Dr.Al
Old Oak
I've got rather a lot of Narex chisels - probably more than I need if I'm honest, but I really like the big chunky handles and they seem to hold an edge well compared to the (not very many) Marples ones I had before and I love the fact they're in metric sizes. Some I bought because I wanted a particular size, some I bought because they were on offer and I was close to a free delivery threshold and it seemed a good option.
Anyway... at the risk of starting a sharpening discussion, the first thing I do when I first put my hands on a chisel is rub the back on a 300 grit diamond stone until the resulting scratch marks go all the way across the cutting tip. I then worry about higher grits and the bevel, but I've found it slightly interesting how quickly I can get the back flat.
The chisels I've got are a mixture of 8116 bench chisels and 8112 mortice chisels. They came from Workshop Heaven (all the mortice chisels, some of the bench chisels) and Yandles (the rest of the bench chisels). All the ones from Yandles had a shiny polished finish on the back (until I rubbed them on the stone!); all the ones from Workshop Heaven had diagonal grinding marks.
My initial assumption was that the Workshop Heaven ones were ground flat for ease of flattening and the Yandles ones were polished to make them look pretty at the expense of functionality. However, with every single chisel I've bought from Yandles, it's only taken a few seconds of rubbing on the diamond stone to get the tip fully ground (usually with a small unground elliptical area 10 to 15 mm back from the edge, which I don't worry about). Every single chisel I've bought from Workshop Heaven has taken me upwards of half-an-hour to get to the same state (and one I resorted to some 120 grit wet-and-dry on a bit of glass).
Not sure what to conclude from that about the way they're made, I just thought it was an interesting observation.
Anyway... at the risk of starting a sharpening discussion, the first thing I do when I first put my hands on a chisel is rub the back on a 300 grit diamond stone until the resulting scratch marks go all the way across the cutting tip. I then worry about higher grits and the bevel, but I've found it slightly interesting how quickly I can get the back flat.
The chisels I've got are a mixture of 8116 bench chisels and 8112 mortice chisels. They came from Workshop Heaven (all the mortice chisels, some of the bench chisels) and Yandles (the rest of the bench chisels). All the ones from Yandles had a shiny polished finish on the back (until I rubbed them on the stone!); all the ones from Workshop Heaven had diagonal grinding marks.
My initial assumption was that the Workshop Heaven ones were ground flat for ease of flattening and the Yandles ones were polished to make them look pretty at the expense of functionality. However, with every single chisel I've bought from Yandles, it's only taken a few seconds of rubbing on the diamond stone to get the tip fully ground (usually with a small unground elliptical area 10 to 15 mm back from the edge, which I don't worry about). Every single chisel I've bought from Workshop Heaven has taken me upwards of half-an-hour to get to the same state (and one I resorted to some 120 grit wet-and-dry on a bit of glass).
Not sure what to conclude from that about the way they're made, I just thought it was an interesting observation.
