Chisel and Their Types

Chisel is used to driven into the material to remove unwanted timber. Force to chisel is applied by mallet. Chisel contains a Chamfered blade on the end which is used for driven it into the material.

1.               Farming Chisel:

Framing Chisel

A framing chisel is a wider, longer and thicker-bladed firmer chisel. These chisels are available with beveled and straight edges and are more commonly found with sockets and sturdy capped handles to withstand repeated strikes from a mallet. They typically have a cutting edge of between 25 and 30 degrees. These are very used in boat building and timber framing applications.

2.               Corner Chisel :

Corner chisels have a medium length blade and has a cross-section shaped like a right-angled "V". These types of chisel are used for cutting grooves and tidying up square corners.

3.               Paring Chisel:

Paring Chisel

Paring chisels have a long thin blade which is connected to its handle via a tang. They are designed to be manipulated by hand (never struck) and pushed across a work surface to remove small amounts of wood when finishing or neatening up joints. Their cutting edge is usually at an angle between 20 and 25 degrees and they are available with both beveled and straight edges.

4.               Butt Chisel:

Butt Chisel

Butt chisels are so named because of their primary use i.e. installing butts and hinges to doors. They are easily recognized by the distinctive shortness of their blade. A butt chisel may have been a bench or firmer chisel that has been resharpened so much that only a few inches of its blade remains. Carpenters found these shorter chisels so useful with certain uses that they manufactured in their own right. There are both bevel-edged and straight-edged varieties.

5.               Bench Chisel:

Bench Chisel

Bench chisels are the all-rounders of the family. It is general-purpose chisel. They consist of a medium length blade with either beveled or straight edges (ones with beveled edges tend to be more common as they have a wider range of applications) and have an impact-resistant handle. Bench chisels may have a tang- or socket-style fitting and usually have a cutting edge angled between 25 and 30 degrees.

6.               Firmer Chisel:

Firmer Chisel

Firmer meant any chisel blade that was made from a solid steel construction, as opposed to a steel laminate (iron with a steel coating). These chisels had square edges and hardwood handles. These chisels were used for heavy-duty woodworking tasks.

In later years, as nearly all chisel blades were manufactured from a solid steel construction, the definition "firmer" became synonymous with a flat blade with square edges (without a bevel). This is generally considered the oldest type of modern chisel and it is particularly adept at creating joints where you need to maintain sharp, 90-degree corners.

7.               Dovetail Chisel:

Dovetail Chisel

Dovetail chisels are designed specially for the finishing of dovetail joints. They have a long thin blade with beveled edges and a honed cutting edge of between 20 and 30 degrees. These types of chisel are very useful when cleaning out and sharpening up the edges of the interlocking parts of a dovetail joint.

8.               Mortise Chisel:

Mortise Chisel

A mortise chisel contains a thick blade that is designed to withstand prying. They get their name because they are chiefly used to cut mortise joints. They are typically capped or have a steel hoop on their handle to withstand repeated mallet blows. The cutting edge of a mortise chisel is commonly ground to an angle between 30 and 40 degrees.

9.               Chisel With Cranked Handle:

Some chisels have a cranked handle. This means that the handle is offset from the line of the blade. This offset angle allows you to hold the entire blade flat on a work surface without your fingers getting in the way.