That was my point. If the chisels are adequately sharp, you don't need to
"pound" on them. I use a wooden mallet when making mortises. I never have to pound on them to chop the mortises. It doesn't
require that kind of force. I have old wooden handled Stanleys, more modern plastic handled Stanleys, wooden handled Soligan
steel, Robert Sorby, Marples, and some others. None of them require heavy handling.

If the chisel is burring when it is used, I'd think the steel tends to be more ductile, if it chips, more brittle.

However, having said all that dumb stuff G, I keep reading posts about people destroying their chisels. I just wonder what they
are doing to cause that, Tag Frid didn't pound his and in the videos I've watched, Frank Klausz gives them a sharp rap, but
nothing destructive. Rob Cosman doesn't beat his either. It is a re-occurring complaint though.

I think I remember someone complained about Two Cherry's, and you can find detractors for all those I mentioned.


Try a Stubai chisel, superlative. But, have you ever chopped into douglas fir?
It has grain that is seriously thick with a rubber-like hardness. You'd wind up
doing a bit of slamming.

The Stubai, as I said, did not take burs. I think when I used the 2" Buck chisel it
was the wideness of the blade causing too much resistance, the Stubai being only
1" (26mm). Same reasoning behind making a proper low angle block plane's
blade 1-3/8" wide rather than 1-5/8" wide, less resistance on end grain.

As with chopping into the DF wood, these were the "cheeks" that are around the
tenons, which is end grain. Very tough stuff.

--
Alex
cravdraa_at-yahoo_dot-com
not my site: http://www.e-sword.net/