Hello everyone,

People are asking me what I want for Christmas. They know I have most
everything I could need/want. I am thinking I might ask Santa for a new set
of chisels. I currently have the Lee Valley boxed set of chisels and I am
reasonably happy with them. I did buy a single 1/4" wooden handled Marples
that I ground to 3/16 and rounded for doing dovetails and it seems better
than my Lee Valley set for staying sharp and not rolling an edge. While I
did buy it at LV a couple of years ago, I just checked and they don't seem
to carry them anymore.

What are people opinions on what to buy in a high end chisel set?

Thanks,

David.

Every neighbourhood has one, in mine, I'm him.

lots of talk about the Lie-Nielsen chisels check them out on the web.

--
Knowledge speaks, wisdom listen.....
Jimi Hendrix
"David F. Eisan" wrote in message
...
Hello everyone,

People are asking me what I want for Christmas. They know I have most
everything I could need/want. I am thinking I might ask Santa for a new
set
of chisels. I currently have the Lee Valley boxed set of chisels and I am
reasonably happy with them. I did buy a single 1/4" wooden handled Marples
that I ground to 3/16 and rounded for doing dovetails and it seems better
than my Lee Valley set for staying sharp and not rolling an edge. While I
did buy it at LV a couple of years ago, I just checked and they don't seem
to carry them anymore.

What are people opinions on what to buy in a high end chisel set?

Thanks,

David.

Every neighbourhood has one, in mine, I'm him.

People are asking me what I want for Christmas. They know I have most
everything I could need/want. I am thinking I might ask Santa for a new set
of chisels. I currently have the Lee Valley boxed set of chisels and I am
reasonably happy with them. I did buy a single 1/4" wooden handled Marples
that I ground to 3/16 and rounded for doing dovetails and it seems better
than my Lee Valley set for staying sharp and not rolling an edge. While I
did buy it at LV a couple of years ago, I just checked and they don't seem
to carry them anymore.
What are people opinions on what to buy in a high end chisel set?


Heh... EVERYONE will puch Two Cherrys and Hirsch (same). I have a set
of Stubai in a box. http://www.diefenbacher.com/ There is a review there.

These are Harris tools socket chisels in a box as a set of eight for a great price,
made of a hard manganese chrome steel: http://www.harristools.com/ eBay:
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQgotopage...sortpropertyZ1
I suggest the greenheart (ironwood) handles for greater strength. The standard
is cocobola.

Alex

....'cept Martin

I have a set of the Lie-Nielsen bevel-edge socket chisels, and 3 (1/4", 3/8"
and 1/2") of their new mortise chisels. All are exceptionally well made. I
haven't used the mortise chisels too much yet, but the bench chisels hold an
edge an amazingly long time. The hornbeam handles seem to be as durable as
I've seen (not saying much, really), although I haven't really done heavy
striking on them - just light taps when cleaning up dovetails. They ARE
steep ($250/5), but I can't imagine ever needing another set of chisels in
my lifetime as long as I take care of them.

I also have a set of the Two Cherries chisels, which are also very nice, but
a step below the LN in terms of durability and comfort in the hand.

Mike


"David F. Eisan" wrote in message
...
Hello everyone,

People are asking me what I want for Christmas. They know I have most
everything I could need/want. I am thinking I might ask Santa for a new
set
of chisels. I currently have the Lee Valley boxed set of chisels and I am
reasonably happy with them. I did buy a single 1/4" wooden handled Marples
that I ground to 3/16 and rounded for doing dovetails and it seems better
than my Lee Valley set for staying sharp and not rolling an edge. While I
did buy it at LV a couple of years ago, I just checked and they don't seem
to carry them anymore.

What are people opinions on what to buy in a high end chisel set?

Thanks,

David.

Every neighbourhood has one, in mine, I'm him.

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 18:55:32 -0500, "David F. Eisan"
calmly ranted:

Hello everyone,

People are asking me what I want for Christmas. They know I have most
everything I could need/want. I am thinking I might ask Santa for a new set
of chisels. I currently have the Lee Valley boxed set of chisels and I am
reasonably happy with them. I did buy a single 1/4" wooden handled Marples
that I ground to 3/16 and rounded for doing dovetails and it seems better
than my Lee Valley set for staying sharp and not rolling an edge. While I
did buy it at LV a couple of years ago, I just checked and they don't seem
to carry them anymore.

