My Favorite Tool

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I have many tools I really love. Normally my favorite tool is the one which best suits the work I’m doing, or which I enjoy using, but there is one tool which I constantly turn to where other tools would require too much set-up time to use or where no other tool could do the job. Yes, it is the lowly chisel which has earned a well deserved place in my heart (does that sound gruesome?).

So if enjoyment using it isn’t my reason for making this my favorite, then what is it? Here is a long list of my reasons.

Versatility

  • Can accurately do just about any kind of joinery imaginable
  • Great for taking shavings to adjust sizes on joinery and all other sorts of things.
  • Can get into hard to reach places where other tools cannot.
  • Great for small jobs to avoid time consuming set-up of other tools for joinery, grooves, dados, decorative edges, chamfering , etc.
  • Makes a nice cut line to create a knife wall for precision hand sawing.
  • Can even plane a surface in a pinch (in the right hands).
  • Can also be used for chip carving

Maintenace

  • Simple to sharpen and hone
  • Lightweight and easy to have on the wall, in a tool cabinet or a in a tool tray/chest.

Other Points

  • No electricity required.
  • It would be hard to find a woodworker who does not have a least one chisel in their tool collection and most have many, further attesting to their general usefulness.

Mike, an American living in Norway

I agree mike that hand cutting tools are essential in and king of woodworking.

Madts.

Tor and Odin are the greatest of gods.

chisels are pretty handy.

I like your other favorite tool though… Yup the mallet. For when the kids gets out of hand :)

Abbas, Castro Valley, CA

Unfortunately Abbas my mallet bit the dust awhile back. The glue gave out first so I put in the screws, but it was downhill from there so I finally tossed it. I really miss it.

A mallet head made from a solid piece like Paul Seller’s model would be best but it is hard to find 3" thick wood these days. I have and idea though how to make a three board head that could not be banged apart at the glue lines. I will probably blog it when I make it.

Mike, an American living in Norway