Reply To: Lie-Nielsen Bevel Edge Chisels
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Do you mean their bevel edged chisels? I bought a set a long time ago. The first problem I had was that the blades would randomly fall off of the handles. Others reported using hairspray and various other tricks to deal with this, but none of it worked reliably, so I finally epoxied the handles on, tired of jumping out of the way and watching the chisel fall to the concrete.
The second problem I had with the chisels is the A2 steel. It took longer to sharpen than O1. More importantly, I found that I had to put a steeper bevel on them to keep them from crumbling when chopping across the grain, e.g., for mortises and dovetails. That’s not a huge problem, but does mean the chisel may try to walk back into your knife wall more than a chisel with a smaller angle.
Bottom line, yes, I’ve chopped mortises. Despite my complaints, they are perfectly fine chisels. If you are bridging your knife lines, give yourself some more room. If you see edge failure, steepen the angle a little. They should work fine. A2, being harder, is more brittle so I suppose there might be more of a chance of braking one when levering out chips, but if you are mortising properly and sensitively, this shouldn’t be an issue. If you have to pry hard, your chips are too big or you’re stuck in a ledge on the bottom or something. Don’t do that. 🙂