What are people opinions on what to buy in a high end chisel set?

How would I know? I'm still happy with Blue Chip Marples. g

Chisels or gouges? If gouges, go with Pfeil, aka "Swiss Made".
They're really great; purty, too.

Is it paring chisels you're after, Bunky? Set a Japan Woodworker
catalog in front of her with your favorite set circled as a hint.
I inherited a couple Japanese carving chisels from an old Wreck
salt and they're made of great steel. Are you ready for a set of
Japanese steels?


-- Friends Don't Let Friends Eat Turkey and Drive --

I have had a set of the barr chisels for over a year -- plenty of comparison
with marples blue handles and some low end stanley's -- worth every cent

http://www.barrtools.com/


"David F. Eisan" wrote in message
...
Hello everyone,

People are asking me what I want for Christmas. They know I have most
everything I could need/want. I am thinking I might ask Santa for a new
set
of chisels. I currently have the Lee Valley boxed set of chisels and I am
reasonably happy with them. I did buy a single 1/4" wooden handled Marples
that I ground to 3/16 and rounded for doing dovetails and it seems better
than my Lee Valley set for staying sharp and not rolling an edge. While I
did buy it at LV a couple of years ago, I just checked and they don't seem
to carry them anymore.

What are people opinions on what to buy in a high end chisel set?

Thanks,

David.

Every neighbourhood has one, in mine, I'm him.

"David F. Eisan" wrote in message
...
Hello everyone,

People are asking me what I want for Christmas. They know I have most
everything I could need/want. I am thinking I might ask Santa for a new
set
of chisels. I currently have the Lee Valley boxed set of chisels and I am
reasonably happy with them. I did buy a single 1/4" wooden handled Marples
that I ground to 3/16 and rounded for doing dovetails and it seems better
than my Lee Valley set for staying sharp and not rolling an edge. While I
did buy it at LV a couple of years ago, I just checked and they don't seem
to carry them anymore.

What are people opinions on what to buy in a high end chisel set?

Thanks,

David.

Every neighbourhood has one, in mine, I'm him.


Given a choice, I'd be looking for a nice set of long-bladed paring
chisels...the ones you've got already are great for general work, as are
most of the Japanese, European and American chisels available. I'd also be
checking that the handles are somewhat proportional to the nominal size of
the blades--you know, smaller handle for narrow chisel--"better balance"...

Best,
Adam

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 18:55:32 -0500, "David F. Eisan"
wrote:


What are people opinions on what to buy in a high end chisel set?

I like my Hirsch (Two Cherries).

Others have mention LN's long awaited chisels. As other's have
mentioned, they are typical LN quality. A co-worker has them, and
I'll agree.

I'm not replacing my Hirsch chisels, but if you've got the budget, the
LN's seem like "da' Bomb".

Barry

I'm very plased with the blue steel bench chisels from the Japan Woodworker.

No affiliation.

-jbb

"David F. Eisan" wrote in message
...
Hello everyone,

People are asking me what I want for Christmas. They know I have most
everything I could need/want. I am thinking I might ask Santa for a new
set
of chisels. I currently have the Lee Valley boxed set of chisels and I am
reasonably happy with them. I did buy a single 1/4" wooden handled Marples
that I ground to 3/16 and rounded for doing dovetails and it seems better
than my Lee Valley set for staying sharp and not rolling an edge. While I
did buy it at LV a couple of years ago, I just checked and they don't seem
to carry them anymore.

What are people opinions on what to buy in a high end chisel set?

Thanks,

David.

Every neighbourhood has one, in mine, I'm him.

"martin" wrote in
newsZvnd.97$hJ6.79@trndny01:

lots of talk about the Lie-Nielsen chisels check them out on the web.


They are _very_ nice. Are the folks on the giving end up to a US$250
purchase? Sets only.

The mortise chisels are in pre-production, and are available as individual
items, at $50. Usually a wait.

Patriarch

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 05:36:06 -0800, Ba r r y wrote
(in article ):

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 18:55:32 -0500, "David F. Eisan"
wrote:


What are people opinions on what to buy in a high end chisel set?

I like my Hirsch (Two Cherries).



