Country: United States.
Ok, if I were to buy 1 tip, which should it be? Already have a 1.6mm chisel tip. Should I go larger or should I go smaller for another chisel tip? I don't want to buy any knockoffs. Willing to pay for a genuine tip.
There are few occasions in life where one should be self-centered, this is one of them. I think it is person/job dependent...
First, I am a hobbyist. My soldering job is in making small experiments/fun-stuff (fitting within a 5x7 inch board being biggest). And I do soldering may be once a week instead of professionally and multiple times daily.) More often then once a week are fixing wires to a plug or fixing/adding a connection while I test my "master piece du jour".
I use the
1.2mm chisel often and my next size up (likely 2.4mm but could be 1.6mm). I mostly do prototyping boards with holes 1/10 inch (2.54mm) apart. I found the "next size up" too easy to form bridges, and with my eye sight, I found it hard to tell my orientation when I am using the 1.2mm. (Orientation I mean: do I have the flat-side down or sideways.) However,
the 1.2mm chisel is my main component soldering tip. I switch to the larger one only when I have thicker wires to connect. I don't like it, but the frustration of orientation of the smaller 1.2mm is an easier and less time consuming problem than cleaning up solder-bridges between holes form by the larger tip.
When I am
desoldering stuff, the larger conical and chisel shape I like - often you would need to melt solder in more than one place. The large conical is easy to maneuver and slide from one hole to the next. You need to do that to keep them all melted to pull a component. Think about the shape of the chisel and you can see you will need to reorient it as you switch from say one side of the dip to the other. Also - at times, the sharp end of the chisel often get caught under a bend component wire/pin while moving from one hole to the next. So
larger conical is my go-to tip for desoldering. I switch to the very sharp conical when I need to make sure the hole is clean and when my suction pump doesn't a good enough job -- particularly when I have bits of little cut wires insisting on clogging up the hole, the sharp tip push it out easily.
So, if I am to desolder as much as I solder, (in experimentation, I desolder a lot,) I would pick a conical. But I do solder more than I desolder, so I would pick the 1.2mm chisel. I have the luxury of time as hobbyist, I can afford to switch tips. I keep two conicals and two chisels by my iron (and other tips plus my replacement tips on a shelf for easy-access).
I think you should put your personal considerations first. Try them out and see which one you end up using more - then get more of those. The kind of soldering you do, and your personal limitation (as in your eyesight or how much your hand shakes) are primary considerations.
Hope this helps in your choosing "the one tip you would buy if you were to buy one"...
Rick