Chisel Bevel Angle?

[Ken Massingale]

I normally hone my bench chisels to 30 degrees. I broke out a new set of Irwin Marple's yesterday to do the initial honing and noticed they said to go to 25 degrees. O.K., so maybe it's not a big deal since research shows the recommended angle is between 25 and 30.
However since I found the cracked 13mm in the set I went to Irwins site and there they said to hone to 30 degrees. (I'm starting to get a little annoyed at Irwin anyway).

Sooo, to what angle do you folks go with, disregarding any micro-bevel you may use.

[dedaddy]

Chisle Angle

Ken, I went to a class on hand tools and we sharpened a lot of chisels. Use a 30 deg angle for heavy chopping like clearing out a mortice and 25 deg for light paring. The 30 deg is stronger and is less likely to break the edge. 25 deg edge is weaker but slices with less effort.

[BrazosJake]

Yep, 30 for heavy work like chopping motises and/or chisels that will be used exclusively on hardwood. Softer woods actually need a better edge and slightly more severe angle.

25 is pretty much the norm for bevel-edge bench chisels. True paring chisels have a 20-degree bevel (no malleting or prying with those!).

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Ken, I went to a class on hand tools and we sharpened a lot of chisels. Use a 30 deg angle for heavy chopping like clearing out a mortice and 25 deg for light paring. The 30 deg is stronger and is less likely to break the edge. 25 deg edge is weaker but slices with less effort.

I played around with some of dedaddys planes and boy how! This fellow knows how to sharpen a darn stick of steel!