THE FORGOTTEN STORY BEHIND JAPANESE CHISELS
While Japanese chisels as woodworking implements have existed for centuries, it was the makers of the famed samurai swords that may have given us the chisels OF today. In this post, I'll share that forgotten story and help decode the fascinating technology that makes Japanese woodworking chisels so different from modern Western-style chisels. By the end, you'll have a whole new respect for this strange little tool with the dented backside.
DO BEVEL ANGLES MATTER?
Some people insist on a precise angle for pine, a different one for oak, another altogether for cherry, one angle for long grain, another for end grain. If you work with a lot of different woods, you'd need a hundred different planes or chisels set up with different bevels, or else you'd be regrinding your tools to nubs with the constant changes.