Axminster's cheapest chisels

[Anonymous]

Heres a review of some cheapo chisels:

I recently bought a set of these, Axminster's cheapest chisels.
The finish is not particularly fine and they don't look very nice with the 2 tone handles, infact about as stylish as a 1980s shell suit.
They come in an unattractive mock leather wallet which I found to be useless so binned it.
One of the chunky and clumsy looking handles had slightly off-center alignment with the blades; not so bad as to make it worth sending back at less than £3 each.

So are they any good?

Chunky handles quite comfortable in use.
Well they sharpened up with no problem - just a quick few passes on the oil stone, turned and wire edge removed from face, done in seconds. The faces show machine marks but are all flat to almost concave along the length - which is the perfect shape for rapid sharpening.
And they cut, and hold their edge, perfectly well.
As well as my normal joinery I've been practising a bit of woodcarving on softwood and oak and so have given them plenty of use.
Ideal for a beginner to make all his/her sharpening mistakes on as they are "disposable" at this price.
But also perfectly useable for a pro.
Verdict: look nasty, but excellent value for money.
Why pay more?


cheers
Jacob

 

[Anonymous]

Arhh, but can you waft them about like a fencer, talking about how well balanced they are, fit perfectly to a wood workers hand, and will they sharpen to a perfect 32.63472345 degrees with a double edge wiffle waffle bevel on the tip. Best stop there....

 

[Scrit]

Jacob

You old spendthrift! £3 a chisel? Scandalous! My super-duper set of 4 wooden-handled chisels from LIDL cost me all of £6.99 (or £1.74 and a bit) each, and I was reluctant to part with so much wonga. The only thing which persuaded me was the recommendation from JasonB that these chisels were in fact multi-purpose tools, being all-in-one wood chisels, screwdrivers, hacking chisels, mini-pry bars and paint tin openers. He was right. They do hold an edge reasonably, too, but sadly I've not found them much use for removing boy scouts from horses. Is there a more reasonably priced alternative you could recommend?

Worried of the Windy Pennines

 

[Anonymous]

Arhh, but can you waft them about like a fencer, talking about how well balanced they are, fit perfectly to a wood workers hand, and will they sharpen to a perfect 32.63472345 degrees with a double edge wiffle waffle bevel on the tip. Best stop there....

Forgot to say yah deffo perfectly balanced and probably cryogenically thingied. :lol:
I used to have a woodworking mate who'd drop in now and then. He'd pick things up and do just that; "waft them about like a fencer", and say something like "I like the balance" etc. I never found out what he meant but don't think he knew either.:shock:

cheers
Jacob

 

[DomValente]

I was taught that chef's knives were of good quality when you could balance them on a finger from where the blade ended to were the handle started, probably the same with a chisel, although I could never figure out what happened once you started sharpening it and it lost some steel, was it no longer of good quality

Dom

 

[Anonymous]

Jacob

You old spendthrift! £3 a chisel? Scandalous! My super-duper set of 4 wooden-handled chisels from LIDL cost me all of £6.99 (or £1.74 and a bit) each, and I was reluctant to part with so much wonga. The only thing which persuaded me was the recommendation from JasonB that these chisels were in fact multi-purpose tools, being all-in-one wood chisels, screwdrivers, hacking chisels, mini-pry bars and paint tin openers. He was right. They do hold an edge reasonably, too, but sadly I've not found them much use for removing boy scouts from horses. Is there a more reasonably priced alternative you could recommend?

Worried of the Windy Pennines

Wish I'd known, I knew there'd be some even cheaper somewhere. Oh well can't send them back now, I'll just have to try and forget how much I paid

cheers
Jacob

 

[Scrit]

Arhh, but can you waft them about like a fencer.....

I used to have a woodworking mate who'd drop in now and then. He'd pick things up and do just that; "waft them about like a fencer", and say something like "I like the balance" etc.

And there was me thinking that all fencers used were 28oz framing hammers and Passys......

