Wood River but chisel review

    I have a love hate relationship with chisels and suffice to say as I have grown in my craft that relationship has changed several times over the years. I have owned chisels from the old stand by blue chips to the more expensive Swiss made Pfeils and everything in between. I love the Swiss chisels but in all honesty they are often too large for what I do, so I went in search of a set of bench chisels to fill a niche in some of the processes of lutherie. I searched high and low for a decent set and almost bought another set of Pfeils when I came across these Wood River but chisels and decided to give them a try. What follows is my personal impression of these chisels.

Nice little wood box

    First off I will say the wood storage box is a nice touch, could it be better? sure but it isn't a bad box for the price you pay for these chisels. I look at it as a free accessory, and as such my only real downward mark on the box is the clasp that holds it shut. Keep in mind I am a perfectionist and this box and the clasp are fine and the clasp does what it is intended to do, which is to keep the box closed, it is just on the cheaper side of clasps. That being said I was happy with the box itself and it closes nicely and the chisels do not move around at all when it is closed. Storage box gets 4 stars from me, and with a nicer clasp it would be a 5.

Blade edge out of the box

    I decided to take some pictures of the blade right out of the box with no lapping or sharpening and to be perfectly honest the edge is not bad at all. it has a nice taper and though the bevel may not fit into the tightest of corners, it is fine for what I do.

Nice blade backs

    The backs are very uniform on these right from the manufacturer and mine have a nice slightly concave bevel just behind the edge, much like a fine Japanese chisel. When I do hone and flatten these I expect amazing things for such a well priced set of chisels.

Slight convexity

    It was nearly impossible to photograph the convexity, but using my Starret combination square with an accuracy or around .0001 I can just see a slight bit of light through the back of the chisel right behind the edge. At the edge itself it appears to be perfectly flat but I always flatten the backs of my chisels before serious use anyway.

Beautiful bubinga handles

    One of my favorite parts on these chisels are the stunning bubinga handles. They are finished nicely and fit in the hand so perfectly you can almost forget you are even holding them. In my tests I did do some light tapping on the back with a soft faced mallet and they held up just fine. Lets face it I am not a framing carpenter and I don't need a chisel that I can pound on with a hammer all day long, though I suspect that these chisels may hold up quite well under more stressful situations.
    The balance of these chisels for my technique is very good to excellent granted but chisels require a different hand hold and slightly different technique than bench chisels, but I found that they performed quite well and for what I paid for these there was no expectation of this. All in all i would give these 4.5 stars for fit finish and balance - with respect to the price range.

Sharpness out of the box

    Right out of the box these are sharp enough to do SOME basic chisel duties, for basic rough work they can be put immediately into service. My personal opinion is that they would really benefit from a nice back flattening and honing of the edge, which is something I think almost every chisel needs before you use them seriously. I did some test cutting on spruce and hard maple and these chisels faired well with the factory edge, I will be interested to see how well they keep an edge after fine sharpening.

Feathering

    After a bit of use on several boards I became more and more impressed with the feel of these chisels and begin to see some true potential in them once properly setup. All in all I think these are really good chisels for the money.

High quality for lower price

    After using these chisels for some time my final opinion is that these chisels are a great value for the price. They hold an edge well and they sharpen well, great balance for but chisels and the fit and finish is better than some of my higher end chisels. I think with a little bit of TLC and quality time with some wet stones, and these are just as good as any chisels I own. I love the handles and the storage box is nice enough. These have become my go to chisels when I need something smaller than a bench chisel and I enjoy using them each time I do.
    If you are looking for a good set of but chisels for a great price I don't think you could go wrong with these Wood River sets.