I use skew and fish-tailed chisels for trimming out dovetails and for glue clean-up when making musical instruments. I typically re-work worn out paring chisel and/or inexpensive new bevel edged chisels. In any case it's sometimes better to have the tool than one day realise it would prove the ideal problem solver for a particular task.

Great take on the chisels. I noticed your jointer bench and found your video on it, what a great idea. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Shannon, I've been considering purchasing a new chisel just for this reason so this video is perfect for me. If I had to make the purchase right this minute, it would be the fishtail. Up to now, I do like you suggest, using smaller bench chisel to cleanout waste. Thanks for teaching. Jim

Don't know if this was mentioned, but it looks like your camera isn't completely vertical. Makes it hard to tell home much undercut there is or isn't. But very nice demo.

Another aspect of using a fish-tailed chisel or pair of skew chisels is they're very simple to make if you invest in an inexpensive set or single bevel edged chisel and re-work contours behind the cutting edge or altering the angle of the leading/cutting edge to the desired dimensions via file or grinder. Angles needn't be too severe.

Love these sessions Shannon! Thank you for the great video!

That was very useful thanks. Love that small high workbench with moxon vice, is that dedicated for dovetail work?

Shannon, any chance you could do a demo showing how to dovetail grooved drawer sides? Thanks

As you show, cutting in from the end with an ordinary chisel will sever fibers even into the corner. To then cut them off from the end of the socket, why not just use the point of a knife, perhaps a marking knife you are using already?

Hi, thanks. I have been doing wood work for 30 years, and i learn so much from you. From your influence, i am slowly moving away from Machine work, to hand tool application. Unfortunately, due to the South African Rand/US Dollar exchange i cannot help support your work or join your School. Off this subject, can you please cover "How to glue up" a drawer. Particularly using "Hide Glue". I have trouble placing the Clamps, and applying the glue, within a reasonable time period, as set by the open time of the glue. Thanks again, stay well and safe.

I see you use veritas planes , particular interest is the bevel up jointer . I’ve been debating buying one? Is it a very good plane? Is it worth it?

Francis Ford Coppola, not Stanley Kubrick. You're confusing Apocalypse Now with Full metal jacket :D Thanks for the video

Which Knew saw is that? Fret/coping? 5 inch? which model? Would love to know

Hi Shannon. I use fishtail chisels all the time when cleaning out sockets (.. not skew chisels, which generally have a different action. Fishtails are pushed forward, and this is more ergonomic that skews, which require a little slicing action). Where you come to appreciate fishtails increasingly is when the tails are very fine at the tip, which leads to a narrow divider between the sockets. There is little room for error, as the "divider" can be quite fragile and easily damaged. See: i.postimg.cc/pXbvBnnh/Buidinga-Bench4-html-m167fdf7a.jpg drawers in one of my chests: i.postimg.cc/MTC5tMy0/Lingerie-Chest.jpg Regards from Perth, Derek. www.inthewoodshop.com

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/grRxjbZ9vKi6Y4E.html I think your spoiler alert earlier on, about not needing fishtail/skew chisels, is utterly wrong. The link above shows your dovetail joint is not actually seating well, where the two boards are clearly separated (there's a visible gap between them, plus twist), despite previously pulling them apart to fix the same issue (caused by uncleared corners). The end result as shown, still needs plenty of effort to seat properly. I'm not saying you've done a poor job, as you've clearly got skills, but that joint is no where near acceptable yet. It will look great once you've got all those blind corners sorted (which is my point). The task can obviously be completed without such a specialized tool, but your demonstration has categorically shown, that there's going to be a lot of lost time, in chasing those blind corners. You do indeed need skew/fishtail chisels, to do these blind dovetails with reliable efficiently. As for the fishtail v's skew debate; the complaint (you made), that you have to buy a set of left and right skew chisels is a misleading comparison to fishtails. You do indeed need a paired set of skews, but the surface area (to sharpen) of each skew chisel, is far far greater than a fishtail - it's way more than double - which I particularly like. A fishtail chisel will need to be replaced frequently, even if it's not used much, whereas a skew chisel will last a lifetime, even if it's used regularly. This was a great video; I found it very interesting. You have helped me consider these choices (although not in the way you've intended), so thanks. I might come across as sarcastic here, but that's not my intention; you did this demonstration live, with plenty of people watching, which being Y.T., means you have to get it done quickly and you're under pressure to do so (and you've performed well). This scenario showed the benefit of the right tool for the job though and not using said tool (for most of it) showed viewers, it's going to take a lot more time to get it done right. The video also implied, that ultimately/eventually, the joint could be made to look fantastic. A wonderful effort & congrats!