I have several sets of chisels.  The oldest set (the one I've had the 
longest)
is the one I use at Sutter's Fort.  Mostly Butcher, Buck Bros, and 
Barton.  All
cast steel.  The tanged chisels get octagon handles per the 
illustrations in
Aldren's Country Furniture.  I like the octagons because they don't like 
to roll
and the flats let me know how the blade is angled.  The eldest of these 
I gave
an ash handle, and it's held up to 40 years of service.  These run from 
1/4 inch
to a full two inches wide, all square edged.  The socket chisels mostly 
have
decent original handles.

For Civil War I have a set of heavy socketed firmer and framing chisels, 
all
socketed.  These all got new handles that I turned out of ash, 
duplicating an
original handle I have.  Since these would have been all issued by the 
Ordnance
Dept, they need to look like a set.

A few years ago, it looked like all my chisels had been stolen. Most of 
my
blacksmithing hand tools as well.  I pretty much freaked.  SWMBO dropped 
me
off at a reenactment, and when she picked me up at the end of the event,
she handed me a box.  She had found an antique store and had bought me a
bunch of chisels -- a big bunch.  Some Buck Bros, some Bartons, a couple
of Butchers and a lot of Stanleys and Pextos, and one Sandvik marked
Stiletto butt chisel.

All the Bs were set aside for Sutter's Fort use.  Well, they're ones I 
can
use there, but they work in between times, too.  The rest are all good 
tools
that work in the shop.  All totaled up, there's well over a hundred 
chisels.

What sits out on my bench is a small group of Swedish (Sandvik, Berg) 
chisels
that I've learned to trust for quality, from 1/8 inch to three full 1 
inch.
One has a trash handle and that one will get replaced in time with a 
birch
handle to match the rest.  Eventually.

The ash handles are sturdy and take a lot of abuse.  So that's my 
standard
handle material.  The first one I made from part of a broken hoe handle 
from
one of my grandfather's tools.  Worked fine, so I pick up broken ash 
handles
mostly for nothing to use as stock.

This is a place where I diverge in taste from Scott.  The fanciest 
handles
I have on chisels are the beer barrel handles on the socket chisels I
have for Civil War events.  For the rest, I just want what looks like a
typical workman's bunch of chisels.

Cast steel?  Nothing like it for dependable, hard, and tough.  If I read
cast steel on a tool, it comes home with me.  Extra points if it's 
marked
D.R. Barton, W. Butcher, Buck, or Buck Bros.

Oh, and the chisels and blacksmith tools (some of which I had replaced 
at
the same antique store) turned up.  Somebody had moved them to a dark 
corner
of the basement where they were stored.

Mike in Sacto