The chisel method is one of most accurate ways to make dowels. Don't get excited. Read on. Basically you drill a hole of the dowel size you want then form a small cone entry with a chamfer bit or reamer bit. You clamp a chisel on the top so it's cutting edge lines up between the bottom of that cone shaped hole and the beginning of the drilled hole.
As before, cut your stock slightly larger then the finished size you want. Chuck it up in a drill and go for it!
PRO
If you have achieved mounting everything correctly you can get very accurate and smooth cut dowel. If you have someone on the output side you can cut long lengths up to 4' . Watch this video by Rob Cosman. I highly recommend watching before choosing this method. He has a few other posts on this topic as well.
CON
Absolutely a pain in the butt to setup!! And when you do get it right then it shouldn't be disassembled. Because then to reassemble you're doing the same pain all over again. Rob Cosman forever keeps his assembled. The other thing is... what to do if you have to sharpen!
Oh it's beautiful on the cut but the setup is very painful. Did you watch the video by Rob Cosman ? Tweaking it to get an exact size has always been a test of patience for me. Like I said... once you get there .... undoing it will exacerbate your pain reassembling it again.
The chisel technique is very long winded if you want precise diameter dowels. I've put it to the test numerous times and don't use it. Not my favorite for sure.
