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by ryao 580 days ago
Isn’t the main thing that makes a chisel better or worse the material quality, such that regardless of whether it is hand made or factory made, the chisel made of superior material is better?
1 comments

Selection of metal, lamination, presence of a ura (裏), handle material, the ability to make a new handle and attach it to the original metal. A metal chosen for an extreme sharpness may be terribly difficult to sharpen, a metal easy to sharpen may not hold an edge for long.
Most factory chisels are not laminations like hand made Japanese ones are. They are just a single alloy.