How much tuning did you have to do with your Hirsch (Two Cherries)? My only
complaint about my Two Cherries chisel sets is that they were excessively
buffed at the factory. Excessive in that they buffed the back of the blade
enough to round over the edge quite severely. I had to take almost 1/8th of
an inch off of several to get to a point where the back was actually flat.

If you can find one of the "economy sets", where they weren't polished quite
so much, I'd go for those...

Also- while you're removing the coat of lacquer that the blades are shipped
with prior to use, I'd recommend that you don't stop with the blades. The
handles feel much nicer in the hand when they've been stripped of lacquer,
sanded and finished with an oil.

Paul

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 16:13:14 -0800, "AAvK" wrote:


People are asking me what I want for Christmas. They know I have most
everything I could need/want. I am thinking I might ask Santa for a new set
of chisels. I currently have the Lee Valley boxed set of chisels and I am
reasonably happy with them. I did buy a single 1/4" wooden handled Marples
that I ground to 3/16 and rounded for doing dovetails and it seems better
than my Lee Valley set for staying sharp and not rolling an edge. While I
did buy it at LV a couple of years ago, I just checked and they don't seem
to carry them anymore.
What are people opinions on what to buy in a high end chisel set?

I'm looking closely at some of those beauties at the Japan Woodworker.

http://www.japanwoodworker.com/dept.asp?dept_id=11560

I figure anything hand forged by a blademaster in Japan has got to be
better than a Craftsman, to say the least. After all, they're the
folks who used to be really into beheading people with a single, clean
stroke. I dig their saws, too.

Heh... EVERYONE will puch Two Cherrys and Hirsch (same). I have a set
of Stubai in a box. http://www.diefenbacher.com/ There is a review there.

These are Harris tools socket chisels in a box as a set of eight for a great price,
made of a hard manganese chrome steel: http://www.harristools.com/ eBay:
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQgotopage...sortpropertyZ1
I suggest the greenheart (ironwood) handles for greater strength. The standard
is cocobola.

Alex



Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

[upper snip]
I'd recommend that you don't stop with the blades. The
handles feel much nicer in the hand when they've been stripped of lacquer,
sanded and finished with an oil.


Thanks Paul, that is a great idea for my Stubai set, besides that they have
poor looking "Garrett Wade" in large gaudy black letters on each handle.

Alex

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 22:07:54 -0600, Prometheus
wrote:

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 16:13:14 -0800, "AAvK" wrote:


People are asking me what I want for Christmas. They know I have most
everything I could need/want. I am thinking I might ask Santa for a new set
of chisels. I currently have the Lee Valley boxed set of chisels and I am
reasonably happy with them. I did buy a single 1/4" wooden handled Marples
that I ground to 3/16 and rounded for doing dovetails and it seems better
than my Lee Valley set for staying sharp and not rolling an edge. While I
did buy it at LV a couple of years ago, I just checked and they don't seem
to carry them anymore.
What are people opinions on what to buy in a high end chisel set?

I'm looking closely at some of those beauties at the Japan Woodworker.

http://www.japanwoodworker.com/dept.asp?dept_id=11560

I figure anything hand forged by a blademaster in Japan has got to be
better than a Craftsman, to say the least. After all, they're the
folks who used to be really into beheading people with a single, clean
stroke. I dig their saws, too.

Whether a set of high-quality Japanese chisels will be worth it
depends very much on your work habits, IMHO.

If you're willing to take the time to fool with them to keep the
properly sharpened and such, then they are unsurpassed. If you give
them the same degree of care you give a good European (Two Cherries)
or American (LN) brand of chisel they're no better than the European
or American chisels and perhaps worse.

I say this based on my experience with carving tools. I have an
electic mix of Japanese and European carving tools. The better
Japanese ones will repay fooling with them, but you've got to fool
with them to get the best out of them.

--RC

Heh... EVERYONE will puch Two Cherrys and Hirsch (same). I have a set
of Stubai in a box. http://www.diefenbacher.com/ There is a review there.

These are Harris tools socket chisels in a box as a set of eight for a great price,
made of a hard manganese chrome steel: http://www.harristools.com/ eBay:
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQgotopage...sortpropertyZ1
I suggest the greenheart (ironwood) handles for greater strength. The standard
is cocobola.

Alex



Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

Sleep? Isn't that a totally inadequate substitute for caffine?

