My best friend's boss out of high school had a grandfather that was an honest-to-God Blacksmith. When he graduated from Brown College his granddad gave him a handmade set From 2 1/2" down by 1/8ths.
For a Christmas bonus the first year (1976) the boss gave my friend a 8 piece set, top of the line Stanley made in England. On the job, the boss was always stealing a chisel because the entire set of handmade chisels were too dull to cut butter! On the 3rd Tuesday of 1977, my friend took the entire set to a local machine shop and had them milled and tempered true. He also bought the boss a jig and very early Diamond stone (fine).
It does not matter what brand or quality of chisels you have, if you won't keep them sharp. Just buy several cheap ones and throw away when they need sharpened!
In the early 80's I bought a $100 four piece set of "BIGFOOT" (England) long woodworking chisels for my wood working adventures, I had them until 2015! For my daily work as an apartment maintenance man, I bought just a 1/2" Stanley with the steel cap on the handle. Over 44 years, I must have bought 60 of them as this variety has legs and walks away, sometimes the first day on the job!
Ivan
