Broken: One plastic handled chisel

I have been initiated; I broke my first chisel handle.

I was chopping deep mortises with a 1" Lee Valley plastic handled chisel. I was beating the poor thing. While I wasn't using a heavy mallet, I am a 200 pound guy and it was getting enough of a beating that the chisel got quite warm at times which may have softened the plastic. Anyway, about halfway through the fifth mortise, it gave way.

I really wasn't trying to break the handle, honest. I thought it would hold up to the abuse, but between the chopping and levering out the chips, it just didn't make it.

Now, let's be clear. This is not an expensive chisel set. They are currently priced a bit over $100 for a boxed set. They are about as inexpensive a set of useable chisels as you can get. They are ground and made well enough that they are easy to sharpen and get going with. They take a decent edge, but they don't hold it for as long as more expensive chisels. Also, the plastic handles, while decent, aren't that comfortable for long hard use.

Also, most noteably, they are not mortise chisels. Mortising chisels are very heavy duty for a reason. I should have been using a chisel like this or something even heavier.

Would I buy these chisels again? Probably not now, at least for myself. I am working on filling out my collection with their more expensive brethren.

I would however, still recommend them as a reasonable choice for a younster's first set or a new woodworker who wanted a complete bench chisel set, but didn't want to pony up $60-100 per chisel just to find out if he really wanted to get into woodworking.

In short, I think they are worth the money. Whether or not they are what you need is another question. They are good useable chisels. If you want to pay more money, you can get chisels that hold a better edge, have thicker blades, more comfortable handles, and handles that (in some cases) are less prone to breakage.

Oh, and another thing. I emailed customer service at Lee Valley about the problem I had along with some pictures of the damage. I didn't ask for a replacement or any compensation since I was abusing the chisel. Thirty-six MINUTES later, here is the reply I received.

"Thank you for your email. We will be sending you a replacement chisel, could you
please confirm your address is still ...."

Now, that is impressive customer service. It will be nice to have a complete useable set again.

Now I just have to decide if I want to try to rehandle the broken chisel or repurpose the blade as something else.

Here are a couple pictures of the damage, and the mallet that did it.