to use. My guess is the same is true with their tools. Tools with better balance are probably less likely to cause fatigue when used for a whole day. Thank you for the honest assessment.
Yes I think this is true. Overall I love them, but I think their are two reasonable complaints with them. 1. that the ring can dig into your hand depending on how you hold it, this has never been a problem for me as I tend to naturally hold them more towards the midsection. 2. that the hollow on the back can make them harder to register for precise work. This is absolutely true and a quality western chisel is better in this regard, but if you have a larger set (I think mine is 8 or 9) you can generally pick the right size for the job and registering isn't much of an issue. But there are certain types of cuts where I need to take more care to make sure the chisel is registered properly even compared to a cheap western chisel - still, I reach for the Japanese chisels whenever doing fine or important cuts (I don't have any high end western chisels, so take that with a grain of salt)
Gracias por la traducción!!!!
For good Japanese chisel your going to spend more the 25 to 40 dollars. But there is a reason for the premium price once set up correctly they will go through any hardwood like butter . Retain edge for long time
I'm sure you can spend a lot more and they do get better, but there are diminishing returns. I got a 10 chisel set for about $200 by Fujihiro - laminated white steel. They're not fancy and I had to do the set up work and flattening the backs (esp the larger ones) took a while. But now that they are set up, they get very sharp, cut like butter and hold an edge for a long while. Maybe in 30 years I will be a good enough woodworker to appreciate chisels that cost $100 each - but probably not.
¿Me parece que son formones japoneses, no cinceles?.
WHAT THE HECK... Linn in Portuguese now? 😳
I almost felt of the chair here!!! 😂
😂
me encanto en español muchas gracias
👋hi,I liked them,👍
Why o why do you wiggle chisels through wood? 😊
Japanese build a whole house using only chisels XD . so i can imagine that chisels from Japan are a whole different lvl !!!
Дякую за огляд! Мої щирі вітання з України!
😀👍
its nice doesnt just feel like a hunk of metal you know