Just realized my chisel angles were all wrong for years

I was watching a video from a guy named Paul Sellers on YouTube last Tuesday. He said most chisels come ground at 25 degrees, but for general bench work you really want 30. I always wondered why my chisels felt dull so fast and chipped on knots. I checked mine with a gauge and sure enough they were at 25. Took me an afternoon to regrind them all to 30. First time I pared a dovetail after that it cut like butter. Kind of annoying that nobody told me this 10 years ago. Has anyone else missed something basic like that for way too long?

3 comments

3 Comments

felix4141mo ago

Big deal or little deal? I mean, you ground your chisels one afternoon and now they cut better. Cool. But Ive been using chisels for 15 years and never checked a single angle. I just sharpen them on a stone by feel and theyve always worked fine. Yeah, sometimes I get a chip but thats the wood not the angle. I think some of this fine tuning stuff is just people looking for problems to fix. If youre happy with a 25 degree edge and it works for your work then who cares what some youtube guy says. I guess if you geek out on perfect dovetails it matters but for basic joinery its not that serious.

logan5611mo ago

Feel you on this one. I sharpened my chisels by feel for like eight years before I finally bought a cheap angle guide and realized everything was off by a few degrees. Makes you wonder how much time you wasted fighting tools that just needed a tiny adjustment. Not saying everyone needs to measure their angles, but for me it was one of those things where the fix was so simple I felt dumb for not trying it sooner. Your story about the dovetail paring is exactly what happened to me, it was like using a totally different set of chisels.

samflores1mo ago

Eight years, man, I did the same thing with my plane blades. Bought a $12 guide after years of freehanding and found my bevel was off by almost 3 degrees on one side. It just makes you realize how much small things stack up when you're fighting the tool instead of the wood. I wouldn't call it geeking out, just saving yourself some frustration.