These chisels are an incredible value. They're well-balanced and feel good in your hands. They sharpen to a razor's edge and hold an edge reasonably well. The downside is that you'll have to spend considerable time getting them flat, square, and sharp. You can sharpen and flatten by hand, but you'll probably want to use a grinder to get them square. Most of them were out of square by around a half degree, which means you've got a lot of material to remove. Despite the work required to get them to a ready state, I still give them five stars because of the bang for the buck; you just have to plan on some work to get them ready.

I bought these about a month ago. Out of the box as most chisels they need sharpened. I have flattened the 1/2 and 3/4 the ones I use the most. I still need to put a better edge on them. They are a 4 on a 1-10 scale on sharpness. They feel great in the hand and the balance is spot on! I’ve had a forty year old set of Stanley chisels that were my dad’s. So these are a good addition to the set! They are worth the money$! Just plan on sharpening them before any rigorous use!

I have had these chisels for 3 or 4 years. They are fantastic. I watched both Rob Cosman and my hero Paul Sellers extensively before purchasing these and they or no chisel I know of come perfectly flat on the back. Nick Engle will tell you the same! Do your own research before you buy but you should have to spend more than 15 minutes MAX on any single chisel before you flatten it. But having said that if you do it prior to sharpening the chisel you will be happy. I am!! Mine hold an edge fine as long as I use them as they were intended. Hard woods like wenge, zebra, ebony, oak, sugar maple, even snakewood which was incredibly, undoubtedly the absolute hardest wood I’ve ever come across on all of my tools period, I was able to both hand plane and chisel but TINY amounts. And I did have to resharpen very quickly! But these chisels are all I believe I will ever need! I am only a hobbyist and don’t use them daily or even weekly. But when I call for them they come to attention, answer the call and go to work!!

The steel is so soft that it started to chip after installing the lock on one gate. I'm planning to return the set after using just one chisel

The box says the chisels merely need honing to be ready to go. Like so many other reviewers, I found that to be far from the truth. The backs of these chisels were terrible. I spent quite a few hours flattening the backs. Some of them required that I go all the way down to P80 sandpaper on my granite block to get them done without an insane amount of time required. They seem to be nice once they are prepared. Just don't be fooled by the claim that they are already largely prepared.

I purchased these chisels as my first "nice" chisels. They feel good in the hand and the box they come is well suited to their shape. I did have to flatten the back of the 1" chisel for what felt like forever, 2-3 hours on 150grit sandpaper and then they needed the bevels cleaned up and polished. They are ground accurately to 25 degrees and I am considering giving them a 30-degree micro-bevel for added edge retention. I did have an issue with the 1/4" chisel, it was off to the left of center but that was an easy "fix" putting it in a doghole (I think that's what it's called on my bench I made) and applying gentle but consistent pressure. So far, overall happy with the purchase as the next step up in chisels for me.

I bought these chisel based on the reviews that the steel was good and hard, also knowing that they may need some work. Needing some work was an understatement. It took upwards of 2.5 hours to get all these ready for use with a mechanical worksharp 3000 sharpener. The backs were no where near flat and spent the majority of the time just getting them flat. The bevels did not take long as I finished those on wet diamond stones and a leather strap. They hold and extremely sharp edge and tend to hold up with use. I would recommend these to anyone, but just be aware they do take some time to get them ready.

These really do feel and function like high quality chisels. Steel holds a nice edge, handles feel great. My problem is that the backs aren't flat. I don't mean that they should be expected to be flat or sharp coming out of the box, I expected to flatten and sharpen them, but on a couple of the chisels they backs are really out of "flat". The 1" chisel specifically is flared up on one edge right at the cutting edge. I spent 30 minutes trying to flatten it out with little progress. I even bought a nice new diamond plate to try and speed up the progress, but you'd expect when buying premium chisels that you'd at least be able to reasonably get the cutting edge flattened in a reasonable amount of time

I got this set for Christmas and am very disappointed. 4 of the chisels are out of square and 4 of them have chips in the tip. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to inspect them all and ended up using one without doing so. So, somehow I'm going to have to regrind a new edge on at least 4 chisels, all without any access to a grinder.I 'm sure at this point they won't take them back since it's been 6 months and I've used one. I doubt I'll ever buy anything Woodriver again.

i was very happy with chisels.it did take me about 2 hours to get all 6 chisels flat and very sharp but now i feel like i have a good set of chisels.

I’ve got to spend hours flattening the backs. Out of 8 chisels, not a single one was anywhere near flat. The backs are wavy and uneven to the extreme. I’m using a Trend 300/1000 stone and it’s not doing the job. I’ve got to go back to Woodcraft and get a coarser stone just so I can flatten these chisels, if I don’t return them.

These chisel are what you pay for! They require lots of time flattening the backs and attempting to square the face edges. I was able to get them pretty sharp after about three hours and an entire bottle of honing compound. The beveled edges that run down the sides of the chisel aren't even close to equal is size and most of them had small chips in the front edge. These are only good for small quick tasks that you don't want to use your good chisels for.

I purchased a set of these chisels and was looking forward to using them to build my new work bench for my shop. I took these chisels home and the first thing I did was sharpen them to a razor sharp edge (used a Japanese 8000 grit stone for final sharpening). Everything was going great until I started using the 3/4 chisel and snapped it right in half within 20min of using it. These things are cheep and made very poorly. I will be returning these chisels for a full refund and taking my business somewhere else.

First of all, they come in a nice box for storage. They look good, and feel good in the hand. The steel, whatever it is, is very hard so they take a great edge and seem to hold it well. The big problem out of the box is they need a LOT of work to make them usable. The backs especially need quite a bit of flattening. They were all out by at least a few thousands along the entire length of the back and had a noticeable twist. The 1/4" one was especially bad. You will need a couple hours to get these ready for work. Good news is that once you put in the necessary time they cut as good as a $300 set and you only need to do the backs once. Maybe the edge won't hold up as well as the top-end chisels, but they don't cost top-end either. After doing the main bevel at 30 degrees and a micro bevel at 35 degrees I could get a glass smooth finish on pine endgrain with hardly any effort. Nothing to sneeze at there. After chopping a few dovetails in 1/2" cherry there was no burr on the edge of the bevel, and the 1/2" one I used still sliced paper like a razor. A good sign for the future. Bottom line, even at $89 they are a good buy, and when Woodcraft puts them on sale 20% off, a great buy.

I received my chisels and right out of the box I noticed that the 1" and 1/2" beveled edges looked like that were milled on some sort of angle. the edge looked like it was 90" from the side, but the face of the bevel was angled. Also, on the 3/4", one corner looked like it had been dropped or hit on something. I have e-mailed customer service to see what they can do for me. I'm going to have to spend a great deal of time getting these to where I want them. I know that they are not "the best of the best" and some setting up and sharpening is to be expected, I knew this from the other reviews. I just didn't know it would be this bad.