There are already many articles that list and introduce the different types of soldering iron tips and their applications, so I won’t repeat and elaborate on those classifications here. In short, the common types of soldering tips are Pointed (Conical), Knife (Blade), Chisel (Screwdriver), and Bevel types. I’ll share some thoughts on their characteristics and usage based on my own experience.
To that end, I specifically created a 3D illustration. You can probably tell that my Blender skills are quite basic, but fortunately, the focus of this article is on soldering tip usage, not Blender modeling.
In the 3D illustration, you’ll notice that I made two versions of the Pointed tip: one with an extremely sharp point and another with a more rounded tip. Strictly speaking, only the latter belongs to the “four common types,” while the former should be categorized under “special-purpose soldering tips.”
However, beginners often choose the Pointed type when selecting their first soldering tip. After all, the Pointed tip looks the most like what people imagine a soldering iron tip to be, and it gives the impression that, like a needle, it should be ideal for manual spot-soldering work.
It is precisely under this “misconception” that beginners not only prefer the Pointed type but often pick the extremely sharp version. In reality, an ultra-sharp soldering tip is no longer a standard type; it is a specialized tool intended for fixing solder bridges.
Even if one doesn’t go to that extreme and simply picks a regular Pointed tip, it’s still a bad idea: conventional Pointed tips are mainly designed for dealing with solder bridges, and they are actually quite difficult to use for general soldering tasks.
There are two essential conditions for successful soldering: the soldering tip must have sufficient heat capacity, and it must have good tin-holding (wetting) ability. However, the Pointed type soldering tip fails to meet both of these requirements. Its tip is extremely narrow, making it incapable of delivering enough heat, and it lacks a flat surface to hold solder properly.
When you try to load solder onto a Pointed tip, it tends to gather into a ball at the very tip instead of spreading across a flat surface. As a result, you can’t pre-load solder onto the tip; instead, you have to use your left hand to constantly feed cold solder wire onto the pad during the soldering process. The problem is that the Pointed tip transfers heat very poorly, so the cold solder wire is difficult to melt in time, making the soldering operation quite challenging.
The real purpose of the Pointed type tip is to fix solder bridges. You use its sharp tip to touch the bridged area precisely, heating just that tiny spot. Once heated, the excess solder separates and flows back onto the individual pins, thereby repairing the bridge issue.
After eliminating the “distracting options,” the Knife, Chisel, and Bevel types are the ones truly suitable for general soldering work. Their tips have sufficiently large metal surfaces to ensure continuous and stable heat transfer, and they all feature a flat area capable of holding solder effectively.
Upon closer inspection, you’ll notice that the Chisel and Knife types are actually quite similar — but the Knife type offers some advantages over the Chisel. In most cases, when the soldering angle is not an issue, a Knife tip can simply be rotated 45° to function like a Chisel tip. Additionally, the sharp point of the Knife tip can be used much like a Pointed tip when needed. In other words, you could say that Chisel + Pointed = Knife.
At this point, the only finalists left are the Bevel and Knife tips. In fact, for experienced users, the Knife tip alone is often sufficient — it can handle through-hole soldering, surface-mount soldering, desoldering, and even fixing solder bridges. However, for beginners, both of these tips are indispensable.
The advantages of the Knife tip have already been discussed. As for the Bevel tip, its strength lies in its larger flat surface — and unlike the Knife tip, this surface is truly flat. This allows the Bevel tip to be pressed vertically against the pins of surface-mount chips, making it ideal for drag soldering.
This sums up my understanding of soldering tips: for me, both the Bevel and Knife types are essential. They are like the telephoto and wide-angle lenses of a camera — ideally, you should have one of each. However, unlike with cameras, it’s not practical to keep swapping tips back and forth while soldering.
So, it’s better to prepare two soldering irons, each fitted with the tip that feels most comfortable and efficient for your work.
