matthewwh
Established Member
The new Ashley Iles Mk.2 bevel edged chisels are due to be launched at the beginning of November.
I have managed to squeeze a few samples out of them ahead of time and so (with Charley's permission) I thought it might be fun to do a passaround so that members of the forum could 'test drive' a couple of the new chisels in their own workshops without actually having to buy them. It will also hopefully give people who are new to woodworking an opportunity to handle a cabinetmakers chisel, as opposed to a bevelled firmer, and understand why they are different.
Members who also have an interest in custom knives may already be familiar with the concept of a passaround, but for those who aren't here's how it works: If you'd like to take part, you add your name to the list and send a pm with your address to the person before you. When they have finished with the chisels they pop them in the post to you and you have a go with them for a few days. When you are finished, you post them on (by recorded delivery please) to the next person, and so forth until the last person sends them back to me at Workshop Heaven. We will only do a couple of sizes in order to keep the postage costs sensible.
What's new:
Ashley Iles have taken on board all of the comments (good and bad) that they received about the original bevel edged and made the necessary changes to arrive at the Mk.2 version.
A major criticism was the flatness of the backs, so they have changed the grinding process completely. Whereas the bevels used to be ground last, they are now done first and then after the steel has settled, the top and bottom faces are carefully brought down to the final dimensions. This means that the steel has done all of it's moving before the backs are ground. The backs are then slowly hand ground to avoid heating the steel again so when they leave the factory they should be within a minute or two's work of 1/10 of a mm hollow over their length. Please don't flatten them any further than 1/10mm - the hollow is enough to facilitate very fast sharpening but it's effect on the accuracy of the tool (in the order of 1/100th of a mm per cm of cut) is not significant.
Another common comment was that the large handles were too large for the smaller sizes, so the 1/8" to 1" range now have a new smaller handle which gives them a much more balanced feel. The big handles are still available to order for those that preferred them.
The very thin sides are one of the things that distinguish a Cabinetmakers bevel edged chisel from a bevelled firmer, and one of the things that customers loved about the old AI's is that they had probably the thinnest edges on the market. The new grinding process has now enabled them to get the egdes down to about half the thickness they were before.
The primary bevel has been lowered from 25 to 23 degrees so that if sharpened using a honing guide, the 25 degree setting will produce a nice secondary bevel for paring. For chopping work - with the chisel perpendicular to the surface - they recommend a 35 degree secondary bevel.
Anyway, if you'd like to have a play and draw your own conclusions - here's the start of the list:
Matthew
I have managed to squeeze a few samples out of them ahead of time and so (with Charley's permission) I thought it might be fun to do a passaround so that members of the forum could 'test drive' a couple of the new chisels in their own workshops without actually having to buy them. It will also hopefully give people who are new to woodworking an opportunity to handle a cabinetmakers chisel, as opposed to a bevelled firmer, and understand why they are different.
Members who also have an interest in custom knives may already be familiar with the concept of a passaround, but for those who aren't here's how it works: If you'd like to take part, you add your name to the list and send a pm with your address to the person before you. When they have finished with the chisels they pop them in the post to you and you have a go with them for a few days. When you are finished, you post them on (by recorded delivery please) to the next person, and so forth until the last person sends them back to me at Workshop Heaven. We will only do a couple of sizes in order to keep the postage costs sensible.
What's new:
Ashley Iles have taken on board all of the comments (good and bad) that they received about the original bevel edged and made the necessary changes to arrive at the Mk.2 version.
A major criticism was the flatness of the backs, so they have changed the grinding process completely. Whereas the bevels used to be ground last, they are now done first and then after the steel has settled, the top and bottom faces are carefully brought down to the final dimensions. This means that the steel has done all of it's moving before the backs are ground. The backs are then slowly hand ground to avoid heating the steel again so when they leave the factory they should be within a minute or two's work of 1/10 of a mm hollow over their length. Please don't flatten them any further than 1/10mm - the hollow is enough to facilitate very fast sharpening but it's effect on the accuracy of the tool (in the order of 1/100th of a mm per cm of cut) is not significant.
Another common comment was that the large handles were too large for the smaller sizes, so the 1/8" to 1" range now have a new smaller handle which gives them a much more balanced feel. The big handles are still available to order for those that preferred them.
The very thin sides are one of the things that distinguish a Cabinetmakers bevel edged chisel from a bevelled firmer, and one of the things that customers loved about the old AI's is that they had probably the thinnest edges on the market. The new grinding process has now enabled them to get the egdes down to about half the thickness they were before.
The primary bevel has been lowered from 25 to 23 degrees so that if sharpened using a honing guide, the 25 degree setting will produce a nice secondary bevel for paring. For chopping work - with the chisel perpendicular to the surface - they recommend a 35 degree secondary bevel.
Anyway, if you'd like to have a play and draw your own conclusions - here's the start of the list:
Matthew
and dream!.
