Zen-Wu Y-2 Skew Chisels (Left and Right Pair)

East meets West with Zen-Wu’s immaculately designed Y-2 skew chisels. Sold as a left and right pair, they are lapped and honed by hand at Zen-Wu’s factory—possibly the only western-style chisel that is truly ready to use out of the box. 

Made from a unique steel called ZWC1 (Rc64), it is high on both the hardness and toughness scales, outperforming popular steels like A2 and PM-V11. It holds an edge for longer than most chisels, but sharpens quickly. 

The back of the chisel has a 10-20 micron hollow, which helps prevent slippage when paring, and reduces resistance when chiseling. Each chisel has gone through a bluing process that gives the iron a beautiful black finish that helps prevent corrosion. 

The handle is made of hard maple, and the blade is secured with a tang and ferrule. These chisels are sold in pairs with opposite skew angles. Available in 3 different widths. 

Specifications:

• Widths: available in ¼”, ½”, and ¾”

• Blade length: 4 ½”

• Handle length: 5 ½”

• Skew angle: 30°

• Bevel angle: 30°

• Rockwell hardness: Rc63-64

Jonathan’s Hot Take:

I love skew chisels for so many things. Paring out the inside corner of dovetails and joinery. Getting into tight spaces and hard to reach corners. You can get the crispest and cleanest corners with these. They work great on endgrain and are definitely a wonderful item to have in the arsenal. 

These particular skew chisels are the best on the market, and more affordable than Lee Valley or Lie-Nielson. Zen-Wu has developed a steel that’s unlike anything you’ll find in a chisel. It’s high on both the hardness and toughness scales, which is RARE. In practice, that means it can take a beating without chipping or losing its edge. 

That doesn’t mean you’ll never have to sharpen, but you’ll sharpen less. And because they hone these chisels at the factory, you can literally open the box and start using them. The back of the blade has a slight intentional hollow (10-20 microns), which helps with paring and chiseling. Of course you can always flatten it on your stones in just a few passes.

Ergonomically, they’re a dream. The edges are ground and tapered, and the top of the chisel is slightly concave, serving as a great thumb register. This makes it easy to choke up on the chisel when paring. These chisels are beautiful out of the box, and after a few uses, they’ll each develop a unique, great-looking patina.