Chisels and Paring

Kinds of chisels

A small set covers most work ¹:

• Bench chisels: the everyday tool, beveled sides to reach into corners, strong enough for light mallet work. A set of four or five (1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 3/4, 1 in.) is plenty to start.
• Paring chisels: long, thin, and never struck; for fine trimming of tenons, housings, and dovetails.
• Mortise chisels: thick, heavy, square-sided, for chopping mortises with a mallet and levering out waste; usually 1/4, 5/16, and 3/8 in.
• Firmer chisels: square-sided, sturdy, general purpose; the traditional pattern.
• Gouges: curved for hollows and carving.

Sharpen bench and paring chisels at 25° with a microbevel; give mortise chisels 30 to 35° (see Sharpening).

Chopping

Chopping drives the chisel with a mallet, across or into the grain:

• Strike with a wooden or rawhide mallet, not a steel hammer (unless the chisel has a steel-hooped handle meant for it).
• Chop vertically to a knife line, then pare horizontally to remove the waste, in alternating steps.
• When chopping dovetail or mortise waste, stay a little back from the final line and pare to it last; the wedge of the bevel pushes the chisel back past the line if you start right on it.
• Keep the chisel plumb: sight from the front and side, or use a square block as a guide.

Paring

Paring removes thin shavings with hand pressure alone. It’s how joints are fit exactly.

Body and grip:

• Clamp the work. Both hands stay behind the edge: one pushes the handle (often with the shoulder or body weight behind it), the other holds the blade near the edge, guiding and braking.
• For vertical paring, put your shoulder over the handle and use body weight, with the guiding hand’s fingers resting on the work.

Cuts:

• Across the grain (trimming a tenon cheek or the floor of a housing): pare from both edges toward the middle, so the far edge doesn’t split off.
• End grain: take very thin slices with a razor-sharp chisel, slightly skewed or with a slicing motion; never pare off the far edge without support.
• To a knife line: drop the chisel edge into the knifed line - you’ll feel it click in - and the line registers the cut exactly. This “knife wall” is the basis of accurate hand joinery (see Marking, Measuring, and Layout).
• Long grain: watch the grain direction; paring against the grain makes the chisel dive and split the wood.

Care

• Keep edges covered (a canvas tool roll or rack), never loose in a drawer.
• Don’t use chisels to open cans or scrape glue.
• Hone often; a few strokes on the finest stone and a strop restore a lightly dull edge.

At the bench

Knife a line around a pine board 1 in. from the end. Pare the end grain down to the line in thin slices, working from both edges. Then knife a 3/4 in. wide, 1/4 in. deep housing across a board, saw the walls, chop and pare the waste, and check the floor with the edge of the chisel and a square.

What to take from this

Bench chisels do most work; paring chisels trim and are never struck; mortise chisels are thick and steep-beveled for chopping and levering. Chop vertically to a line with a mallet and pare away waste in steps, staying back from the final line until the end. Pare with the work clamped and both hands behind the edge, from both edges inward, in thin slices, and drop the edge into knife lines for exact registration.