There has been some interest in cheap chisels lately, some of it inspired by Paul Sellers' rave reception of a set of four chisels from Aldi for £7.95. I expect these are unobtainable now so thought I'd have a look at an alternative.
I bought this - purely for research, and for your benefit - from Poundland:
If that's too cheap for anyone, I think it's the same as you can get from Toolstation at £2.41, though theirs is marked 13mm and comes with an empty space for you to put your own choice of sticker:
First, let's look at what you get, compared to other options.
From the top, these are:
- Footprint firmer chisel, early 70s
- Marples bevel edge, some time in the early C20th
- Stanley, late 70s
- This one.
You can see that you actually get quite a small bit of steel, with a skimpy handle, overall length only about 9".
From the side, it's as thick as the firmer chisel, clumsier than the Stanley bevel-edged, and definitely not the same sort of tool as the delicate Marples. That's no surprise - I would expect this to be a general purpose chisel.
The bevelling does little more than take the corners off, but is quite tidily done; those grinding marks are very shallow and not as bad as they look in the photo:
The back (or face if you insist) has been dinged by a sharp corner of something and has a lump on it:
but that is very easily removed.
As supplied, the non-bevel side is completely flat, as shown against this M&W engineer's square:
and the bevel is ground to 30°
The handle has flash from the moulding machine all round it
but that is easily removed with a knife or sandpaper.
So is it any use?
I sharpened it in my usual way and tried it out.
[This is not a thread about sharpening. Anyone reading this who does not know how to sharpen a chisel should seek professional help. If you think there could be more than one way that works, read on!]
Here's some evidence that it very easily came to a mirror finish, flat all the way across, in a very short time:
I tried paring some old, dry, hard English oak - it worked fine:
I fitted a little hinge in the same oak offcut - no problem.
For a test on some softwood, I carved a letter I on a scrap of redwood:
and I think I can say that any flaws are as much to do with my technique as they were with the tool.
So, in this brief, informal test, it did ok.
I didn't sharpen it after working on the oak, and it was still sharp enough to use.
I was pleased at how straight and flat it was.
The worst aspects were the small size and nasty handle - it was not nicely balanced and felt quite fiddly to hold in my moderately large hands.
I wouldn't make it my first choice, and I can't say how long the edge would last in serious use, but for anyone not wanting to spend more on a proper chisel, it could be used to get a job done. If I was doing a repair job on old painted woodwork where there could be hidden nails or screws, I would use it with no worries of spoiling an expensive tool.
This was bought in the quite large Poundland in Bristol and may not be available in all their shops. They only had this one size.
I bought this - purely for research, and for your benefit - from Poundland:
If that's too cheap for anyone, I think it's the same as you can get from Toolstation at £2.41, though theirs is marked 13mm and comes with an empty space for you to put your own choice of sticker:
First, let's look at what you get, compared to other options.
From the top, these are:
- Footprint firmer chisel, early 70s
- Marples bevel edge, some time in the early C20th
- Stanley, late 70s
- This one.
You can see that you actually get quite a small bit of steel, with a skimpy handle, overall length only about 9".
From the side, it's as thick as the firmer chisel, clumsier than the Stanley bevel-edged, and definitely not the same sort of tool as the delicate Marples. That's no surprise - I would expect this to be a general purpose chisel.
The bevelling does little more than take the corners off, but is quite tidily done; those grinding marks are very shallow and not as bad as they look in the photo:
The back (or face if you insist) has been dinged by a sharp corner of something and has a lump on it:
but that is very easily removed.
As supplied, the non-bevel side is completely flat, as shown against this M&W engineer's square:
and the bevel is ground to 30°
The handle has flash from the moulding machine all round it
but that is easily removed with a knife or sandpaper.
So is it any use?
I sharpened it in my usual way and tried it out.
[This is not a thread about sharpening. Anyone reading this who does not know how to sharpen a chisel should seek professional help. If you think there could be more than one way that works, read on!]
Here's some evidence that it very easily came to a mirror finish, flat all the way across, in a very short time:
I tried paring some old, dry, hard English oak - it worked fine:
I fitted a little hinge in the same oak offcut - no problem.
For a test on some softwood, I carved a letter I on a scrap of redwood:
and I think I can say that any flaws are as much to do with my technique as they were with the tool.
So, in this brief, informal test, it did ok.
I didn't sharpen it after working on the oak, and it was still sharp enough to use.
I was pleased at how straight and flat it was.
The worst aspects were the small size and nasty handle - it was not nicely balanced and felt quite fiddly to hold in my moderately large hands.
I wouldn't make it my first choice, and I can't say how long the edge would last in serious use, but for anyone not wanting to spend more on a proper chisel, it could be used to get a job done. If I was doing a repair job on old painted woodwork where there could be hidden nails or screws, I would use it with no worries of spoiling an expensive tool.
This was bought in the quite large Poundland in Bristol and may not be available in all their shops. They only had this one size.
