Ashley Iles fishtail skew chisels

[Karl]

I received a little package from Matthew at Workshop Heaven today

Left and Right handed 7/16" fishtail skew chisels.They are a great compliment to the AI bench chisels.

The quality and finish is just as good as the bench chisels which Rob (Woodbloke) reviewed for F&C - I didn't see the review itself, but believe the bench chisels were a close second behind the LN chisels.

£40 for the pair.

Cheers

Karl

 

[Paul Chapman]

I do believe you're gloating again, Karl :lol: They look very nice 8)

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[OPJ]

Very nice, Karl. I've got a pair of 'chunkier' Marples chisels for getting in to tight corners but, I must say, I like the look of these fishtail chisels. I could also do with some better quality bench chisels some time; might have to get these Ashley Iles' a look. :wink:

 

[Karl]

I do believe you're gloating again, Karl :lol:

:shock: Me????? :lol:

I've said it before, and i'll say it again - you can't beat a bit of gloating :lol:

Cheers

Karl

 

[Karl]

Very nice, Karl. I've got a pair of 'chunkier' Marples chisels for getting in to tight corners but, I must say, I like the look of these fishtail chisels. I could also do with some better quality bench chisels some time; might have to get these Ashley Iles' a look. :wink:

Olly - i'm really pleased with the AI's - for the money they are excellent.

Cheers

Karl

ps - chipbreaker in post today - SWMBO was ill yesterday so I had kids all day and didn't get chance to get out.

 

[woodbloke]

I could also do with some better quality bench chisels some time; might have to get these Ashley Iles' a look. :wink:

Olly - they are very good indeed, excellent balance and overall feel. The quality of the steel is also very good as is the quality of the grinding...fantastic value for around £100 a set - Rob

 

[TheTiddles]

Does anyone else think they look a bit like a cold war Russian aeroplane?

Aidan

Who doesn't want the LN versions at all, not one little bit, hasn't even left space in the tool cabinet for them...

 

[Ironballs]

Interesting, the Ashley Iles MiG 23 Flogger...

I have the dovetail chisel set and they are superb, take a brilliant edge, hold it and they feel good to use in the hand

 

[bugbear]

I received a little package from Matthew at Workshop Heaven today

I'm now VERY confused.

AFAIK skew chisels normally come in pairs, so that you can use them to clean out the two (mirror image) corners of lap dovetails; I don't know of any other significant use for them.

AFAIK OTOH (usenet alert!), straight across fishtails (e.g. LN, or Blue Spruce) have the splendid merit of being able to clean out BOTH mirror image DT corners, since the two sides of a fishtail blade are oppositely "handed". This prevents having to change tools (if that's important to you), at the cost of shorter tool life, since the re-sharpenable length is far less than a parallel skew.

So I really don't see the merit of a pair of fishtail skews, which seem to have the main disadvantage of fishtails (short life), without the main advantage (able to do both DT corners).

On the assumption that Ashley Iles know what they're doing, can someone help me out?

BugBear

 

[wizer]

Is it just me that thinks that Ashley Isles massively cheapen their tools by slapping a gold sticker on each of their handles??

 

[woodbloke]

So I really don't see the merit of a pair of fishtail skews, which seem to have the main disadvantage of fishtails (short life), without the main advantage (able to do both DT corners).

On the assumption that Ashley Iles know what they're doing, can someone help me out?

BugBear

I have both a full set (small gloatage ) of the LN fishtails (which are very good for lapped d't sockets as suggested) and a couple of re-ground 12mm bench chisels that I use as my skews. The beauty of the skews is that they can be used in applications (apart from d/t sockets) where a normal straight ground chisel may cause significant tear out. F'rinstance, I use them a lot to shape the ends of exposed tenons before smoothing and rounding...the slicing cut doesn't tear the grain whereas a cut with a standard LN chisel might - Rob

 

[Ironballs]

First thing I did was peel the stickers off Tom, but agree they are pretty superfluous and cheap looking to boot.

Hmmm, not sure if I've ever used the phrase "to boot" before. Is this an age thing :?

 

[wizer]

 

[Ironballs]

Sod off

I wear mocassins......

Went past a car on the motorway this morning, being driven by a very contented looking older gentleman with a pipe firmly lodged in the corner of his mouth.

I'm still planning to take up pipe smoking as a hobby in my retirement, love the smell and the faff of lighting a small fire and tending it appeals too. Plus it will probably annoy people, which I gather is one of the pleasures of getting older

 

[wizer]

eugh stinky

 

[Karl]

BB - I understand your points about the fishtails - it wasn't something i'd thought about before ordering. There does seem to be a lot of meat on the blade - about 1 1/4" before the width of the blade reduces to 1/4". Having said that, I doubt that I will wear them out in my lifetime, so £40 doesn't seem like a bad price.

Cheers

Karl

 

[matthewwh]

So I really don't see the merit of a pair of fishtail skews, which seem to have the main disadvantage of fishtails (short life), without the main advantage (able to do both DT corners).

On the assumption that Ashley Iles know what they're doing, can someone help me out?

BugBear

Very fair question.

It's all about the angles, a fishtail chisel can reach into the corners of a half blind dovetail but the access is limited to the flare of the fishtail. A straight skew chisel can also hit the same spot as long as it is narrow enough - most commercially made ones are too wide, so the sides of the blades foul on the corners of the socket.

When you combine the two you get a tool that will tackle internal corners right down to 45 degrees without the sides of the blade getting in the way. The logic being that most people only want one tool or pair of tools in their workshop for nipping the fluffies out of corners, so why not give them a really versatile solution that does more than its nominal task of trimming dovetails.

I've found them especially useful for reaching down into complex mortices (intersecting or flared for fox wedged tenons etc) to trim out any bits that would otherwise prevent the joint from coming together properly.

The big ones were Mark W's idea, he kept finding uses for the smaller ones but wanted something he could tap a bit more confidently with a mallet if the need arose. We tried a more conventional tapered chisel at first but ended up just going with a bigger version of the original one.