Trow and Holden Review

I can't help but like Trow and Holden. I found them on youtube and their videos are short and sweet; they simply show you what their tools will do. The first page of their website has a picture of their crew and if you scroll across their faces, it gives you a little info on each of them. It's nice to see a company, a family owned company, have talented, devoted employees. I used to work for a company like that.

Trow and Holden is a masonry tool company specializing in hand tools. I have bought three chisels from them, a 1/2 inch heat treated point chisel, a 1 inch carbide tooth chisel, and a 3/8 inch carbide point chisel.

Keeping in mind this is a stone masonry tool company and not a stone sculpting tool company, I did have to make my point chisels pointier so that I could hold them at an angle so as not to bruise the marble. The chisels were so blunt ended that at an angle the tip didn't touch the stone, or bounced off. They do work great for removing lots of waste quickly. The steel chisel stays sharp. The carbide chisel is put together well but it is just too blunt for sculpting. I did grind it down some to make it pointier, but I can only go so far or I take away too much steel holding the carbide in place. I use it for very rough sculpting, but when getting down close to details and it's just too blunt.

On the left is the 1/2 inch point, center the 3/8 carbide, and a 1/4 inch point from a stone sculptor tool company. The far right chisel, although narrower, is pointier. I have sharpened it a lot and not kept up with keeping the sides to the same angle they were. Compared to the center chisel it is still far pointier.

I bought the carbide chisels to work on some hard dolomite. They do the job. I loved the tooth chisel till I broke two teeth. My fault. Carbide is very hard, but also brittle. I'm pretty sure I knocked it with another chisel. I am not very careful about laying my tools down and I either hit the carbide on another chisel when laying it down, or hit it when laying down one of my steel chisels. Not a mistake I'll make again. I believe the tooth chisel cost $80.

Trow and Holden know their stuff, I'm not knocking their chisels when I say they are too blunt. I'm sure they make them that way on purpose for stone masonry to knock of high points quickly and with less blows. But for sculpture, pointier means more precision. A point chisel is not for detail work it's for knocking off waste, at some point you want to be really careful about what you are breaking off, it's not like stone masonry where you are just trying to get a fairly flat surface.

The chisels I bought were high quality, so their price is justified. I ordered from them twice. I bought the carbide point chisel first and then satisfied with the quality ordered the other two.  One order didn't ship very quick. I called and they said since my order was on the weekend or something it didn't update or something. But it was shipped immediately after that. The website did say to contact them if an order didn't ship right away, so it's a problem they are aware of and will take care of if it happens, or they may have that problem fixed by now.

I recommend them for their quality but if you plan on using them for sculpting, keep in mind they aren't made with sculpting in mind. They also sell feather and wedges for splitting stone. As for a sculptor, their tools will work nicely for removing waste quickly. Check out their youtube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/user/trowandholden