WOODRIVER 6 Piece Bench Chisel Set

I really like these chisels. Are they the best? No. However, I really enjoy using them, and I think they are a really good value.They feel nice in your hand.They sharpen to a razor sharp edge.

Great chisels

I've had these chisels for about 3 years now. I debated quite a bit initially between these, the narex, and the blue chip marples. I didn't like the handle pattern at all on the Narex, and the sale price on the WoodRiver solidified my decision to give them a shot as my starter set. I am primarily a hand tool woodworker and these get a ton of use. My initial plan was to use these for a while then upgrade to a nice socketed chisel like the SW750's or Lie Nielsen's. That never happened and never will. I am very pleased with these.Initial Impressions:Honestly not very good. The finish on one of the handles wasn't great. A little BLO helped that out. Also the etch on my 3/4" chisel is blurry. However these things are cosmetic and at the price point not worth getting worked up over. The box was well constructed though.Initial HoningThese come "sharpened". That really means the factory tooling ground the bevel to the correct angle. They are nowhere near ready to use. If you do use these right out of the box, your experience will not be good. If you think it is good, wait until you hone them. All in all I felt they weren't too bad to get into shape. That is until I got to the 1" chisel. The back was crowned. Worst case scenario. It took a solid hour to flatten it on waterstones. I honed a microbevel and was off to the racesMaintenanceThese hold an edge really well. With heavy use but very frequent stropping, I only take them to the stones about once a month. I never thought I would say this, but CRV Steel is a great choice for chisels. I have a lot of experience sharpening, and these are HARD. The ones I have are definitely on the upper end of the advertised hardness, I'd guess RC62. However the high chromium and carbon content improve elasticity so they are not brittle. Due to the hardness, if you are a scary sharp (sandpaper) user, you won't have a lot of fun. Diamonds or waterstones cut these efficiently.UseI use these for anything a chisel should be used for. Primarily cleaning out the waste from dovetails, paring tenon shoulders and cheeks, chopping and cleaning mortises,reinforcing knife lines for first class saw cuts, and establishing grooves and dados. I primarily work in hardwoods, but this chisels will pare softwood end grain with ease when properly sharpened (not an easy task). As I alluded to above, edge retention is better than I ever expected. I do keep a bench strop nearby at all times and strop very often, but a quick swipe every now and then is all that's needed to maintain a perfectly fresh mirror polished edge.The handles are very comfortable both when paring/pushing, or when striking with a mallet. Even though there are flats, the profile is pretty round and they will roll off the bench if you aren't careful.Possible NegativesMy only complaints about these chisels relate to things that a more task specific chisel would be better suited for. The beveled edges aren't beveled enough for fine dovetail work. Then again, these are not dovetail chisels; they are general purpose bench chisels.As mentioned above, the smaller 3 chisels will roll off the bench if you aren't careful. I really like this handle and ferule design so that is something I am willing to look past and take extra precautions.Overall I would highly recommend these. I use them daily. I'm also in a position where I could replace them or supplement them with much more expensive chisels, but I really see no reason to. I couldn't ask for better performance, ergonomics, or edge retention. These are not beaters. Don't use them to scrape dried glue off your workbench or open cans of finish. If you are even a little bit serious about woodworking, you'll really like these.

Looks good feels fine in hand. Only honed one and that went well but expected a sharper edge than what was deliveredHad grind marks visible to the eye on all sizes

I bought these recently and they backs were close to flat. They came razor sharp shaving arm hairs out of the box. But I still felt the need to flatten the backs. I don't believe I spent more than a few minutes on flattening any of these, until the 1' which took forever to get flat. There was a hollow at the tip that didn't want to go away even on my diamond stone. So grand total I probably spent 3 hours honing these initially. Granted this was my first foray into quality steel chisels, but I used to keep a stone on my bench. I've paired, mortised, and pounded on these things through a whole dovetailed cabinet project and they've still got a razors edge. I may no longer have to keep the sharpening stones out! Nice balance, great feel. I also when purchasing these picked up some odds and ends old Stanley 750's, a couple of which with the highly touted sweetheart logo, and truly they seem to hold an edge as well. The side bevel on the Stanley's leave the equivalent clearance in my dovetails, which leaves a hair to be desired on both. And the Stanley's have required more work on the diamond stones and cost more. I highly recommend them at the $60 price I got them at and would gladly do the $80 dollar price having now had them in my hand.

A friend bought these for me for Xmas since I showed signs of following him in wood-working. As noted above, they came non-sharpened so I had to hone them, but after putting them to diamond coated steels and getting the backs of them flat, they are razor sharp and are very pleasing to use.They come in a nice wood box. The wood handles give them an attractive look and they feel very comfortable and balanced in my over-sized hands. The tang seems to be well recessed into the handle and feel solid, even when taking big chunks of wood out.As I said, I am new to the wood working field, but these strike me as very worthy and I am very pleased.

I ended up buying some others for my precision work. These are only good for rough work. I have a sharpener, but these just don't seem to get there.

These appear to be well made, although they are not ready to use. The backs off all required flattening, one required quite a bit of flattening. They all took an edge well. For the money, I dont think you can go wrong.