HF carving set

[Trevor33]

Has anyone bought the 12 pc harbor freight carving set? I need a carving set for a house project and if somebody could tell me if the HF one is any good I would apprciate it.

[Flop]

It depends on what you are carving and what kind of wood you are carving. Swiss made chisels are by far the best out there, they hold their edge for a long time, my experince with cheap chisels is you get what you pay for. Ace hardware has a fairly good set of wood carving chisels for around $30.00, just my .02, I do a pretty good bit of wood carving as a hobby. You can also keep an eye on ebay, I've ran across some good deals on their carving tools before.

[diluded000]

The import chisel sets just don't hold an edge like a my Pfeil or Two Cherries. I have a garage and woodshop that has all kinds of Harbor Freight tools, but really think these chisels would be an exercise in frustration. I've tried both and would recommend the better chisels. My Two Cherries lift an awsome spiral of wood with slightly more effort than pushing a pencil.

http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/Merchant/merchant.mvc

- James B

[Brad Blazer]

I agree with James, I like a lot of the tools at HF but the last time I inspected one of their carving sets it was of very poor quality and looked unuseable. I have a set similar to this that I bought from Brookstone 25 years ago and they are handy:
http://www.woodworkingshop.com/cgi-bin/DC86FD47/mac/additmdtl.mac/showItemDetail?item=SI00001&qtyA=0&phsO=N&desc=6%20PIECE%20STUBAI%20WHITTLERS%20KIT&drpshp=N&alOrd=Y&iQty=.000&oQty=.000&initQty=1&assortParent=N&itemForSale=Y&styleName=&fixD=&face=.00&gftc=&stck=Y&prefS=&calledFrom=DS&ordInfo1=&ordInfo2=&ordInfo3=&ordMan1=N&ordMan2=N&ordMan3=N&persCode=&persReqd=&persLink=%20&shipRemaining=0&daysBetween=0&daysBetweenFix=0&monthsBetween=0
Flexcut tools are also very nice - about $16 each for basic ones.

[ZRx61]

About as much use as a butter knife for brain surgery....worse than useless.