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Andy Dingley
 
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Default Axminster starter chisel set

http://www.axminster.co.uk/recno/1/p...-Set-21761.htm

"What chisels to get" is a perennial question and the usual answer is to
avoid sets because they're a bad choice. Here's a set that's a good
selection, good quality, and a decent price (for the UK) - £62.

3/4" Roughing gouge
3/8" Bowl gouge
3/8" Spindle gouge
1" Oval skew
Diamond parter
3/4" Round nose scraper

Handles are nicely shaped ash and the tools are a good length. Gouge
grinds are less than perfect (competent, but simple) and you'll probably
benefit from re-shaping the wings to personal taste.

The "bowl" gouge is a particularly nice hefty tool, some inches longer
than the spindle gouge. Axminster also sell these as separate chisels
and IMHO it's worth buying a second one of them. Sharpen one as a bowl
gouge, the other as a finger-ground spindle gouge and you have an
excellent large spindle for turning chairlegs and similar sized pieces.

The downside of some cheap sets is too many useless scrapers. This one
just gives you the one, that's OK for bowl work. For box hollowing
though you might find a square-ended scraper useful too.

The skew is something of a compromise. It's a fine tool, but a 1" oval
isn't the most commonly useful size. Perhaps this would be better as a
3/4" ? The oval shaping is nicely done and makes it much more flexible
for rolling large beads - however 1" is big and there just aren't that
many things you really need it for. For big cylinders a flat 1" skew is
a bit more stable to use. For most beads a 3/4" or 1/2" is easier to
handle.