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 03:14:31 GMT, Paul Hays
wrote:

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 05:36:06 -0800, Ba r r y wrote
(in article ):

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 18:55:32 -0500, "David F. Eisan"
wrote:


What are people opinions on what to buy in a high end chisel set?

I like my Hirsch (Two Cherries).



How much tuning did you have to do with your Hirsch (Two Cherries)? My only
complaint about my Two Cherries chisel sets is that they were excessively
buffed at the factory. Excessive in that they buffed the back of the blade
enough to round over the edge quite severely. I had to take almost 1/8th of
an inch off of several to get to a point where the back was actually flat.

I suspect you're going to have to hone and tune any good set of
chisels, except _perhaps_ the Japanese ones. Flattening the back is
part of that for me.

That said, yes, there is a tendency for some of the European stuff to
be over-buffed. This never bothered me because I expect to spend some
time putting any new chisel or carving tool 'right' and it's a
one-time process. For instance I routinely re-bevel some of my carving
tools to work on very hard woods, keepnig another set for use on
softer woods like mahogany, basswood and walnut.

YMMV, of course.

--RC

If you can find one of the "economy sets", where they weren't polished quite
so much, I'd go for those...

Also- while you're removing the coat of lacquer that the blades are shipped
with prior to use, I'd recommend that you don't stop with the blades. The
handles feel much nicer in the hand when they've been stripped of lacquer,
sanded and finished with an oil.

Paul

Sleep? Isn't that a totally inadequate substitute for caffine?

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 03:14:31 GMT, Paul Hays
wrote:


How much tuning did you have to do with your Hirsch (Two Cherries)? My only
complaint about my Two Cherries chisel sets is that they were excessively
buffed at the factory. Excessive in that they buffed the back of the blade
enough to round over the edge quite severely. I had to take almost 1/8th of
an inch off of several to get to a point where the back was actually flat.

I didn't have any sort of experience like that.

My back flattening usually involves four grits of water-lubed DMT
diamond plates and my 4000 and 8000 grit waterstones. I usually only
mess with about the bottom inch or so. I don't recall spending more
than 10-15 minutes on each chisel.

As for how much metal I removed, I couldn't tell you. The DMT plates
are pretty aggressive in the coarser grits, so maybe I did remove a
lot of metal.

Also- while you're removing the coat of lacquer that the blades are shipped
with prior to use, I'd recommend that you don't stop with the blades. The
handles feel much nicer in the hand when they've been stripped of lacquer,
sanded and finished with an oil.

I'll have to try this.

Thanks!
Barry

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 09:36:45 -0600, Australopithecus scobis
wrote:



You do touch the entire back at the diamond stages, correct? You're not
leaving a snipe at the polished first inch?

Right, but only at the coarsest stage, and I don't get crazy about how
flat things are beyond the first two inches at this stage. The finer
I go, the less I do, until only an inch or so hits the waterstones.
Each grit step kind of feathers into the next. There is no snipe,
it's fast, and it works for me. I've met folks that spent a long time
flattening the entire back.

If I use up my original flattened area, which is unlikely in the next
10-15 years, I'll hit the whole back again on the XC DMT plate.

Barry

"David F. Eisan" wrote in message
...

What are people opinions on what to buy in a high end chisel set?

I use the Robert Sorby english mortise chisels. They hold a great edge and
work well.
SH

I have the Lee Valley chisels and they work fine. They keep an edge
pretty well. I also have the Lie-Nielsen's and they are very nice. I
tend to use them only for the "good stuff." They handle well, too.

For really high end, try Barr chisels. http://www.barrtools.com/

An attractive middle of the road chioce I'd check out the MHG chisels
which are imported from Germany and sold through Hartville Tool. A set
of 6 is about $125.

The Veritas Detail chisels (sold at Lee Valley) are also nice. They
have one at 1/16'th, a useful size. I've found anything from Lee
Valley with the word "Vertitas" on it is very high quality. A set of 5
is $135.
See them he
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...rency=2&S ID=


The "David F. Eisan" wrote in message
[snip]

On 23 Nov 2004 06:19:10 -0800, (Never Enough
Money) wrote:


An attractive middle of the road chioce I'd check out the MHG chisels
which are imported from Germany and sold through Hartville Tool. A set
of 6 is about $125.

I wonder if these are yet one more cousin of Hirsch / Two Cherries?

Barry