Best Chisel Sets For Wood Carving (2025 Review & Buying Guide)

For this article, I reviewed six of the most popular wood carving chisel sets. Schaaf Wood Carving Chisel Set is the best overall option. Keep reading to learn why.

As an avid woodcarver, I have always enjoyed the simplicity and direct interaction with the tool and workpiece when wood carving with chisels. Since I began working with wood, I have come to form my own preferences, and I am happy to share them with you in this article.

I considered factors like price, performance, and ergonomics when choosing the best overall set. Hand tools should be comfortable and long-lasting — these are the two main signs of good quality tools. At the same time, they should not cost the earth, which top-quality chisels do.

In this article, we will be looking at sets that are best for beginners and intermediates. I have deliberately left out the super-expensive options.

If you want to know about the best wood carving chisels you can buy, then keep reading!

Best Chisels For Wood Carving:

Best Overall: Schaaf Wood Carving Tools, Set of 12

The Schaaf set of wood carving chisels came out as the best of the top 6 sets I selected online. They beat the Winckelsteel set by a hair because they are about $10 cheaper. Schaaf is not the most affordable set, but it is far from being the most expensive. So, it strikes the right kind of balance.

These solid steel, full-sized pieces come in a good mix of shapes and sizes for beginners and intermediate carvers. This variety makes the set fairly versatile and an excellent choice for gifting. The canvas carries case is handy. You should always put away your chisels after using them and ensure you protect your blades from rubbing against one another or other tools.

If you are getting serious about wood carving and want a set that will last you for a very long time, this is the set to choose. It is an excellent bridging set to go from beginner to intermediate or to continue towards becoming professional. All chisels need some tuning and honing out of the box. These are no different in that regard but won’t need much work compared to cheaper alternatives.

Best For Beginners: WAYCOM 24PCS Wood Knife Kit Set

Sometimes, you need a cheap set that has a lot of different pieces for you to try out. One that you can afford to break the set if mistakes are made. The Waycom set offers a dozen mini-gouges and a dozen full-sized gouges for just a little more than $1 apiece.

This is the set I would recommend to the absolute beginner who hasn’t decided which tools to buy. A set like this will also make a good backup set when you upgrade, which you will have to do if you want to continue into serious woodcarving.

You always get what you pay for when it comes to cheap tools. These are soft steel blades meant for use on softwood. Since beginners generally practice on softwood anyway, this is not a problem as such. Just be ready to set them up a bit before you get to use them properly.

Best For Detail Carving: VonHaus 16pc Wood Carving Tool Set

If you are getting into woodcarving and need an affordable set that lets you work on small projects with a lot of details, this set will serve you well. It contains a good selection of small palm gouges and regular gouges. Vonhaus is a good economy brand that I have covered before in my wood chisel buying guide.

The steel quality is better than the earlier set, but the price per tool is similar. You are getting 16 pieces for $25, which is an excellent bargain for a set that will easily last you a good few years. The only caveat is that it might not hold up too well against a lot of hardwood. The steel is not hard enough.

Get these as a practice set while you are still doing a lot of beginner work. This set gives you a professional variety at a low price. It will help you decide which pieces you actually want to use and then upgrade to a professional kit accordingly. These won’t last very long if you use them daily.

Best For Wood Sculpting: Flexcut Sculptor’s Set of 4 (MC175)

Flexcut is a brand that is well known in the wood carving world for making excellent wood whittling knives, and it appears on my roundup of the best wood carving knives. So it is no surprise that they will have a good selection of wood carving chisels as well.

The MC175 set is a very specialized set that is different from all the other entries on this list. It comes in options of 4, 6, and 10 pieces and more for sculptors than carvers. These are much larger and help carve large pieces. It comes with curved gouges as well as a V gouge. These are mallet-driven chisels. You will need to make a smaller or purchase one separately to use them.

If you are okay with paying extra for a mallet or already have one, these chisels are a good buy that will last you a very long time. Flexcut is an established US-based company that provides excellent customer service.

Best For Pros: WINCKELSTEEL Wood Carving Tools Set

Winckelsteel has tried its best to provide an alternative to expensive professional sets and has succeeded for the most part. This is a set that has strong potential as your mainstay through the intermediate years. It will need some setting up the first time. Some pieces may have defects because of mass manufacturing, and they have to be ground and honed.

All those caveats aside, their claim of using HRC 59-61 steel seems to hold up. Once set up, they do hold their edge pretty well, which is a must for anyone who wants to spend hours every day carving various kinds of wood. Hard steel can take a beating, especially when carving hardwood.

Get this set If you are working on tabletop-sized projects that are not too large. The sizes go from 4mm to 20mm, and the curves go from #1 to #12. There is an 8mm straight chisel, 8mm skew chisel, a V-Gouge, a veiner, and a 20mm heavy bent gouge (for spoons, bowls, etc.). So you can do a lot with them once they are ground and honed properly.

Best Hobbyist Set: BeaverCraft Wood Carving Chisel Set SC01

Beavercraft is another brand that appears on my list of best wood carving knives. It is a good brand for serious hobbyists, beginners, and even intermediates who are looking for good quality at a reasonable price. Priced around $50, it is in the middle of the price range of this list and comes with 4 pieces.

It includes a bent gouge and three straight gouges. It might seem paltry after reading through sets of 12 and 16 pieces, but the higher per-piece cost is justified by the quality. As another made-in-USA brand, it is a reliable option with good customer service. The set also comes with a honing strop and compound.

If you are looking for a serious hobbyist set, this is it. While their larger sets are best for intermediates and professionals, this set is a great investment for those who want a small set that will last decades. You can always rely on their steel quality and consistently high-quality manufacturing.

Buying Guide

Now that I have covered the kits that I like the most let’s dive deeper into the world of woodcarving chisels. Here are some points to consider before making a purchase.

Straightness

Chisels should be straight from the tip of the blade to the end of the handle. Slight bents might not make much of a difference to your carving, but anything more can quickly become difficult to handle. So, when it comes to choosing your set, it is all about being on the straight and narrow!

Hardness

The blade’s hardness makes a large difference in woodcarving chisels. It is measured in the Rockwell C Scale expressed as HRC (Hardness Rockwell C). For wood carving, an HRC rating of 58 to 61 is desirable. To put it in perspective, 64 on the HRC scale is the hardest commonly used steel. That’s how hard your blade should be, and most wood carving chisels meet these criteria.

Just remember that the harder the chisel, the more difficult it is to sharpen. It also means it will need sharpening less frequently. Hard steel holds its edge for longer. If you’re doing a lot of hardwood carvings, you are better off with a good set of hard steel blades that have been tempered to about HRC 60-61.

Handle

Faceted handles like octagonal ones do not roll when kept on th