I've been reading negative reviews on Amazon on chisel sets. The thing that bothers me most is the handle breaking in the middle of a project not that I will be doing a lot of woodworking. I just want to make it a good investment when I do. I only have one chisel but can never remember where I put it, sad, I know. I have a $25 gift card and would like to use it on a chisel set.
So you're gonna do some decorative carving, or are you buying a good flat chisel for furniture building?
Gotcha. I thought you might be taking up a new hobby, but then I reread your post (sometimes I worry about myself.) I have a large set of different shaped wood chisels hailing back to my woodcarving/wood burning days. For general "shave off a piece to make it fit" purposes, I use the plastic handle Stanley and Kobalt (Lowe's) chisels. Lowe's stocks a 3 piece "side-strike" set for $25. Those serrated teeth near the handle can be used for demolition purposes (versus finer chiseling) to save the blade edge. You put the teeth against the wood and beat on the opposite side of the blade. It let's you hack of large bits faster, but not cleanly.
Harbor Freight has a good assortment and cheap. They're supposed to have free replacement if it breaks. https://www.harborfreight.com/hand-tools/chisels-punches-stamps/chisels.html
I re-reread @Von Jones initial comment. I wonder if her gift card is an Amazon one. I took a look there and think I'd stick with Stanley, or maybe DeWalt. If her gift card is a generic one, then either of our suggestions would work...but I bet she's locked in to Amazon.
Not locked in Amazon. Lowe's, Home Depot, and Harbor Freight are within reasonable driving distance for me. Picking up versus delivery is a plus.
Cool. Get that Kobalt set if you like the way they look & feel. I have a Kobalt chisel set I've used with the non-profit where I was with doing home repairs for folks, and I've done a lot of stuff around my own house with them. They've held up well...and they have a lifetime warranty (but I don't know what that warranty might be for something you beat the heck out of.) It's a good idea getting a set and having the different sizes available. Here's the link. Change it to your store and it will tell you what Aisle/Bay they are in.
It depends on what you’re going to do with them Von. For instance, I have a few Stanley’s that I don’t mind using a hammer on when I’m doing rough work and they stay “fairly” sharp. I don’t have Kobalts but they’re good too and for the same reason so yeah, I agree with @John Brunner on that one. *note: I do definitely like Kobalt products. They’re all sturdy and made to take on a construction site or wherever. Now, one full set of 10 chisels that I bought early on are Rexbeti chisels for which I can find no fault for the price. They’re now about $40 on Amazon, they have a full tang and the kit comes with a case and a sharpening guide. I have good chisels, gooder chisels and great chisels and I would deem the Rexbeti to be in the category of almost gooder. To be sure, I bought the Rexbeti’s because it was easier to carry the kit so the chisels didn’t get lost when I was remodeling houses. I didn’t have to worry about applying a hammer to the butt and any nicks can be repaired fairly easily. Note: I shudder to think about applying a hammer to the butt of my Great chisels* I can recommend chisels such as the Narnex chisels @Hedi Mitchell mentioned as well as a few other brands that a seasoned woodworker would be proud to have but whilst they’re worth the price on the tag, they’re generally made for much finer work.
I have a bunch of Marples and other legacy brands from the early 80s, as well as a lignum vitae mallet.
When do you 'not' use a hammer on a chisel? I thought that's how you work with it, you know 'old school' way.
You can push/scrape the sharp edge of the chisel to shave away wood for fine adjustments, just as you would use a razor blade scraper.
I tried to find a How To vid for chisels to show you this shaving technique, but they are all pretty lengthy. This guy shows how to sharpen them, and uses the shaving technique I'm talking about to test the edge. You can see he removes a sizeable amount of material without a hammer. Fast Forward to 5:30 I've installed hinge recesses on door blanks using a chisel and a hammer to remove the bulk of the wood, and then used the chisel to fine-shave the recess. You can use this shaving method (and gentle hammer taps) to get rid of dried wood glue and other stuck stuff.