Scrit

 

[Anonymous]

Why pay more?

cheers
Jacob

Because you can get even better chisels that way......

 

[woodbloke]

Mr Grim wrote:

But also perfectly useable for a pro.

But what about the non pro's, the folk who don't have to use a chisel to lever off paint tins and disembowel boy scouts?....maybe us hobbiest woodworkers can afford something a little better - Rob

 

[Anonymous]

As a pro I could afford the most expensive chisels out there, especially with no vat and offset against tax, I do not use them to open paint tins etc and yet I still choose to use very middle of the road chisels because I don't need super dooper ones. Not one customer has accused me of making their furniture with inferior chisels.

 

[woodbloke]

Senior wrote:

I still choose to use very middle of the road chisels

You're the same as the rest of us then :lol: as I use LN chisels which are middle of the road ....'specially if you compare them to these little beasties. It all depends really on how you define cheap and nasty, middle of the road and stuff in the the very stratosphere of prices that need a second mortgage - Rob

 

[DomValente]

....'specially if you compare them to these little beasties.

I'm confused :shock: aren't they the one's everybody uses

Dom

 

[Anonymous]

Rob- your absolutly right its all very subjective

Dom, we can't all have your affluent lifestyle, I suppose you open paint tins with that type. What next, a hand made sign............

 

[Lord Nibbo]

Jacob

My super-duper set of 4 wooden-handled chisels from LIDL cost me all of £6.99 (or £1.74 and a bit) each,

You was ripped off Scrit

You should have bought these from Screwfix

£9.99 includes a carry box & an oil stone. Knock off say a £1 for the box and £3 for the oil stone, it means the SIX chisels cost less than £1 each :lol:

 

[MrJay]

I doubt that box cost £1.

 

[Lord Nibbo]

I doubt that box cost £1.

OK lets say it's free :lol: Now add another whopping 16% price rise :lol: thats £1. 16p per chisel :shock: :lol: :wink:

 

[Mike Saville]

I've got those screwfix ones :shock: , used for hacking and general DIY. Admittedly I haven't tried to do any fine work with them . . . .yet

 

[Alf]

I doubt that box cost £1.

OK lets say it's free :lol: Now add another whopping 16% price rise :lol: thats £1. 16p per chisel :shock: :lol: :wink:

Big spender; some of my best chisels cost me less than a quid a piece. For the equivalent to those, I'd consider myself robbed I was asked for more than a couple of quid the lot - and the seller better be the one stooping to pick them up... Tsk, these paid woodworkers don't half throw their clientele's money around, don't they? :roll:

Jacob, in your fulsome review there was one feature I hope you could clarify. Axminster call them "bevel-edged" - would it possible to give an idea as to what that means in this context? Bevel-edged seems to cover the whole gamut from merely a slight dubbing of the corners right through to thin edges that can be actively painful.

Cheers, Alf

 

[Lord Nibbo]

Bevel-edged seems to cover the whole gamut from merely a slight dubbing of the corners right through to thin edges that can be actively painful.

Cheers, Alf

Found that out the hard way !

I couldn't understand how I was getting blood everywhere every time I used my Bahco chisels, I never stabbed myself so where was the blood coming from? It turned out my habit of sliding the blade over my forefinger to keep the blade under control was slicing into my finger like a razor blade, a quick rub with some emery cured the problem :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Jacob, in your fulsome review there was one feature I hope you could clarify. Axminster call them "bevel-edged" - would it possible to give an idea as to what that means in this context? Bevel-edged seems to cover the whole gamut from merely a slight dubbing of the corners right through to thin edges that can be actively painful.

Cheers, Alf

Sorta randomly bevelled from almost no bevel at all on the 6mm to a reasonably useful bevel on the 38mm, but non are very fine.
Bevel-edged ish, score 6 out of 10 praps. But then even good quality chisels seem to vary in bevelyness, except old paring chisels which can be beautifully fine.

cheers
Jacob
PS Axminster just offering these at anincredible price
Bevels actually don't look so different from the cheap ones (except the 6mm see above)