Irwin Marples 1/2" bevel edge chisel for general furniture, cabinet, and joinery work. The blade is solid-forged chrome vanadium steel, hardened to 58-61 HRC for long edge life under hand-driven paring and mallet-struck chopping. The bevel-ground sides taper to a knife edge, letting you reach into acute dovetail corners and clean square inside corners on dados, mortises, and rabbets without the side of the blade bottoming against the adjoining face. The ProTouch composite handle is shaped for both hand-paring and mallet work, and the steel strike cap takes repeated wooden- or rubber-mallet impacts without mushrooming.

• Solid-forged chrome vanadium steel blade for long edge life
• Hardened to 58-61 HRC for professional edge retention
• Bevel-ground sides reach into dovetail corners and clean inside corners
• ProTouch composite handle sized for paring and mallet work
• Steel strike cap takes repeated mallet impacts without mushrooming
• 1/2" blade width - most general-purpose joinery size

Selection Tip: 1/2" is the most general-purpose chisel size. Use it for door-hinge and butt-hinge mortising, dado cleanup, tenon-shoulder paring, and general furniture joinery. If you only own one chisel, this is the one that does the most jobs.

Use Tip: A sharp chisel is a safe chisel - dull blades skate and force a heavier push that ends in a slipped cut. Hone to a 25-30 degree primary bevel with a 30-35 degree microbevel on a waterstone, diamond plate, or oil stone, then strop on green compound until the edge shaves cleanly across end-grain pine. Drive with a wooden or composite mallet for chopping, push by hand with both hands - one on the handle for force, one near the blade for control - for paring. Cut with the bevel down for paring shallow waste; bevel up for chopping vertical mortise walls.

Care: Wipe the blade with an oiled rag after each session and re-hone the moment the edge stops shaving end grain cleanly - touching it up takes 30 seconds, regrinding a chipped edge takes 20 minutes. Do not pry with a chisel, the blade will chip or snap; use a screwdriver or pry bar to lift waste. Store with leather edge guards, a foam strip, or in a wall rack with the cutting edge protected from contact with other tools.