Are these chisels suitable for turning?

[Jorica]

Hi there,

Someone local is selling these chisels on behalf of a family member but they don't have any information on them. Do they look suitable for wood turning? Or are they only for hand-carving?

They're only up for £10 and they appear brandless so will probably be low quality, but as a newbie they'll just be for practicing.

Cheers!

Jorica

 

[Duncan A]

They're carving chisels.
Don't try using them on a lathe!

 

[Jorica]

They're carving chisels.
Don't try using them on a lathe!

Thank you for the speedy reply Duncan! I'll avoid them.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

yep, they're allegedly carving chisels.

 

[Eshmiel]

yep, they're allegedly carving chisels.

Indeed - they can be found in many a cheap-tool emporium for anything between £20 & £60 the set. They get very poor reviews: cheese metal; wonky handles that fall off easily; blade shapes that are far from the traditional carving shapes and are difficult to shape & sharpen.

 

[Lons]

Useless for carving and downright dangerous to use on a lathe. That's why they're £10. Avoid them like the plague.

 

[Jacob]

Go for it! Not for turning but they might serve as a starter set for carving. Even if useless it'd be a learning experience; you'd certainly need to get on top of sharpening!

 

[Eshmiel]

Go for it! Not for turning but they might serve as a starter set for carving. Even if useless it'd be a learning experience; you'd certainly need to get on top of sharpening!

 

[mwinfrance]

With Jacob on this..yeah they won't be great for sculpture. Definitely dangerous for lathe work..just don't, lathe gouges are the shape and size that they are for good reason. But, as to these ones, for sculpture, they'll be cheap enough that you can find out if sculpture interests you without spending more than a tenner.If it does, replace the ones that irritate you as you can with better.Or buy one of the sets that Eshmiel is currently reviewing.The best brands are spendy, that is a lot of money to layout for a hobby that might be dropped due to lack of real interest / talent.

Initially missed Eshmiel's first comment, ( above the ads ) took the smiley for agreement with Jacob, so have now edited my post to make it coherent.

 

[Lons]

As an experienced carver as well as turner I can see where Jacob is coming from (same subject as always ) but I don't agree, It's just £10 wasted imho for which you could get two or three old chisels with decent steel off facebook or car boot sales. As I said, those are dirt cheap for a reason.

If the steel in that set is capable of taking and keeping a decent edge then they could be used for carving but I'd put money on the opposite being the case and what will inevitably happen is the op tries to use then blunt which is dangerous. That also leads to excessive pressure being applied to the chisel or increasingly heavy mallet blows and the next thing you find is the tang or the handle snaps. You need very sharp tools for carving not those made from Swiss cheese.

You can easily try carving with normal bench chisels though they are limited or just buy one tool say a 10mm fishtail in a good brand. I have a lot of carving chisels but the bulk of my work is done with 5 or 6 and the rest largely stay in the box.

Up to you of course to take or leave advice after weighing up the pros and cons.

 

[Stigmorgan]

I have this set (a gift from someone who didn't know any better) now, whilst they are carving chisels there a couple that I do use on the lathe occasionally but I am fully aware of the risk and tend to only use the skew and flat scraper type ones for small detail stuff that my turning gouges are too big to get into, I have also used a few of the others to "carve" and they're ok if you're budget doesn't stretch to something better, they will sharpen but the edge won't last long especially on harder woods and the handles aren't very comfortable in my big hands