I was pursuaded to join the rush to grab a set of these cranked chisels when Lee Valley promoted them a month or so ago. I didn't want a full set of the darn things, but the LV introductory price was ridiculously cheap, and a certain friend persuaded me that buying a set was a better choice than waiting to get one at an individual price - look at the money I would save! :; :roll:
So a set duly arrived. The chisels looked pretty good and even have quite well-turned handles that any reasonable person could probably live with. But I'm not reasonable when it comes to handles (obsessive would be a better description) and apart from being bland, unfinished Birch (I think), the handles seemed longer than necessary. These are the sort of tool that I often need to get into tight spots, cleaning up glue squeeze-out & so forth, so some reduction was called for. After mulling it over for a bit, I decided the best shape for a handle would be a simple, elongated egg, something that would fit neatly in my hand, with a comfortably fat end to push on. So I grabbed some Brigalow and knocked out a prototype: Handles cf.jpg
After hefting it a bit & trying some practice cuts, I reckoned that would do nicely, & the siblings got the same treatment: Narex chisels rehandled.jpg
OK, that was the easy part. The couple of rubs I gave the back of the 1" chisel showed it was a bit shy of flat, so I set about some serious flattening. The factory finish had left a slight side to side hollow along the back. This would have been fine if it had started back of the cutting edge, like Japanese chisels, but the hollow included the cutting edge. You can see the slightly uneven hollow clearly after a few rubs on a coarse diamond stone: Flattening1.jpg
A good many more minutes and it's starting to look flat: Flattening2.jpg
There is a "99/1 rule of flattening" (99% of the work goes into flattening out the last 1%), but a chisel like this has to be dead flat to work as it should, so I pressed on (and on!). Eventually, I got rid of the crescent at the cutting edge: Flattening3.jpg
The other chisels were a little closer & took less effort, partly because they are narrower, of course, but the good news is, it didn't take too long & they all took a nice polish & edge on the fine stones & passed the end-grain paring test very well. Time will soon tell how they hold that edge, but Narex are earning a reputation for good steel at a good price, so I'm hoping they keep up the family tradition.....
Now, I just have to figure out which ones I'll keep, and where I can stuff them into the tool cupboard.
Thanks, Brett..... :U
So a set duly arrived. The chisels looked pretty good and even have quite well-turned handles that any reasonable person could probably live with. But I'm not reasonable when it comes to handles (obsessive would be a better description) and apart from being bland, unfinished Birch (I think), the handles seemed longer than necessary. These are the sort of tool that I often need to get into tight spots, cleaning up glue squeeze-out & so forth, so some reduction was called for. After mulling it over for a bit, I decided the best shape for a handle would be a simple, elongated egg, something that would fit neatly in my hand, with a comfortably fat end to push on. So I grabbed some Brigalow and knocked out a prototype: Handles cf.jpg
After hefting it a bit & trying some practice cuts, I reckoned that would do nicely, & the siblings got the same treatment: Narex chisels rehandled.jpg
OK, that was the easy part. The couple of rubs I gave the back of the 1" chisel showed it was a bit shy of flat, so I set about some serious flattening. The factory finish had left a slight side to side hollow along the back. This would have been fine if it had started back of the cutting edge, like Japanese chisels, but the hollow included the cutting edge. You can see the slightly uneven hollow clearly after a few rubs on a coarse diamond stone: Flattening1.jpg
A good many more minutes and it's starting to look flat: Flattening2.jpg
There is a "99/1 rule of flattening" (99% of the work goes into flattening out the last 1%), but a chisel like this has to be dead flat to work as it should, so I pressed on (and on!). Eventually, I got rid of the crescent at the cutting edge: Flattening3.jpg
The other chisels were a little closer & took less effort, partly because they are narrower, of course, but the good news is, it didn't take too long & they all took a nice polish & edge on the fine stones & passed the end-grain paring test very well. Time will soon tell how they hold that edge, but Narex are earning a reputation for good steel at a good price, so I'm hoping they keep up the family tradition.....
Now, I just have to figure out which ones I'll keep, and where I can stuff them into the tool cupboard.
Thanks, Brett..... :U
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